After being turned down by the ruling Britons, the rightful heir to a famous dynasty inspires local villagers to build a dam themselves. A small-time thief reforms after learning about the role played by his grandfather in building a dam.
Acting
Rajinikanth's dual role swagger — grandfather has dignity, grandson has mischief
Practical Effects
Massive dam set construction that reportedly cost a fortune
Direction
K.S. Ravikumar juggling two timelines without losing the mass appeal
Director
K. S. Ravikumar
Rajinikanth
Raja Lingeswaran / Lingaa
Anushka Shetty
Lakshmi
Sonakshi Sinha
Bharathi
Santhanam
Lingaa's Friend
Karunakaran
Kothandam
Jagapati Babu
Nagabooshan
Dev Gill
Freedom fighter
Brahmanandam
Raja Varman
Radha Ravi
Kavi Bharathi
Vijayakumar
Karunakara's father
Nizhalgal Ravi
Zamindar of Rayakottai
Sundarrajan
Sambandham
Manobala
Train Loco Pilot
Ilavarasu
Sami Pillai
Ponvannan
Government officer
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The film was shot partly at the actual Solaiyar Dam, and Rajinikanth reportedly performed his own stunts on the structure despite being in his 60s. The budget ballooned to become one of Tamil cinema's most expensive productions at the time.
Lingaa references real colonial-era dam projects like the Mullaperiyar, framing Rajinikanth as a folk hero-engineer in a tradition of South Indian films celebrating infrastructure as resistance — a uniquely regional cinematic obsession.
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