AMR Ramesh’s Cyanide prequel to focus on the 90 days leading to Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination

Filmmaker AMR Ramesh is re-releasing an extended cut of Cyanide with nearly 20 minutes of additional footage on May 23, in the week of late PM Rajiv Gandhi’s death anniversary.

Ravi Kale as Sivarasan in Cyanide

The assassination of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and the LTTE connection to it are subjects that have fascinated Kannada filmmaker AMR Ramesh for decades. He’s tracked every aspect of this story, and had even made a film in 2005, which he released in 2006. Called Cyanide , the film focused on the 20 days following the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, as the co-conspirators of the suicide bomber fled Tamil Nadu and sought refuge in a house in Bengaluru, where the core gang then killed themselves, consuming cyanide, rather than surrendering to the task force.

Cyanide prequel to be called Cyanide: The Human Bomb Part 1

Now, 2 decades later, Ramesh, who dubbed Cyanide in Tamil as Kuppi is revisiting the subject, but this time around, he will present a detailed account of the 90 days prior to the assassination, right from the time the gang, including Sivasaran, Subha, Dhanu, Murugan, etc. came to India, and began following Rajiv Gandhi’s every movement, leading up to the fateful day in Sriperumbadur. Ramesh is looking at taking his film on floors shortly, since his script’s been locked and ready for a while. However, as a precursor, he is re-releasing an extended cut of Cyanide on May 23, with the expression of interest from exhibitors to give him an idea of the pulse of audiences these days.

The plan, adds Ramesh, is to shoot the film in 3-4 months, at the most, and dedicate another 3 months to pre-production, following which he wants to have the film, Cyanide: The Human Bomb Part 1 in theatres in early 2026. The filmmaker says that he has begun sending feelers to cast members, but is yet to finalize anyone; he rules out the possibility of retaining anyone from the original cast. Cyanide starred Ravi Kale, Avinash, Rangayana Raghu (Shakhahaari ), Tara, Malavika Avinash, among others.

But that’s not all, Ramesh is then looking at doing a follow-up web show, about LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, who orchestrated the assassination out of animosity towards Rajiv for sending peacekeeping forces to Sri Lanka. Ramesh, who had done a film on Veerappan, Attahasa/Vana Yuddham has also been working on a web series on the forest brigand, with Kishore reprising the role.

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