Chandramukhi (fictional character)
Chandramukhi is the titular fictional character in the Chandramukhi film series. Chandramukhi was potrayed as a passionate dancer, charming beauty from Andhra Pradesh. King Vettaiyan, who was madly in love with her takes her to Tamilnadu to marry her. But she was already in love with Gunasekaran, her co-dancer.
She meets him secretly and they both plan to elope from the palace. After a dance performance the King kills them both, knowing their plan. As a result, the restless spirit of Chandramukhi was said to haunt the mansion of Vettaiyapuram, where Vettaiyan used to live.

Legend
A hundred and fifty years before the present day, king Vettaiyan, who lived in Vettaiyapuram mansion visits Vijayangara. There he meets Chandramukhi, a royal court dancer, known for her charming beauty as well as for her singing and dancing skills. He takes her to Tamilnadu without her consent and wants her to be his wife. But she was already in love with Gunasekaran, her co dancer. The King locks her in a room till she shows interest for the marriage and ill treats her. Knowing this, Gunasekaran secretly arrives the palace and resides in a nearby house, and meets her during the nights. They both plan to elope on the day of Durgastami. On the day, they both were ordered to dance before the King as a part of the festival. As they do so Gunasekaran was beheaded by the King, and even Chandramukhi was burnt alive by the King, knowing their plan. It is said that Chandramukhi's malicious spirit had attempted to take her revenge, and thus was contained in a room on the third floor with help from priests and sorcerers.

Films

Chandramukhi (2005)

A couple Senthilnathan and Ganga move into a mansion as a good option to house their extended family, despite the multiple paranormal occurrences and fear of the villagers towards the house. So Senthil invites his friend, the psychiatrist Saravanan to inspect the household and check if it's safe. Saravanan and Senthil's friend Murugeshan inspect the household and learn about Chandramukhi's history. Ganga becomes mysteriously drawn to the third floor of the mansion, which is off limits and is known to contain Chandramukhi. She and the gardener's granddaughter Durga obtain a key for the room and open it, which leads to the gardener dying of poison ingestion and Senthil nearly getting hit by a truck. The room turns out to be normal but filled with gold and artifacts in addition to Chandramukhi's painting.

Several strange paranormal occurrences occur over the weeks including attempts on Senthil's life which are somehow traced to Durga, such as a fallen fish tank and poisoned coffee. Senthil's relative Priya also gets chased by Chandramukhi before fainting. The family members panic but Saravanan stays up at night to hear music and dancing from Chandramukhi's room. He manages to put the pieces together and looks into Ganga's past, finding out that her fascination with historical epics and acting has led to her developing split personalities and turning into the characters she reenacts, posing a threat to herself. Chandramukhi becomes drawn to this and slowly takes over Ganga's body, as well as her rage of unfulfilled love on Senthil. Saravanan interrupts some possession episodes through loud shouting, and also manages to converse with Chandramukhi while posing as Vettaiyan.

The family hires a priest and exorcist Ramachandra Acharya, who sees that Saravanan has a pure aura that has kept Chandramukhi at bay from him. Saravanan suggests putting on a show for a possessed Ganga to make her think Vettaiyan dies at her hands. They perform a ritual the next day and restrain Ganga, giving her a torch and allowing her to burn Saravanan, but switching him with a dummy at the last second to make it look like Vettaiyan has died. Chandramukhi leaves Ganga peacefully and the household becomes peaceful.

Personality
Chandramukhi was one of the esteemed courtesans of the kingdom of Vijayanagaram. Famous for her beauty as well as her singing and dancing skills, she becomes a royal court dancer. She was in love with Gunasekaran, a fellow court dancer who loved her equally and the pair performed together in court at times. Chandramukhi leads a normal life before Vettaiyan kills her and Gunasekaran. In her spirit form she becomes a force of blind rage and grief with hostile intentions. However she appears to be patient in her goal and possesses Ganga like a parasite, slowly transferring her personality into the host. Throughout it, her host will merge behaviors with her and replicate how the spirit acted in her lifetime, for example, a trait of Chandramukhi was excessive vanity and obsession with how beautiful she looked. In her fully possessed form, Chandramukhi is a compulsive dancer who enjoys listening to the sound of her voice. She also has a demonic and murderous personality when confronted with whom she believes to be Vettaiyan.

Creation and casting

For the role Chandramukhi, Soundarya was initially selected to reprise her role from Apthamitra, but her death led the director to choose Simran and he shaped the character to suit her. In November 2004, Simran refused to do the project, as her role required a lot of dancing and cited her pregnancy at that time as another main reason for her refusal. Aishwarya Rai was offered the role but she declined the offer due to schedule conflicts. Sadha, Asin, and Reema Sen were also considered as replacements. The role finally went to Jyothika, who allotted 50 days of her schedule. Vasu wanted her to perform her scenes in a manner different from that of Shobana in Manichitrathazhu, enacting the scenes himself before they were shot featuring Jyothika.

In 2023, P. Vasu approached actress Kangana Ranaut to portray the character Chandramukhi in his sequel Chandramukhi 2. She immediately accepted the role and was officially announced to play Chandramukhi in November 2022.

Other versions
Chandramukhi has appeared in several non-Tamil films. These include the Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu (1993) where she was played by Shobana, the Kannada film Apthamitra (2004) where she was played by Soundarya, and the Telugu film Nagavalli (2010), where she was played by Anushka Shetty.

Awards
Jyothika won and was nominated for multiple awards for her portrayal of the character Chandramukhi and won many prestige awards such as Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actress and Dinakaran Awards and many more.

References

Fictional characters
Fictional dancers
Fictional characters introduced in 2005
Film characters introduced in 2005
Indian film characters
Fictional characters with spirit possession or body swapping abilities
Fictional ghosts
Internet memes introduced in 2005
Fictional torturers
Film and television memes
Horror film characters
Female characters in film
Fictional Hindus
Fictional Indian people