Actor Vijay Biodata: Vijay Films

Naalaiya Theerpu (Tomorrow's Verdict) is a Tamil film directed by S. A. Chandrasekhar and produced and written by his wife Shoba Chandrasekhar which marked the debut of the their son Vijay in the lead role alongside Keerthana and Easwari Rao. The film which also featured Srividya, Radharavi and Sarath Babu, had music composed by newcomer Manimekalai, cinematography by R. P. Imayavaramban and editing by Gautham Raju. The film was released on 4 December 1992 and was a commercial success.

1 Cast
2 Production
3 Music
4 References
5 External links

Cast

Vijay (actor) as deva
Keerthana as Priya
Srividya as Mahalakshmi, Vijay's mother
Radha Ravi as Arun Mehta
Vinu Chakravarthy as Sundaramoorthy
Sarath Babu as Vijay's lawyer
Dhamu as Dhamu, Vijay's friend
Srinath as Vijay's friend
Mansoor Ali Khan as an Inspector
K. R. Vijaya as a Judge
S. S. Chandran as a MLA
Gowtham as Rocky, Arun Mehta's son
Easwari Rao as Raani, Sundaramoorthy's daughter
Jaiganesh as Rajasekhar, College Principal
Pandu as a Poramboku

Production

Vijay made his debut as a leading actor with the film, aged eighteen. The film featured lyrics written by music director Bharani.

Music

The music was composed by Manimegalai

Aayiram Erimalai - S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
Ammadi Rani - S. N. Surendar, Minmini
Maapillai Naan - S. N. Surendar, Minmini, Manimekalai
MTV Parthuputta - Sangeetha
Udalum Indha (Sad) - S. P. Balasubrahmanyam
Udalum Indha - S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. S. Chitra
Vaadai Kulirkaathu - K. S. Chitra

Poove Unakkaga is a 1996 Tamil romantic film starring Vijay in the lead role. It was the first blockbuster in Vijay's career and a major breakthrough. The film was remade in Telugu as Subhakankshalu (1997), in Kannada as Ee Hrudaya Ninagagi (1997) and in Hindi as Badhaai Ho Badhaai (2002).

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Soundtrack
4 References
5 External links

Plot

In a flashback, Stephen and Sadhasivam have been best friends since college and so have their respective sons, Moses and Vasudevan. Stephen's family is Christian while Sadhasivam's family is Hindu. Moses' younger brother, Robert and Vasudevan's younger sister, Janaki fall in love with each other. Against their families' wishes, they elope. Ever since then, the two families hate each other. 25 years later, Moses' son, Lawrence and Vasudevan's daughter, Nandhini fall in love with each other, but are afraid of their families' opposition.
Raja comes to the village and announces that he is the son of Robert and Janaki. He wants to reconcile the feuding families. With his friend Gopi, Raja stays in the house of the loud & frightful Velangiri. He gradually endears himself to both families. Later, both his grandmothers suggest marriage. To avoid the situation, Gopi suggests that Raja tell them that he is married. Raja decides that this is the only way, thus lying that he is married to a Hindu-Christian like himself, Nirmala Mary (Nimmi).
Several days later, Nirmala Mary arrives. Raja is confused, as she was just a figment of his imagination. After several encounters, Nirmala Mary comes clean with Raja, telling him that she is the only child of Robert and Janaki. She then confronts Raja, asking him why he wants to unite the two families.
Thus ensues a flashback where Raja explains why he came to the village. While living in the city, Raja lived next to a ladies' hostel, where Nandhini was a resident. As she and her friends were trying to find a good song for a competition, Raja indirectly helps her and falls in love with her. However she treats him as only a good friend. When Raja was about to confess his love for her, Nandhini instead tells Raja about her love for Lawrence. Hearing their plan to marry without their parents' consent due to the Robert-Janaki problem, Raja volunteers to unite the families so that they can marry with the blessings of their families.
Raja and Gopi carry out this mission and, when he is seen helping out the lovers in their ways of marrying, Nandhini's father learns of their love. The news spreads quickly like wildfire and both families now think they have run away and want to kill the members of the other family. Meanwhile, Raja has reconciled the grandparents of the two families. Only the fathers and the lovers are his main concern. At the end, he manages to unite the lovers and their families in a logical manner.
After the marriage, the truth of Raja's appearance is revealed. Later, the families ask him to marry Nirmala (whose actual name is Priyadarshini) to make him a member of their family. However, he refuses, telling them that he loved a girl and does not want to think of anyone else.

Cast

Vijay as Raja
Sangita as Nirmala Mary / Priyadarshini
Anju Aravind as Nandhini
Charle as Gopi
Jaiganesh as Moses
Malaysia Vasudevan as Vasudevan
Nagesh as Stephen
M. N. Nambiar as Sadhasivam
Vijayakumari as Sadhasivam's wife
Sukumari as Stephen's wife
Madhan Bob as Kaada
Sheela as Meena
Siva as Robert
Tharini as Janaki
Sakthi Kumar as Lawrence
Meesai Murugesan
Murali as himself (guest appearance)

Soundtrack

The music was composed by S. A. Rajkumar while lyrics were written by Vaali, S. A. Rajkumar and Pazhani Bharathi.
Tracklist

No	Title	Singer(s)
1	Anantham Anantham (F)	Chitra
2	Sollamalae	P. Jayachandran, sujatha
3	Chiclet Chiclet	Mano
4	Anantham Anantham (M)	Unnikrishnan
5	Oh Pyari	S. A. Rajkumar, Adhithyan
6	Machinichi	T. L. Maharajan, Unnikrishnan, Sujatha

Kadhalukku Mariyadhai (English: Respect for Love) is a 1997 Tamil romance film directed by Fazil. It starred Vijay and Shalini in the lead roles with Sivakumar, Srividya and Manivannan playing other supporting roles. The film became a blockbuster soon after release and was dubbed by critics as a "classic", with the lead pair in the film profiting from the widespread success. The film was a remake of Fazil's successful Malayalam film, Aniathipravu, which featured Kunchacko Boban and Shalini in the lead roles.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Release
5 Soundtrack
6 References
7 External links

Plot

Jeevanandhan (Vijay refuses to give them away and the brothers swear bloodshed. A registrar wedding is quickly arranged and on the eve of the wedding, the lovers learn of the unlimited love, affection and care their respective family members have for them and decide not to hurt their sentiments. They agree to part company. The fisherfolk leader is shocked first at their decision, and later understands their feelings and sends them back safely, an appreciable twist in the movie. Jeeva and Mini go back to their respective homes to the excitement and relief of their families. However, their mothers realize how heartbroken the couple are without each other and reunite them.

Cast

Vijay as Jeevanandhan
Shalini as Mini
Shaji Khan as Stephen
Sivakumar as Chandrasekhar
Manivannan
Radha Ravi as James
Thalaivasal Vijay as Thomas
Charle as Kesavan
Dhamu as Raghavan
Srividya
KPAC Lalitha
Kaka Radhakrishnan
Poornima
Saranya Mohan

Production

Initially Fazil was keen on casting a debutant in the lead female role, but Shalini inisted that she should also star in the Tamil version. Fazil initially approached Abbas for lead role but due to mismanagement created by Abbas manager with callsheets, Vijay was selected for the lead role.

Release

The film opened in December 1997 to unanimously positive reviews. A reviewer from The Hindu mentioned that "Vijay brings to surface the soft nature of the love", while adding that the rest of the cast make "fine contributions", and praising the director's work. Another critic from Indolink.com recommending the film and citing that "Shalini returns in this film with a good performance" and that Illayaraaja's music is "Unbelievable". He also goes on to praise the performance of the other lead actors and Fazil's direction. The film saw Vijay win the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor alongside Parthiban in 1997, while Pazhani Bharathi also picked up the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Lyricist for his work in the film.
Another remake was soon made in Hindi as Doli Saja Ke Rakhna with Akshaye Khanna and Jyothika in the lead roles. The success of the film prompted the director to make another film with the lead pair in 2000, Kannukkul Nilavu, however the film became a box office failure despite positive reviews. In 2010, Vijay reunited with producer Sangili Murugan to star in his 50th film as a leading actor, Sura, though yet again, the film became a financial failure.

Soundtrack

Kadhalukku Mariyadhai
Soundtrack album by Ilaiyaraaja
Released	1997
Genre	Feature film soundtrack

The soundtrack has been scored by Ilaiyaraaja. The lead actor, Vijay, sung the song "Oh Baby" for this movie.

Song title	Singers	Length
Ennai Thalaata	Hariharan, Bhavatharini	05:05
Anantha Kuyilin Pattu	Malaysia Vasudevan, Surendar, Arunmozhi, Chitra, Deepika	04:58
Oru Pattam Poochi	K. J. Yesudas, Sujatha	05:13
Idhu Sangeetha Thirunalo	Bhavatharini	04:35
Anantha Kuyilin Pattu	K. S. Chithra	01:53
O Baby	Vijay, Bhavatharini	04:56
Ennai Thalatta Varuvala	Ilaiyaraaja	05:05
Ayya Veedu Therandhuthan	Ilaiyaraaja, Arun Mozhi		04:54

Thulladha Manamum Thullum (Tamil: துள்ளாத மனமும் துள்ளும் English: (lit.) Hearts That Don't Jump, Will Jump) is a 1999 Tamil romantic film directed by Ezhil. The film stars Vijay and Simran, while Manivannan, Dhamu and Vaiyapuri among others play supporting roles. The film, produced by R. B. Choudary, has its score and soundtrack composed by S. A. Rajkumar and cinematography handled by R. Selva. The film went on to win critical acclaim and was declared a commercially successful venture at the box office.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Release
5 Awards
6 Remakes
7 Soundtrack
8 References
9 External links

Plot

Kutty (Vijay) wants to become a singer while working as a local cable provider run by Mani (Manivannan). His songs are appreciated by a college student Rukmani (Simran) and each time when she wishes to meet him, circumstances project him as a transitive element. He also becomes the cause for Rukmani losing her eyesight and repents for it. He starts to love her and he regularly writes to his mother about the development of love he has for Rukmani. When his mother dies, she offers her eyes to Rukmani. To meet the cost of the eye transplant, kutty offers his kidney to a Pune-based rich man. While returning home he inadvertently becomes an accomplice in creating explosives and he's arrested. Having regained her vision, Rukmani, who had studied for IAS, becomes a Collector and when Kutty tries to contact her, he is still the rowdy element in her mind. Finally the confusion is cleared and the lovers can be together.

Cast

Vijay as Kutty
Simran as Rukmani (Rukku)
Manivannan as Mani
Dhamu
Vaiyapuri as Kalyanasundaram
Madhan Bob
Ponnambalam
Paari Venkat as Trouser Pandi

Production

The film saw director Ezhil, an erstwhile assistant to Robert-Rajashekhar, Panneer and Parthiban, make his debut as a film-maker under R. B. Choudary's production house. Prior to release, the role of Vijay's mother in the film was kept under wraps with the media speculating who would play the role. Eventually, no actress played the role although the character played a pivotal part in the film. Vijay took a pay cut for the film, accepting only 30 lakh rupees instead of 50 lakh rupees, as he had signed the film before the release of his blockbuster Kadhalukku Mariyadhai. Initially Ezhil wanted comedian Vadivelu to play the lead role, Vadivelu who was impressed with the story has said to Ezhil that the story line was too good and he doesn’t know whether it will work with him in the lead. Vadivelu also asked Ezhil to wait for six months, if he didn't get anyone hero then he will act in it then he was replaced by Vijay.

Release

The film went on to become a blockbuster, running for hundred days across dozens of theatres in Tamil Nadu, while it also enjoyed similar success in the neighbouring state of Kerala. Vijay and Ezhil immediately decided to follow up this film with another collaboration, Pennin Manathai Thottu, with either Isha Koppikar or Roja to be roped in as the lead actress. However soon after pre-production, Vijay was replaced by Prabhu Deva and the film went on to release in 2000. The success of the film led to more offers for Simran, who with Thulladha Manamum Thullum and Vaali, established herself among the leading actresses in Tamil films. Vijay and Simran were also paired together in several other films after the success of Thulladha Manamum Thullum, with projects titled Priyamanavale and Udhaya launched weeks after this film's release.
A critic from the Deccan Herald mentioned that "the experience of seeing the film is simply thrilling", mentioning that the success comes from "the naivete, the simplicity, the absolute lack of sophistication, and from the delightful hero (Vijay)".

Awards

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards

Best Film - Second prize for Best Film - Won.
Best Actress - Simran - Won.

Filmfare Awards South

Best Actress - Simran - Nominated.

Remakes

The film was later remade in Telugu as Nuvvu Vastavani by Ezhil in 2000 starring Akkineni Nagarjuna and Simran and the film enjoyed similar levels of success. The film was remade in Kannada as Oh Nanna Nalle with V Ravichandran. The film was also adapted into a Bengali movie Sathi in 2002 starring Jeet and Priyanka Trivedi, and into an Oriya movie I Love You in 2005 starring Anubhav Mohanty and Namrata Thapa. It also partly inspired two Hindi language films - Rohit Nayyar's Sun Zarra in 2006 and Yash Raj Films' 2010 film Lafangey Parindey.

Soundtrack

Thulladha Manamum Thullum

Soundtrack album by S. A. Rajkumar

Released

1999

Genre

Feature film soundtrack

Producer

S.A.Rajkumar

S. A. Rajkumar chronology

Poove Unnakaga
(1998)

Thulladha Manamum Thullum
(1999)

Primanvalaye
(2000)

No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Thoda Thodu Enavae Vanavil "	Hariharan, K.S.Chithra	4:44
2.	"Innisai Paadivarum"	P. Unni Krishnan	4:55
3.	"Iruvathu Kodi"	Hariharan	5:05
4.	"Innisai Paadivarum"	K.S.Chithra	4:55
5.	"Palapalakkudhu"	Gopal	5:02
6.	"Megamai Vanthu"	Rajesh	4:21
7.	"Kakkai Siraginilae"	Sujatha	1:21
8.	"Innisai Paadivarum"	P. Unni Krishnan, Chorus	5:03

Ghilli (English: Risk taker) is a 2004 Tamil action masala film directed by Dharani and produced by A. M. Rathnam. The film is a remake of Telugu blockbuster Okkadu, that starred Mahesh Babu, Bhoomika Chawla, and Prakash Raj in the lead roles. Ghilli stars Vijay, with Trisha Krishnan and Prakash Raj playing the female lead and antagonist, respectively. The soundtrack and background score of the film were composed by Vidyasagar. The film released on Tamil New Year day on 14 April 2004; opened to highly positive reviews and became a blockbuster. Ghilli was the highest grossing film in Vijay's career at the time of its release. It was dubbed in hindi as Keertimaan. This film was the highest grossing film of 2004

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Soundtrack
5 Release
6 References
7 External links

Plot

Velu (Vijay) rescuing Dhanalakshmi (Trisha) from Muthupandi (Prakash Raj).

Velu as Ghilli (Vijay), is a wannabe kabbadi champion who is the son of Assistant Commissioner of Police Sivasubramanian (Ashish Vidyarthi). Sivasubramanian is not fond of his son, constantly chiding him for his lack of interest in studies and his love for kabaddi. His mother (Janaki Sabesh), on the other hand, dotes on him and his younger sister Bhuvana ('Baby' Jennifer) is the typical sharp and inquisitive schoolgirl, constantly getting Velu into trouble with his father, but nevertheless still adores him.
In Madurai, there is a ruthless factionalist leader Muthupandy (Prakash Raj), who is obsessed with a beautiful girl Dhanalakshmi (Trisha Krishnan) and would do anything to marry her. Muthupandi kills Dhanalakshmi's elder brother as he rejects his offer to marry Dhanalakshmi. Then Dhanalakshmi’s younger brother is also killed by Muthupandi when he tries to avenge his brother's murder. Dhanalakshmi’s father is a meek person who gets horrified by Muthupandi’s acts and asks Dhanalakshmi to go away from the place and lead a peaceful life at her uncle’s place in the USA by giving her the necessary certificates and money. Muthupandi catches her when she starts fleeing because by coincidence Dhanalakshmi gets into one of the lorries owned by him. At this juncture, Velu- who is in Madurai to play in a kabaddi tournament- rescues Dhanalakshmi from the hands of Muthupandi and takes her to Chennai.
Velu takes Dhanalakshmi to his house and hides her in his room, unknown to his family. Velu, with the help of his friends, arranges passport, visa and flight tickets for Dhanalakshmi so that she can go to the USA. Meanwhile, Muthupandi and his father, who happens to be the Home Minister, ask Sivasubramanian to search for Dhanalakshmi and the apparent kidnapper. When Sivasubramanian finds out that it's his own son who did the crime, Velu and Dhanalakshmi run away and hide in the lighthouse. Dhanalakshmi has by now fallen in love with Velu, and has been accepted by Velu's mother and sister. So she is reluctant to go to the USA. Velu however, is adamant on sending her to the USA and he, along with his friends, get Dhanalakshmi to the airport in time for her flight before their kabaddi match against Punjab in the final of the National League. Sivasubramanian, enraged that his son is a wanted criminal and yet is playing in a kabaddi match, goes to the stadium to arrest Velu. By now, Velu too has fallen in love with Dhanalakshmi and begins to miss her, only to spot her in the stadium during the match. Velu's lack of focus in the game is replaced by his best on seeing Dhanalakshmi, winning Tamil Nadu the championship. After winning the championship, Velu is arrested by his father, but is then stopped by Muthupandi, who wants to fight Velu, having been incited by Dhanalakshmi to do so to prove his worth. During the fight, Muthupandi accidentally falls on a floodlight, killing him. The movie ends with Velu and Dhanalakshmi finally united.

Cast

Vijay as Saravanavelu, the protagonist
Trisha Krishnan as Dhanalakshmi, Saravanavelu's love interest
Prakash Raj as Muthupandi, the antagonist
Ashish Vidyarthi as Sivasubramanian, Saravanavelu's father
Janaki Sabesh as Saravanavelu's mother
Baby Jennifer as Bhuvana
Dhamu as Otteri Nari
Nagendra Prasad as Prasad
Mayilsamy as Narayana
Vinod (actor Vikram's father) as Dhanalakshmi's father
Aadukalam Murugadoss as Aadhivaasi
Brahmanandam as priest, his comedy sequence is one of the most popular in Tamil cinema.
Appukutty as Brahmanandham's assistant
Tanikella Bharani as Muthupandi's father
Ponnambalam as Arivumathi
Nandha Saravanan as Vetrivelu's enemy (opposite team leader)
Paandu
Karate Raja as Muthupandi's henchman
Ammu
Vimal as Saravanavelu's team mate (uncredited role)

Production

Vijay expressed interest in starring in a Tamil remake of the successful Telugu action flick Okkadu and prompted producer A. M. Rathnam to purchase the remake rights of the film. Dharani was finalized as the director, whose previous film Dhool under Rathnam's production had been a financial success. Dharani made minor changes to the script to suit Vijay's image and Tamil audience's taste. Dharani's regular crew members including cinematographer Gopinath and music director Vidyasagar joined the film, while Rocky Rajesh and Raju Sundaram were chosen to choreograph the stunts and dances, respectively.
Simran Bagga was roped to play the female lead opposite Vijay, But due to her wedding arrangements Trisha Krishnan was replaced to play the female lead, while Prakash Raj was signed on to reprise the villain's character from the original. Dhamu and Prabhu Deva's brother, Nagendra Prasad were recruited to essay supporting roles. Ashish Vidyarthi, Janaki Sabesh and Baby Jennifer were selected to portray Vijay's parents and sister, respectively.
Filming began in mid-2003, after Vijay had completed his action flick with director Ramana; the film was completed by early 2004. Filming took place in Chennai surrounding the coastal areas like Mylapore and Besant Nagar. The film's introduction fight scene and a song were shot in a costly set in Prasad studios. A lighthouse set was also erected. Other action and chasing sequences were canned near the Meenakshi Amman Temple in Madurai. The climax scene was shot in a crowd of one lakh people on a Vinayagar Chaturthi occasion.

Soundtrack

Ghilli

Soundtrack album by Vidyasagar

Genre

Feature film soundtrack

Label

Sri Suriya Movies

Producer

Vidyasagar

Vidyasagar chronology

Madhurey
(2004)

Ghilli
(2004)

Sullan
(2004)

The soundtrack features 6 songs composed by Vidyasagar. The song Appadi Podu in particular enjoyed high popularity upon release, all over South India and became a huge chartbuster. The lyrics were penned by Pa. Vijay, Na. Muthukumar, Kabilan and Maran.

Tracklist
No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Kabadi"	Maran, Jayamoorty	01:44
2.	"Arjunar Villu"	Sukhwinder Singh	04:27
3.	"Sha La La"	Sunidhi Chauhan	04:30
4.	"Appadi Podu"	KK, Anuradha Sriram	05:53
5.	"Soora Thenga"	Tippu	04:03
6.	"Kokkarakko"	Udit Narayan, Sujatha Mohan	05:00

Release

Ghilli was due for release on 9 April but later got postponed for a week and opened in over 150 theaters on 16 April. Though the reason for the postponement was not given out, rumours were that producer A M Rathnam’s creditors put pressure on him to settle his accounts before release. Another reason was that Vijay got cold feet after the Udhaya debacle as the film had not even taken an opening.The film got a record breaking collection all over world grossed over

30 crore (US$5.0 million) at the box office.

Reception

The film opened to positive reviews, and became the biggest commercial success of Vijay's career then. Sify appreciated the film for its fast moving screenplay and said as a racy entertainer giving a rating of 3.5/5 stars. Nowrunning.com stated that "Gilli, story wise, is neither fresh popcorn nor spicy samosa found in theaters.. but the screenplay and overall treatment is as fresh and appetizing as full meals after a long day. and gave an overall rating of 3/5 stars Oneindia gave the film 4/5 stars and stated the film as a "Blockbuster". The Hindu stated that "Vijay, the hero whom the masses today identify with, and Prakashraj, the inimitable villain in tow, this remake of the Telugu flick, "Okkadu," comes a clear winner". Indiaglitz called the film that Gilli is an out and out entertainer and comented that"Vijay and Trisha on track with another blockbuster". Rediff stated that, "Don't miss 'Gilli'.

Accolades

Filmfare Award for Best Villain – Tamil - Prakash Raj₹
Filmfare Award for Best Dance Choreographer – South - Raju Sundaram
Madras Corporate Club Best Actor Award - Vijay
Dinakaran Best Actor Award - Vijay
Film Today Best Actor Award - Vijay
Dinakaran Best Villain Award - Prakash Raj

Thirupaachi is a 2005 Tamil action masala film written and directed by Perarasu. The film stars Vijay and Mallika in the lead roles, with Trisha Krishnan, Livingston, Pasupathy, Benjamin, Kota Srinivasa Rao, Vaiyapuri and Manoj K. Jayan in other roles. Chaya Singh made a guest appearance in a song. The film featured score composed by Dhina, and a soundtrack jointly composed by Dhina, Devi Sri Prasad, and Mani Sharma. It was released on 14 January 2005. Vijay and Trisha paired for second time after Ghilli. The story is about the upright lifestyle of Sivagiri and the affectionate bond he has with his sister. Sivagiri feels that a brother’s duty towards his sister does not end with her marriage. It was later remade in Telugu as Annavaram (2006) in Kannada as Thangigagi (2006). The film was a blockbuster and completed 175-day run at the box office.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Crew
4 Awards
5 Production
6 Controversy
7 Soundtrack
8 Release
9 Remakes
10 References

Plot

This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. (June 2009)

Sivagiri (Vijay) is a blade-smith in a remote village near Thirupaachi. He has a lovable sister named Karpagam (Mallika). He runs into some hilarious incidents while searching locally for a groom for his sister. Sivagiri confides to his friend Kannapan that he wants his sister to be in a good city after her marriage. Sivagiri also nods his acceptance, when a city guy proposes to Karpagam. He accompanies the newly weds to Chennai. He finds a girl named Shuba (Trisha) welcoming them, and they both fall in love.
On a trip to Chennai, Sivagiri rescues a court witness from Pattasu Balu (Pasupathy), a don dominating central Chennai. He also learns of a local don Panparag Ravi (Aryan), who controls North Chennai, and who is troubling Karpagam's husband's canteen business. In an altercation in a cinema theater, Kannappan gets murdered by a thug named Saniyan Sagada (Kota Srinivasa Rao), who dominates South Chennai. Karpagam's husband told sivagiri to leave chennai if he wants his sister to be happy. Then, after the funeral of Kannapan,he leaves his home town stating that he got a job in a cloth manufacturing company. But in reality he comes with a mission in Chennai.
Then,he warns Saniyan Sagadai stating that the latter too will be killed by him. He also calls the commissioner and warns him that he will kill all the thugs of Chennai as the police department fails in their duty. Later on, Sivagiri's friend Veluchamy who is also an inspector, comes to know about this. Sivagiri challenges Veluchamy that he will give up his mission if the latter keeps any one thug of Chennai in jail at least for a single day. Veluchamy not only fails in his mission but also loses his son as he was killed by Pattasu Balu, the head of the thug who got arrested.
This harsh lesson makes Veluchamy to help Sivagiri. Thus, Veluchamy lists Sivagiri the entire mafia network of Chennai by providing the specification of who leads the various areas. Sivagiri in his mission decides first to kill Pattasu Balu. He goes and kills pattasu balu.
Then, one day, Shuba meets Sivagiri in a temple and finds that he is not working in any cloth manufacturing company. But still, Sivagiri manages to make Shuba believe that he is working in a travels company. Thus, Shuba gets a promise from Sivagiri that he should meet her and spend time with her quite frequently.
Later on, Sivagiri provokes Panparak Ravi to kill his own brother by sticking the funeral posters of Ravi and making him think that his brother is the person who is killing people all over Chennai. After the death of Ravi's brother, Ravi hides himself in a politician's house to be away and safe from the hands of police. That politician damages his own car and house by his henchmen and makes the police to believe that someone has attacked his house. Thus, the police decide to provide security for the politician. This makes Ravi feel happy, considering that Sivagiri can't come to his place by fooling all these inspectors and kill him. Then, Sivagiri's friend inspector Veluchamy finds diplomatically that Ravi is hiding in the politician's place. Later on, Sivagiri states to a group of people, who lost their money to a financier, that the fraud financier is hiding in the politician's place. This makes Sivagiri enter Ravi's fort with a large gang and later on Sivagiri succeeds in killing Ravi.
Later on, Sivagiri decides to kill Saniyan Sagadai and successfully complete his mission. Thus, Sivagiri warns Sagadai. This makes Sagadai to seek the protection of a mass group of thugs from Chennai. Sivagiri uses this as a chance to destroy the entire mafia gang of Chennai. Thus, Sivagiri ignites a war between the police group and mafia gang in a very diplomatic manner. Sivagiri disguises himself as a police inspector and enters the fort of Sagadai. Veluchamy too helps Sivagiri in his mission. Finally Sivagiri destroys the entire mafia gang of Chennai along with the Chennai police inspectors before the birth of a new year. Then, Sivagiri surrenders in police and later on he gets released after 6 months. Shuba welcomes Sivagiri, his sister and his sister's husband once again after returning home.Subha and Sivagiri unite at the end.

Cast

Vijay as Sivagiri
Mallika as Karpagam
Trisha Krishnan as Subha
Livingston as Police Inspector Inba Raghavan
Manoj K. Jayan as Assistant Commissioner Rajguru
Pasupathy as Patasu Balu
Aryan as Pan Parag Ravi
Benjamin as Kanappan
Kota Srinivasa Rao as Saniyan Sagadai
Vaiyapuri as Police Constable
Chaya Singh in a cameo as Kumbida Pona Deivam
Meenal as assistant commissioner's daughter

Crew

Story, Screenpplay, Dialogue, Lyrics and Direction: Perarasu
Producer: R. B. Choudary
Banner: Super Good Films
Music director: Dhina, Mani Sharma, Devi Sri Prasad
Cinematographer: S. Saravanan
Editing: V. Jaishankar
Art: M. Prabhakar
Fights: Rocky Rajesh
Choreographers: Raju Sundaram, Kalyan, Siva Shankar, Shopi Pawlraj
Computer graphics: M. Arunmoorthy
Fight Assistant :Kaviyarasan

Awards

Tamil Nadu State Film Special Award for Best Actor - Vijay

Production

Casting

The film was announced in 2004. Director Perarasu earlier worked as an assistant director under Rama Narayanan and N. Maharajan. Vijay's words about Perarasu was: He is a talented person. He talks very less but he shows everything in his work. He acts before me, scene by scene, before the take is on. Trisha who earlier paired with Vijay in Ghilli was selected to play lead role. Thirupaachi was Vijay's 40th film and fifth collaboration with Supergood Films. Actor Vikram's father Vinodraj was selected to play Vijay's father. Chaya Singh was roped in for item number.

Filming

A song was picturised in a village near Karaikudi, where a lavish set was designed by art director M Prabhakar. It was of an Ayyanar temple with a 90-foot statue, surrounded by 200 mud horses. Costing about Rs 3 million, it had about 1,500 junior artistes taking part. It took a week to complete the song. The climax for the film was shot in Vasan House, Chennai. It had a huge crowd of junior artistes taking part each day of the two weeks it took to complete the scene. Other locations for shooting were Visakhapatnam, Arakkuveli, with a song shot in South Africa.

Controversy

The film faced controversy for the wrong use of mosquito pesticides.

Soundtrack

Thirupaachi

Soundtrack album by Dhina

Released

December 2004

Recorded

November 2004

Genre

Feature film soundtrack

Length

28:22

Label

Ayngaran International

Producer

Dhina

Dhina chronology

Jana
(2004)

Thirupachi
(2005)

Aayudham
(2005)

Mani Sharma chronology

Radha Gopalam
(2005)

Thirupaachi
(2005)

Subhash Chandra Bose
(2005)

Devi Sri Prasad chronology

Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana
(2005)

Thirupaachi
(2005)

Maayavi
(2005)

The soundtrack has seven songs, five songs were composed by Dhina, while Devi Sri Prasad (Kattu Kattu) and Mani Sharma (Kannum Kannumthan) had composed one song respectively. All the lyrics for the songs were penned by Perarasu.

Song	Artist(s)	Picturization	Length
"Kattu Kattu"	Manikka Vinayagam, Sumangali	Vijay, Trisha	5:12
"Kannum Kannumthan"	Harish Raghavendra, Uma Ramanan, Premji Amaren	Vijay, Trisha	5:56
"Appan Panna"	Pushpavanam Kuppusamy, Anuradha Sriram	Vijay, Trisha	4:48
"Nee Entha Ooru"	Tippu	Vijay	4:48
"Kumbida Pona Deivam"	Shankar Mahadevan, Malathi	Vijay, Chaya Singh, Trisha	4:12
"Enna Thavam"	Dhina, Swarnalatha	Vijay, Mallika	2:15
"Avichu Vecha"	Manikka Vinayagam	Vijay, Mallika	1:11

Release

The film was released on 14 January 2005 on the eve of Pongal with other releases like Ayyaa, Iyer IPS, Aayudham and Devathaiyai Kanden. Tirupachi released with 207 prints.
After the success of Thirupaachi, A. M. Rathnam called Perarasu to make "Sivakasi" with Vijay re-uniting with him for second time. Sivakasi also became successful like Thirupaachi.

Reviews

The film received positive reviews. Behindwoods wrote: "Another tailor-made role for Vijay, Tiruppachi scores with its impressive screenplay. Although the story is the perennial tear-jerker of a brother’s affection for his sister, the packaging will attract the audience". Indiaglitz wrote: "It is a film for Vijay's fans who love their star to dance with energy, fight with enthusiasm and love with mischief. He does all this in his usual style. Punchline dialogues, songs glorifying hero find their place in all throughout the movie". While another critic wrote: "Unlike usual masala movies that serve up sentiments and action alternately, Thiruppaachi makes a clean break between the two. Its first half, which is entirely setup, is devoted entirely to comedy and sentiments with not even a single stunt sequence. But once action rears its head after the intermission, there is no respite from it apart from the obligatory duets. It is one violent fight after the other until the final credits roll. It is to director Perarasu's credit that both halves maintain our interest in spite of the dedication to a particular aspect". Sify wrote:"Vijay has stuck to his regular formula - five songs, flying fights, crass comedy, punch line dialogues, dream songs in foreign locales and corny sentiments. So if you have seen earlier films of the superstar you may strive hard to find anything new in Tirupachi, which is old wine served in a new bottle, with a different label.

Box-office

The film released on the Pongal festival in Tamil Nadu alongside Ayya and with dhanush starrerDevathayai Kanden. The film opened up to full houses with 80 percent occupancy from Chennai and other districts of the state. After taking a fantastic opening for the first week, the film took a slight fall in crowd for the second week. The film completed a 100-day theatrical run among 112 screens in Tamil Nadu and completed 200 days in more than 25 centres The film managed to gross overall

330 million (US$5.5 million) after its long theatrical run and was deemed a blockbuster.

Remakes

It was later remade in Telugu as Annavaram in the year 2006 with Pawan Kalyan and Asin in the lead roles, directed by Bhimaneni Srinivasa Rao. It was also remade in Kannada language as Thangigagi in the year 2006 with Darshan and Poonam Bajwa in the lead roles, directed by Sathya P.

Pokkiri (English: Rogue) is a 2007 Tamil action-thriller film directed by Prabhu Deva. The film stars Vijay and Asin with Prakash Raj, Nassar, Vadivelu, Sriman and Napoleon playing supporting roles. Mumaith Khan and Prabhu Deva make guest appearances. Nirav Shah handled cinematography while Kola Bhaskar was the film's editor. The film was launched in 6 July 2006. Filming took place in India and Australia.
It is a remake of Puri Jagannadh's Telugu film Pokiri (2006) starring Mahesh Babu and Ileana D'Cruz. Some changes have been made in the film to suit Tamil Nadu audiences. The strength of the story lies in maintaining the suspense of the true identity of the hero till the end. It is a mix of action and romance with a message about the duty and responsibility of the police force. Prabhu Deva remade the film again in Hindi as Wanted (2009). The film whose plot revolves around a young IPS officer who acts as an a criminal in order to eliminate notorious criminals in a police operation, released on 12 January 2007 to commercial success and completed a 200-day run at the box office and was declared a blockbuster.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Crew
4 Production
5 Soundtrack
6 Release
7 Remakes
8 References

Plot

The city of Chennai is filled with furious rowdies trying to get hold of an innocent man that has shouted at the gang leader yelling at the gang leader's friend. Suddenly, Khaal Gundhi, the gang leader(Prakash Raj) stops the innocent man and the rowdies. He snickers and slowly walks towards the innocent man and suddenly stabs him with a pocket knife hidden behind his hands. Khaal Gundhi says "Whoever they are that tries to kill him, will start their death in my hands."
The film then winds into a flashback in Madras that shows Ashok (Vijay) at the tea shop getting some tea with Khaal Gundhi. Khaal Gundhi asks "Where do do we have to go next? The other gang might kidnap the children to get money from their parents, but we don't know where they are all at." Khall Gundhi tells Ashok "The reason why they are trying to do this is because they want money and they want to kill people that always get in their ways, we did, but they couldn't kill us. They might find out that we are going to help the children go back home and do some plans." Ashok remains silent. Ashok tells Khall Gundhi "I have already made the plans. Ghala (Dev Gill) the gang leader planned to go to a Madras abandoned place and kill them their if their parents don't give them $900,000 dollars." Khaal Gundhi asks "What have you done to help the kids?" Ashok says he went to the place today and fought the gang leader and freed the kids and bought them back home safely. Khaal Gundhi smiles. Then the song "Madurai en veeda" (Translation: Madurai my home.) In the song, you get a glimpse of Vijay and Prakash Raj acting in a song together for the first time as friends.
Then. Shruthi, (Asin), walks with her friends to her house. She greets her friends to her family and goes upstairs to her room. They suddenly look out the window and spot Ashok with Khaal Gundhi. One of the friends tease Shurthi and tell her that she will soon get married to Ashok. Shurthi groans in disgust. Soon there is a knock on the door. Pala Thanda (Vivek), a close relative of Shruthi comes to visit her. He tells her that she is in deep danger. He says that there are a gang that is very bad and kills people that are on the block. He tells her to keep an eye on them. He rushes in hurry to leave. Shruthi turns frozen. She looks out the window and spots a lot of people surrounding Ashok and Khaal gundhi. Then she spots Ghala's gang and supposes that the bad gang is Ashok's gang. She keeps in her mind that she should stay away from Ashok and his gang.
INTERMISSION
Meanwhile, things with Ashok is going fine. One day, he walks down the street and surprisingly, Shruthi walks down the street too. She is too busy talking to her friends that she forgets that Ashok is infront of her walking. Shurthi suddenly turns up and spots Ashok. She stops her friends and Ashok spots her shocked looking at him. He stares stragnly at the look of her face and she does too. She whispers to her friends to go back home but Ashok tells her to stop. He walks infront of her and asks her what the problem was. Shruthi stuttered and lied by saying some rowdies were chasing her and her friends. Ashok was filled with anger. He asked why and she said that they wanted money from her. The only thing that came up in Ashok's mind was Ghala's gang member, Deva (Sudeep). Deva was sometimes more evil than Ghala and Ashok knew it. He asked her what his name was. Shurthi stuttered again and guessed to say Deva. Ashok get furious, he always did this to everyone and that he would always have to chase him down. Ashok pushed Shurthi and ran to Ghala's gang place. Shruthi and her friends ran to Pala Thanda's house and told him that she met Ashok. Pala looked down scared and said that all he said was a lie. Shurthi was shocked. She asked furiously why. Pala Thanda said that he heard there was a gang of rowdies in town but the rowdy that he pointed to wasn't the bad rowdy. He was the good rowdy that is trying to beat the bad rowdies. He shows her a picture of the bad rowdies. Shurthi insanely hits Pala Thanda with her bag. Shurthi gets scared because she got all scared infront of Ashok and told him a lie. "He might go and kill someone named Deva!" she thought. She quickly left the house and ran to her house. On the way she spotted Ashok. Ashok was very furious. He noticed that all she said was a lie. He has got beaten too because Ghala hit him, now Ghala has plans for him to die. Ashok slaps Shruthi and yells at her to the core. Shruthi then runs to her home crying while Ashok feels guilty for making someone cry but also remembers that what she did was wrong too.
Shruthi then thinks about what she did. She lied and said that rowdies were chasing her but Ashok still helped her. If it was true, then it's true love. Shruthi starts to like Ashok, then the song "Passam O" appears in a scene.
Meanwhile, Khaal Gundhi and the rest of the gang members are thinking of a way to break apart Ghala's gang and defeat them all. Then Ashok joins them in their place. Ahsok tells Khaal gundhi what Shruthi has done and what Ghala's gang is trying to do. Khaal Gundhi gets very upset at Ashok. He tries to think of a plan when the TV suddenly turns on to the news channel. It said "Welcome citizens of India. Be ware of the most dangerous rowdy in Madras, Ashok Balasubram. He might have saved us all from deep troubls from a secret other bad gang, but now we have gotten a report from someone named Deva that Ashok Balasubram was planning to kill three children until a man named Ghala Kevanraj helped all the children's lives. The police will soon find out this rowdy and bring him to jail. Until then, you should be aware of this name." Ashok was frozen. Khaal Gundhi was too. They all didn't know what to do next. Ashok went outside and took the newspaper. He suddenly saw his photo printed on the paper. A old man was reading the paper and looked up and spotted Ashok. He screamed and a big crowd appeared. They all saw him too and the police cars were coming. The police grabbed his arms and took him into the jeep. One man said "HE DESERVED IT! AN IDIOT LIKE HIM SHOULD GO TO JAIL AND DIE!" Khaal Gundhi got mad and left.
Khaal Gundhi and the members think of a way to get Ashok out of jail. Khaal Gundhi says that he has to wait to go to court with Deva. Soon, at court Khaal Gundhi wins and soon gets to free Ashok out of jail. Everyone is happy except Khaal Gundhi. He soon remembers what the man said about Ashok. He left and suddenly found the man on the street. Khaal and the gang members came and spotted him. Thats when the present day comes and shows Khaal Gundhi kill the innocent man. Ashok comes out and sees all this and slaps Khaal Gundhi. Khaal Gundhi tears up seeing his best friend slap him. Ashok says "How dare you kill an innocent man! We are a gang to do good deeds not kill people that did nothing worng!" Ashok got mad and told Khaal Gundhi to never do this again. Khaal Gundhi promises him that he won't do it.
Shurthi then goes to the mall. While she is walking down the streets, she spots Ashok again. Shruthi then feels scared because she heard on the news that Ashok went to jail for doing bad things. Shurthi ran back home. Ashok didn't spot her. Shurthi ran to her bed and looked out her window. She saw Ashok trying to help a blind kid cross the road but the kid's mom ran and quickly pushed Ahsok away and ran back to her home with her kid. Shurthi got scared and thought that Ashok was trying to kill the kid. She then got mad and ran outside. She started at him strangly. Ashok stood shocked. Suddenly, Shruthi slapped him. She said "Why would you try to kill children for money? What it your problem!?" Shruthi screamed. Ashok stood upset. He tried to explain to her and tell her that he didn't do anything bad but Shruthi didn't listen. Ashok felt upset and left. Shurthi started crying in her room. Her true love was broken and shattered to pieces.
Khaal Gundhi then thinks of a way to kill Ghala and his members because they made Ashok go to jail. He thinks of putting a bomb in their secret gang place. Khaal Gundhi smiles and tells the gang members the plan. Khaal Gundhi secretly keeps this away from Ashok because Ahsok doesn't want to kill the opposite bad gang, he just wants to teach them a lesson to do the good deeds instead of the bad deeds. The film then goes onto a "to be continued" ending. The squeal was announced on February, 7 2014.

Cast

Vijay as Ashok
Asin Thottumkal as Shruthi
Prakash Raj as Khaal Gundhi
Dev Gill as Ghala
Vivek as Pala Thanda
Sudeep as Deva (Ghala's sidekick gang member)

Crew

Screenplay and Direction: Prabhu Deva
Producer: Singanamala Ramesh
Dialogues: V. Prabhakar
Story: Puri Jagannadh
Music: Mani Sharma
Cinematography: Nirav Shah
Editing: Kola Bhaskar
Art: K. Kadhir
Lyrics: Pa. Vijay, Na. Muthukumar, Snehan, Kabilan
Action: FEFSI Vijayan
Choreography: Raju Sundaram, Dinesh, Ashok Raja, Sridhar, Vishnu Deva
Co-Director: M. Krishnamurthy, A. C. Muhil
Associate Director: B. R. Chandru, K. R. Prabhu, G. Jayakannan
Assistant Director: G. Kalaimamani, K. C. Perumal
Audiography: A. S. Laxmi Narayan
Sound Effects: C. Sethu
Visual Effects: EFX
Costumes: Nalini Sriram, Chetan), Anu Parthasarathy
Make-up: Nagaraj

Production

After his film Aathi in January 2006, for nearly six months Vijay was listening to stories but none appealed he was supposed to do a Tamil version of Dharani's Bangaram, until that film's failure made him look at other options. That's when he got to watch the Telugu 'Pokkiri.' he felt that it would work. After difficulty in finding directors, Prabhudeva was selected as director directing his first film in Tamil after the failure of his Telugu film Pournami. The movie was launched in 6 July 2006, Vijay's father SAC conducted special puja at the Sri Arunachaleswarar Temple in Tiruvannamalai. On Saturday night, which was the full moon day, which is an auspicious occasion for the presiding deity there, he spent a full hour before the Lord seeking his blessings. He also prayed at the Sacred Church at Velankanni. Asin was selected pairing with Vijay for second time after Sivakasi.
The first day of shoot for the film was held at the new Pillayar Kovil at AVM studios, with various dignitaries gracing the occasion. Vijay's mother Shobha Chandrasekhar gave the clap for the first shot. The first scene shot was with Asin and Vijay, the lead pair in the film, in an elevator that was specially designed for the film.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack has 8 songs composed by Mani Sharma. Two of the songs from the original Telugu version were retained, and remade in Tamil.

Pokkiri

Studio album by Mani Sharma

Released

15 July 2007 (India)

Genre

Feature film soundtrack

Length

34:27

Label

Five Star Audio

Producer

Mani Sharma

Mani Sharma chronology

Ashok
(2006)

Pokkiri
(2007)

Yogi
(2007)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Rediff.com Movies	^{[citation needed]}

Song	Artist(s)	Picturization	Length	Lyrics
Dole Dole Than	Ranjith, Suchitra	Vijay, Asin Thottumkal	4:43	Pa. Vijay
Aadungada Yennai Suththi	Naveen	Vijay, Prabhu Deva	4:29	Kabilan
Nee Mutham Ondru	Ranjith, Swetha Mohan	Vijay, Asin	4:52	Pa. Vijay
Mambazhamam Mambazham	Shankar Mahadevan, Ganga	Vijay, Asin, Vadivelu	4:41	Snehan
En Chella Peru Apple	A. V. Ramanan, Suchitra	Vijay, Mumaith Khan	4:35	Pa. Vijay
Vasaantha Mullai	Rahul Nambiar, Krishnamoorthy	Vijay, Asin	4:19	Na. Muthukumar
Nee Mutham Ondru (Remix)	Ranjith, Suchitra		4:12	Pa. Vijay
Pokkiri Theme	Mani Sharma		2:36

Release

The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Sun TV. The film was given a "U/A" certificate by the Indian Censor Board and released on 2007 at the festival of Pongal, alongside Ajith's Aalwar and Vishal's Thaamirabharani. The film collected

61 million in Tamil Nadu in its first weekend from 142 screens.

Critical reception

Pokkiri opened to positive Reviews.Sify said that the film was "enjoyable while it lasts". Indiaglitz stated that Vijay stole the show with his "typical 'Vijayisms' (action, humor and punch dialogues)" and that the show was "action-packed entertainer". Behindwoods review felt that Vadivelu and Prakash Raj’s performances were lackluster, and stated that Raj " might do well to sit back and analyze the roles that he accepts," but concluded that the movie overall "packs a punch." Rediff.com gave the movie one and half stars, stating "there's nothing more tedious than a badly made remake." Nowrunning.com stated that Pokiri' is attractively packaged and presented. Oneindia.in stated that Pokiri' is a full length action movie of Vijay.

Awards

Award	Category	Recipient	Result
Vijay Awards	Favourite Film	Pokkiri	Won
	Favourite Director	Prabhu Deva	Won
	Entertainer of the Year	Vijay	Won
	Favourite Hero	Vijay	Nominated
	Favourite Heroine	Asin	Nominated
	Best Actress	Asin	Nominated
	Best Villain	Prakash Raj	Nominated
	Best Choreographer	Dinesh (Vansantha Mullai)	Won
	Best Art Director	Kathir	Nominated
	Best Stunt Director	Fefsi Vijaan	Nominated
Filmfare Awards South	Best Actor	Vijay	Nominated
Filmfare Awards South	Best Actress	Asin	Nominated
Mathrubhumi Film Awards	Best Tamil Film	Pokkiri	Won
	Best Tamil Director	Prabhu Deva	Won
	Best Tamil Actor	Vijay	Won

Remakes

The original Telugu film Pokiri, directed by Puri Jagannadh, was remade in several other languages and still found success in the respective regional cinemas. Pokkiri is the first remake. The second one was Wanted, the Hindi version in 2009 which was also directed by Prabhu Deva, Like the two other versions, Wanted had Salman Khan and Ayesha Takia in the lead and has also Prakash Raj as the villain. After that, a Kannada version, Porkhi, directed by M.D. Sridhar, was released in 14 January 2010. Below is an actor map of the lead actors in the story of Pokiri and its remakes.

Pokiri (Telugu) (2006)	Pokkiri (Tamil) (2007)	Wanted (Hindi) (2009)	Porki (Kannada) (2010)
Mahesh Babu	Vijay	Salman Khan	Darshan
Ileana D'Cruz	Asin	Ayesha Takia	Pranitha
Prakash Raj	Prakash Raj	Prakash Raj	Ashish Vidyarthi
Nassar	Nassar	Vinod Khanna	Avinash
Sayaji Shinde	Napoleon	Govind Namdeo	Devaraj
Ashish Vidyarthi	Mukesh Tiwari	Mahesh Manjrekar	Shobaraj
Jyothi Rana	Brinda Parekh	Mahek Chahal	Sangeetha Shetty

Vettaikaaran (English: Hunter) is a 2009 Tamil action masala film film directed by debutant B. Babusivan that stars Vijay and Anushka Shetty. Gopinath handled cinematography while V. T. Vijayan was the film's editor. The film, produced by AVM Productions and distributed by Sun Pictures, was launched in February 2009 and the shooting for the film commenced the following month. The film revolves around a youngster who aims to be a cop just like a local police commissioner whom he idolizes, but during the process he is stopped by the evil done to his friends by a local mobster. The film's soundtrack, composed by Vijay Antony, was released in September 2009. The film was released worldwide on 18 December 2009, receiving mixed reviews. The film was an above average performer at the box office and was dubbed into Telugu as Puli Veta.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Soundtrack
5 Release
6 References
7 External links

Plot

Ravi (Vijay) lives in Tuticorin. He aspires to become a policeman like his idol, Encounter Specialist Devaraj IPS (Srihari). After completing his Plus 2, he joins a college in Chennai, and also earns a living by driving an auto rickshaw. During the course, he meets Suseela (Anushka Shetty) and falls in love with her instantly. Although Suseela rejects Ravi's advances at first, with the help of her grandmother (Sukumari), he succeeds in winning Suseela's heart.
Enter Chella (Ravi Shankar), a rowdy and womaniser who wants to sleep with every beautiful young woman he meets. He meets Ravi's friend Uma (Sanchita Padukone) in a public place, where she is taking donations for some cause, and immediately develops an attraction to her. When Uma asks Chella to contribute money, he willingly does so, but insults her by placing the money over her breasts. When Ravi finds out what had happened to Uma, he comes to her defense and beats up Chella, hospitalising him. His troubles start from there as Chella's father, a criminal don named Vedanayagam (Salim Ghouse), with the help of his right-hand man and corrupt police officer Kattabomman (Sayaji Shinde), begins to create havoc in Ravi's life. Ravi is soon thrown in jail on a false case of drug smuggling and is expelled from college. Only Suseela is willing to actively help him. Suseela goes to Devaraj to garner support to help Ravi, but Devaraj refuses to help as his entire family had died at the hands of Vedanayagam and his henchmen as a result of trying to take action against them, with Devaraj himself made completely blind by Vedanayagam. However, with the help of his henchmen, he saves Ravi from being killed in a fake encounter led by Kattabomman. It is at this stage that Ravi takes up a new persona called "Police" Ravi to clean up the illegal activities of Vedanayagam and instill hope in the public, something that Devaraj was unable to do.
In the process, however, Vedanayagam kills Ravi's close friend Sugu (Sathyan Sivakumar), prompting Ravi to kill Chella in retribution. Vedanayagam decides soon after to become a minister, knowing that it is the only way to put a stop to Ravi's targeting of him and his activities. As Ravi finally plans to kill Vedanayagam, fully knowing the danger of him becoming a minister, the police arrive to arrest Ravi. However, Ravi sees Devaraj in the crowd and announces Vedanayagam's location to him just as he is being arrested, allowing Devaraj to shoot and kill Vedanayagam, effectively taking his revenge.
In the end, Devaraj is reinstated into the police force and offers to make Ravi a police officer. However, Ravi refuses, stating that he has found the police officer within himself and that is all he needs to succeed in life.

Cast

Vijay as Ravi, the protagonist
Anushka Shetty as Susheela, Ravi's love interest
Srihari as Devaraj, the IPS officer who Ravi idolises
Sayaji Shinde as Kattabomman, a corrupt police officer working for Vedanayagam
Salim Ghouse as Vedanayagam, the main antagonist
Sanchita Padukone as Uma, Ravi's friend
Sathyan Sivakumar as Sugu, Ravi's friend
Ravi Shankar as Chella Vedanayagam, Vedanayagam's son
Srinath as Valayapathi, Ravi's friend
Sukumari as Susheela's grandmother
Manikka Vinayagam as Uma's father
Cochin Haneefa as the owner of a complex
Raviprakash as Commissioner of Police
Delhi Ganesh as Ravi's father
Lakshmi Ramakrishnan as Ravi's mother
Bala Singh as Rajasekhar
Jayashree as Chella's Wife
Kalairani
Manobala
Imman Annachi
Raviprakash
Jason Sanjay in a special appearance
Madalasa Sharma in a cameo appearance

Production

Development

During the filming of Kuruvi, directed by S. Dharani, B. Babusivan served as one of his assistant directors in the film and wrote the dialogues. Sivan was later prompted to begin his maiden directorial venture with Vijay in the lead role. He was eventually chosen as the director for the next feature film to be produced AVM Productions. The project was originally titled as Police Ravi but in August 2008 it was re-titled as Vettaikkaaran, taken from the 1964 Tamil film starring M. G. Ramachandran.
Vettaikaran was formally launched the next month. The film's director Babusivan, producers M. Balasubramaniam and B. Gurunath Meyyappan, Vijay and his wife, Vijay Antony, S. A. Chandrasekhar and director Dharani were present at the film's inauguration.

Casting

Commercial directors Perarasu and Hari were mentioned, but AVM Productions chose B. Babusivan to be the director of the film.
Several actresses were considered for the lead female role with Shriya Saran, Tamannaah, Ileana D'Cruz, Bhavana, Asin, Nayantara and Anushka Shetty being considered for the role. Afterwards, Anushka was finalized to portray the role. Cinematographer Gopinath was chosen to be the lead cameraman in the film after Ravi Varman was dropped from the film. V. T. Vijayan was signed as the film's editor.

Soundtrack

Vettaikaaran

Soundtrack album by Vijay Antony

Released

23 September 2009

Recorded

Audiophiles

Genre

Feature film soundtrack

Length

26:33

Label

Think Music

Vijay Antony chronology

Mahatma
(2009)

Vettaikaran
(2009)

Rasikkum Seemane
(2010)

Tamil

No.	Song	Singers	Length (m:ss)	Lyrics	Picturization
1	"Puli Urumudhu"	Ananthu, Mahesh Vinayakram	4:17	Kabilan	AVM Studio and Madurai
2	"Oru Chinna Thamarai"	Krish, Dinesh Kanagaratnam, Bonekilla, Suchitra	4:35	Viveka	Punai
3	"Naan Adicha"	Shankar Mahadevan	4:37	Kabilan	Raj Mundhir
4	"Karigalan Kala"	Suchith Suresan, Sangeetha Rajeshwaran	4:17	Kabilan	Pollachchi
5	"En Uchimandai"	Krishna Iyer, Shoba Chandrasekhar, Charulatha Mani, Shakthisree Gopalan	4:12	Annamalai	AVM

Telugu

No.	Song	Singers	Length (m:ss)	Lyrics	Picturization
1	"Pul Vetidi"	Ramu	4:17	Vennelakanthi	AVM Studio and Madurai
2	"Yeda Alapai"	Rakhi, Veena	4:35	Bhuvanachandra	Punai
3	"Adugesthey"	Tippu	4:37	Vennelakanthi	Raj Mundhir
4	"Karimabbu"	Saketh Naidu, Kavitha	4:17	Vennelakanthi	Pollachchi
5	"Thikkedo"	R.S. John Vianni, Aishwarya	4:12	Bhuvanachandra	AVM Studio

Release

The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Sun TV. The film was given a "U/A" certificate by the Indian Censor Board.

Reception and reviews

The film, made on a budget of

170 million,^{[citation needed]} opened up to large mixed reviews. Sify.com stated that "entertainment was guaranteed" and that "strictly for Vijay's fans - it delivers the goods." Indiaglitz gave a statement that "'Vettaikkaran' is an out and out action movie Vijay fans would lap it up". Rediff stated that "if you're a Vijay fan, you'll love his crackling style but for the others? Enjoy the movie with fulfilment of anushka .

Awards

Award	Category	Recipient	Result
Vijay Awards	Favourite Hero	Vijay	Won
	Favourite Heroine	Anushka	Won
	Favourite Film	Vettaikaran	Nominated
	Favourite Song	Chinna Thamarai	Won
	Best Music Director	Vijay Antony	Nominated
	Best Villain	Salim Ghouse	Nominated
	Best Male Playback Singer	Krish	Nominated
	Best Lyricist	Kabilan	Nominated
	Best Stunt Director	Kanal Kannan	Nominated
Filmfare Awards South	Best Lyricist	Kabilan (Karikaalan)	Nominated
	Best Lyricist	Vivega (Oru Chinna Thamarai)	Nominated
	Best Male Playback Singer	Krish (Oru Chinna Thamarai)	Nominated
	Best Female Playback Singer	Suchitra (Oru Chinna Thamarai)	Nominated
Edison Awards	Best Male Playback Singer	Krish	Won
South Scope Cine Awards	Best Tamil Male Play Back Singer	Krish (Oru Chinna Thamarai)	Nominated
South Scope Cine Awards	Best Tamil Female Playback Singer	Suchitra (Oru Chinna Thamarai)	Nominated

Kaavalan (English: Bodyguard) is a 2011 Tamil romantic action drama written and directed by Siddique, starring Vijay and Asin in the lead roles. The film is a remake of Siddique's previous Malayalam film Bodyguard. It features Rajkiran, Mithra Kurian, Roja and Vadivelu in supporting roles with musical score composed by Vidyasagar. The film's principal shoot commenced in April 2010 and was completed by November 2010. Following several hurdles, Kaavalan released on 15 January 2011 to generally positive reviews and was declared as a box-office success. It was selected to be screened at the Shanghai International Film Festival out of many projects submitted by India. The movie was a hit at box office.It has also been dubbed into hindi asMain Hoon Bodyguard.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Character map of remakes
4 Production
5 Soundtrack
6 Release
7 Reception
8 Box office
9 References
10 External links

Plot

Bhoominathan (Vijay) idolises Muthuramalingam (Rajkiran) and at the request of his parents, accepts to work for the latter as his bodyguard. There enters Muthuramalingam's rival, who has lost his daughter since she committed suicide, the reason being rejection by Muthuramalingam's son. While Bhoominathan protects Muthuramalingam, his rival threatens the life of his daughter Meera (Asin). Bhoominathan is sent to college along with Meera and her friend Madhu (Mithra Kurian) to protect them from the threat. Meera tries to distance herself from Bhoominathan by calling him from a private number; Bhoominathan falls in love with the girl without knowing that it is Meera herself. At one point, Meera too feels herself becoming attracted to Bhoominathan and expresses her desire to meet him in person. However due to circumstances they are not able to accomplish this until at the climax when she tells Bhoominathan to run away with her and to meet at a railway station. Bhoominathan agrees, unaware it is Meera. However through certain means,Muthuramalingam comes to think that Bhoominathan and Meera are going to run away. In order to save Bhoominathan's life from the anger of Muthuramalingam, Meera lies that the lover is not her and that Bhoominathan is meeting another girl at the train station. Muthuramalingam lets Bhoominathan leave as he was desperate to meet his 'lover' at the station. The story moves on to few years later where Bhoominathan and his son returning to Meera's village, with the son keeping away a diary written to him by his mum. At Meera's house, Meera's father was ill and Meera appeared from her room unmarried that shocked Bhoominathan as he felt the man who would marry Meera would be the luckiest man on earth. The son continues to read the diary later in the night where the remaining of the story reveals. Meera's father lets Bhoominathan go but tells his henchmen to kill Bhoominathan if the girl he claims to meet does not appear. Terrified that Bhoomi would be killed, Meera sends her friend, Madhu, to the station and tells her to tell Bhoominathan that she is the lover and that she won't be able to make it to the station. Madhu, seeing Bhoominathan, tries to tell him that it was Meera but, Muthuramalingam's henchman appeared to be behind Bhoomi. Madhu pretends that she was his lover whilst the henchman was watching. But the hug from Bhoominathan made Madhu to backstab her friend. Meera called Madhu's phone but Madhu killed Meera's call, switched the phone off and threw it outside the train. Her wicked smile indicated that she now wanted Meera out of their life, so she settled in another country. But God works in mysterious ways. Madhu's life was shortlived. She felt it's God way of punishing her and therefore wanted her son to know the truth. When Bhoominathan and the son leaves the next day, the son asks Meera if he can call her 'amma' and she says yes. And he then asks his 'mum' to follow them back. Bhoominathan gets angry at his son for saying something so blunt and rude. But Muthuramalingam begs Bhoominathan to take Meera as his wife. So they go onto the train together but the son runs away before leaving and throws the diary into a trashcan nearby. Bhoominathan finds the diary and realises soon that his real lover, the girl who had waited for him for so many years faithfully, was Meera. And in the train he shows that he has accepted her full-heartedly.

Cast

Vijay as Bhoominathan (Bhoomi)
Asin as Meera
Rajkiran as Muthuramalingam
Mithra Kurian as Madhu
Roja as Devika
Vadivelu as Ammavasai
Livingston as college principal
Mahadevan as Devarajan
Krishna Kumar as Karthik
Neepa as Poongodi
Nizhalgal Ravi as Parthasarathy
Yuvashree as Bhoominathan's mother
M. S. Bhaskar Maadhu's father
Madhan Bob as college lecturer
Guinnes Pakru as Meera's friend and classmate
Sharmilee as hostel warden

Character map of remakes

The original Malayalam film Bodyguard is being remade in Hindi and Telugu. The Telugu version is being directed by Gopichand Malineli while all the other three versions are directed by Siddique himself. Below is a character map of the lead characters in the story of Bodyguard and its remakes. Along with Remake, this movie was also dubbed in Hindi as Main Hoon Bodyguard.

Bodyguard (Malayalam; 2010)	Kaavalan (Tamil; 2011)	Bodyguard (Hindi; 2011)	Bodyguard (Kannada; 2011)	Bodyguard (Telugu; 2012)	Bodyguard (Bengali)
Jayakrishnan (Dileep)	Bhoominathan (Vijay)	Lovely Singh (Salman Khan)	Jayakrishna (Jaggesh)	Venkatadri (Venkatesh)	(Shakib Khan)
Ammu (Nayanthara)	Meera (Asin)	Divya (Kareena Kapoor)	Ammu (Daisy Shah)	Keerthi (Trisha Krishnan)	(Nipun)
Sethulakshmi (Mithra Kurian)	Maadhu (Mithra Kurian)	Maya (Hazel Keech)	Poorna (Spoorthi)	Swathi (Saloni Aswani)
Ashokettan (Thiagarajan)	Muthuramalingam (Rajkiran)	Sartaj Rana (Raj Babbar)	Ashokanna (Gurudut)	Varadarajula Naidu (Prakash Raj)

Production

Development

Siddique had first narrated the script of bodyguard to Vijay,As Vijay had prior commitments then,He suggested him to make this movie first in Malayalam as Bodyguard.Bodyguard became an average grosser in Malayalam.He later announced his decision to remake the film with enhancements in the script to better suite the Tamil audience.^{[citation needed]} The film was initially referred to as Kaavalkaaran, which transliterally means "bodyguard" in Tamil. After rumours of the title being changed to Kaaval Kaadhal,' the film was officially confirmed to be titled as Kaavalan in August 2010. The reason for the name confusion and its eventual permanent change was due to the complications in obtaining the rights to the title of Kavalkaran from M. G. Ramachandran's producers. They refused to sell the title to Vijay, leading to the rechristening of the title to Kaavalan.

Casting

With the announcement of the remake, Siddique had finalised Vijay to play the lead role, reminiscent to their previous venture Friends (2001), which was also a remake of Siddique's own Malayalam film. Asin Thottumkal was signed up to pair with Vijay for the third time after their previous pairings in Sivakasi (2005) and Pokkiri (2007), also giving Asin a comeback in Tamil cinema after her last appearance in Dasavathaaram (2008). Vadivelu, Rajkiran, and Roja Selvamani were also signed up for supporting characters. The film's principal shoot began in April at Kumbakonam.

Filming

An incident occurred on sets in April, where Asin, her father, and her make up assistants had fainted in their caravan after being exposed to a gas leak. They were treated in hospital the same day and were eventually discharged. The second shoot schedule occurred in Vellore. Vijay and Asin, along with director Siddique and rest of crew had taken part in the shooting at the Vellore Institute of Technology. A song was shot at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Soundtrack

Kaavalan

Soundtrack album by Vidyasagar

Released

17 December 2010

Recorded

2010

Genre

Film soundtrack

Length

20:56

Label

Venus Music

Producer

Vidyasagar

Vidyasagar chronology

Mandhira Punnagai
(2010)

Kaavalan
(2010)

Ilaignan
(2010)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Behindwoods

Kaavalan's audio launch was held on 8 December 2010. The soundtrack consists 5 tracks composed by Vidyasagar.

No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Vinnai Kaapan"	Pa. Vijay	Tippu, Shweta Mohan	4:30
2.	"Yaradu"	Yugabharathy	Karthik, Suchitra	4:27
3.	"Step Step"	Vivega	Benny Dayal, Megha	4:36
4.	"Sada Sada"	Yugabharathy	Karthik	4:15
5.	"Pattamboochi"	Kabilan	KK, Rita	3:48

Release

After the failure of Vijay's 2010 film Sura, the TN Film Exhibitors Association (TFEA) distributed a circular advising theatres not to screen the actor's future films until he compensated for the losses his movies had incurred. Vijay was asked to pay 30% of an estimated

9 crore loss suffered by theaters, or about

30 million. Kaavalan ran into turmoil as the Theatre Owners’ Association threatened not to release the film. The film's release was postponed from 17 December to 15 January, citing the lack of theatres available for the release. The actor shelled out his salary and four additional crores to release the movie with the help of producer Aascar Ravichandran. The film released a week later in Canada after initial expectations to have the film released on the same day as its worldwide release.
The trailer was world premiered on 16 December in the Bay Area, California, notably the first time for a Vijay film's trailer was launched outside India. Speaking at the event, Vijay made a request to his USA fans to provide support for the growth of Tamil Nadu.
The film was selected at the 14th Shanghai International Film Festival in the panorama section. SIFF had issued an invitation to actor Vijay as guest of honour. The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Sun TV for a record price. The film was given a clean "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board. Romesh Babu has filed a police case against Shakti Chidambaram for posing a death threat to him.

Reception

Critical response

Sify.com gave the film a positive verdict, describing the film as "super fun" and a "perfect Pongal family entertainer". The reviewer particularly praised Vijay's performance, observing that the film works "purely on his star charisma and larger-than-life image" and that "he carries the film on his shoulders and is one good reason to watch the film". A critic from Rediff.com, while giving the film 2.5 out of 5 stars, credited Vijay "for shedding his action/political persona and digging his toes in and choosing a script that focuses on comedy and emotions", going on to claim that "it's Vijay [...] who knits together the rather lackluster screenplay and keeps the laughs coming. For a nostalgic return to the Vijay of old, comic interludes and lack of double-edged dialogues and future plans, Kavalan works." Behindwoods rated the film 2.5 out of 5 stars and called it "a relatable love story shot in a cute and simple manner, rich with emotions, but on the slow side of narration". The reviewer noted that Kaavalan "is a throwback to the Thulladha Manamum Thullum days of Vijay" and that he has "lived the character", while Asin "convinces us with her portrayal." Chennai Online stated that the film had" "the potential to be another Kathalukku Mariyathai but it loses its edge thanks to a loose and redundant script", complimeting Vijay's "brave effort to come out of the beaten path of mindless action movies". Oneindia commented, "After years Vijay has come out of his masala formula; Kaavalan is a family entertainer... [It] is not an extraordinary one but is watchable."

Box office

Kaavalan was supposed to be released on 12 January 2010, but the actual producer of the Malayalam version "Bodyguard" filed a case on the highcourt that the remake rights were not purchased from him. Following this Vijay was asked to pay a sum of

150 million (US$2.5 million) to the producer. Which made Vijay to shell his entire salary and it was the producer Aascar Ravichandran who helped Vijay to release the film, as he was working under his film Velayudham. Kaavalan also had the trouble in the release with its number of screenings as it coincided with Danush's Aadukalam and Karthi's Siruthai. Kaavalan got only 70 screens across the state and so the producer changed its hands to Cinema Paradise and thereafter the movie was managed to release in 350 screens. Following all the hurdles Kaavalan released to generally positive reviews from critics. Though it was Vijay as the bodyguard of Asin truly it was siddique who was the real bodyguard of Vijay's career. The film collected 8.8 million in Chennai at its opening weekend. By the end of seven weeks it grossed around

43.6 million (US$730,000) at the Chennai box office. And it managed to collect

450 million (US$7.5 million) worldwide. The film had a successful 50-days theatrical run.

Awards

Won

SIIMA Award for Best Actress – Tamil- Asin

Nominated

Favorite Heroine- Asin
Best Comedian- Vadivelu

Velayudham is a 2011 Tamil action masala thriller film directed by M. Raja. It stars Vijay in the title role, Abhimanyu Singh as Musafir Ibrahim, the main antagonist and Genelia D'Souza in the lead roles alongside Hansika Motwani, Saranya Mohan and Santhanam in supporting roles. Produced by V. Ravichandran's Aascar Films, the story revolves around an ordinary milkman, trying to eradicate the evils in society. It is a loose remake of the 2000 Telugu film Azad. Velayudham became a major success among Tamil Diwali releases despite competition with 7aum Arivu.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Soundtrack
5 Release
6 Reception
7 Box office
8 Accolades
9 References
10 External links

Plot

The film opens up in Pakistan with a blind folded person (Vineet Kumar) being dragged by a few terrorists. He is brought to the leader of the gang Musafir Ibrahim (Abhimanyu Singh) and is identified as Ulaganathan, the Home Minister of Tamil Nadu. Further plans are revealed when the gang strikes a hefty deal with him for planting a series of bombs in Chennai. Soon, a bomb explodes in a bus in Chennai, killing many innocent people. A group of three journalists, including Bharathi (Genelia D'Souza), commit to eradicating terrorism and other social ills in the country after completing their Journalism course. One night, Bharathi and her two friends secretly film the illegal activities like creation of explosives and women trafficking happening in a secluded house. However, the journalists' presence is detected and their escape attempt results in the deaths of both her friends and injury to Bharathi. But after the attack on Bharathi and her friends, the goons' vehicle explodes due to a small mishap when a matchstick falls over petrol packets stored in the vehicle. Bharathi, already stabbed by one of the goons, comes up with a new idea to eradicate terrorism by creating a fictional character called Velayudham, and writes a note that he wants to clean up the city of bad guys and that he will stop the next bomb from hurting anyone before falling unconscious.
Menawhile, the real Velayudham a.k.a. Velu (Vijay) is a milk vendor in a village called Pavunoor. He has a sister Kaveri (Saranya Mohan) whom he loves dearly and a cousin Vaidehi (Hansika Motwani) who is crazy about him. Though the brother-sister duo create a lot of trouble for the villagers, they are still adored by them. They, along with a couple of village friends, go to Chennai to collect money from a chit fund for his sister's marriage. At the Chennai Egmore railway station, a petty thief Speedu (Santhanam) steals the money. Velu chases him on a bike which was parked on the railway station platform, eventually getting back the money. Unknown to him, the bike had a bomb planted on it, which explodes within seconds of him getting down from the bike and getting back his money, thus inadvertently thwarting a terror attack. Within the next couple of days, he inadvertently prevents more bomb blasts and helps catch terrorists, becoming a sensation over time. He even manages to save Bharathi in one of the incidents.
Bharathi soon realises that Velu is the guy who has been accidentally doing the work of Velayudham. Bharathi meets him, explains and asks him to become the fictional character, however he refuses. Later, Velu goes to draw cash from the chit fund but the company cheats him off his money. Outside the chit fund company, the people who were cheated by the company protest, vowing that Velayudham will come as their saviour. Velu seeing this decides to take upon the avatar of Velayudham and starts to eradicate the evils that pertains within the society such as corruption, prostitution, terrorism etc. In time, Bharathi falls in love with Velu, which he does not return as he is in love with Vaidehi.
Trouble however lurks in the form of Musafir. He plans a terrorist attack on a chemical factory. However, Velu thwarts these plans and gains the support of Assistant Commissioner Feroz Khan (Sayaji Shinde), who was initially sceptical of Velayudham.
Soon, Velu, Speedu and Bharathi come to Pavunoor for Kaveri's marriage. Unknown to them, one of the terrorists involved in the failed terrorist attack on the chemical factory had followed them to the village to take revenge on Velu. Feroz Khan tries to warn Velu about this, but is murdered by the police commissioner, who is Ulaganathan's right hand man. The terrorist plants a bomb in Velu's house and only Kaveri detects it, but the bomb explodes before she can get rid of it, killing her. In revenge, Velu returns to Chennai and kills Musafir, who is to be revealed as Velayudham by Ulaganathan, in a gruelling encounter at the Nehru Stadium, exposes Ulaganathan's misdeeds and finally reveals himself as Velayudham to the world.

Cast

Vijay as Velayudham (Velu), the protagonist
Genelia D'Souza as Bharathi, a journalist who comes up with the idea of Velayudham
Hansika Motwani as Vaidhyalakshmi (Vaidegi), Velu's love interest
Santhanam as Speed, a petty thief
Soori as Abdullah, Velu's friend
Saranya Mohan as Kaveri, Velu's sister
Abhimanyu Singh as Musafir Ibrahim, the main antagonist
Vineet Kumar as Ulaganathan, the Home Minister of Tamil Nadu, the other antagonist
Pandi as Pandi
Raaghav as Jai
M. S. Bhaskar as Vaidehi's father
Sayaji Shinde as Asst.Commissioner Mhd. Feroz Khan, a critic of Velayudham who later starts supporting him
Pandiarajan as Head Constable, a supporter of Velayudham
Vincent Asokan as Ulaganathan's brother

Ajay as Ulaganathan's partner
Rajendran as a Local Goon
Manivannan as Rathnavelu, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu
Ilavarasu as a poor man
Veera Samar as Hari, Bharathi's friend
T. P. Gajendran as a Travelling Ticket Examiner
Kadhal Dhandapani as Nattamai
Swaminathan as Maama
Singamuthu as Speed's father
Vaiyapuri as Speed's brother
Meenal as one of the girls abducted by thugs
Crane Manohar as Theatre Operator
Krishnamoorthy as a Villager
Shobana

Production

Casting

The film was launched on July 15, 2010 at the Madras University campus. Genelia D'Souza who had acted opposite Vijay in Sachein was chosen for the role of a journalist, and Hansika Motwani was chosen to portray Vijay's love interest, while Saranya Mohan would play sister to Vijay's character. Art director Veera Samar also was roped in to play a journalist. While Santhanam and M. S. Baskar were chosen to play the comedy lead in the film, Sayaji Shinde, Vineetkumar and Abhimanyu Singh were selected to play negative roles. Tom Delmar, who had worked as a stunt coordinator in several Hollywood films, joined the crew to choreograph the stunts in the film. Due to his commitment to Velayudham, Vijay almost lost his role in S. Shankar's Nanban. He had walked out of Nanban, since the two films demanded two completely different looks, however, he joined the film later as the scenes involving the protagonist were reserved to be shot later.

Filming

Filming was carried out primarily at three locations, Southern Tamil Nadu, Kerala and the last schedule in Chennai. A song sequence choreographed by Shobi that was originally to be shot in Switzerland was canned in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, with Genelia and Hansika filming alongside Vijay. Tom Delmar, the stunt co-ordinator of projects such as Braveheart, has been behind the shooting of an extremely tricky train sequence for Velayudham. It has been shot on a train moving on a bridge Vijay performed the very risky sequence coolly.The Director said "A slight miss and the actor could fall 100 feet below! “A very risky sequence, but Vijay did it coolly. My heart was in my mouth when it was being filmed,”.This stunt has been taken in the location Rayagada in Orissa. while another fight sequence was filmed at Golkonda fort, Hyderabad. The audiography was done by M. R. Rajakrishnan and film's dubbing was done in Four Frames Recording Studio in Chennai.

Influences

The film has been widely reported to be a remake of the 2000 Telugu film Azad that starred Soundarya as a journalist and Akkineni Nagarjuna as a villager, incidentally the roles essayed by Genelia and Vijay, respectively. However, director M. Raja claimed that it was not a remake but his own story. He later admitted that Azad served as the inspiration and that he had penned a new screenplay. Vijay had signed up to appear in a village action story titled Velan in 2001 to be directed by Thirupathisamy, the director of Azad, which was postponed indefinitely after the death of the director. Raja told his cast that it was inspired by Azad and requested them to not watch the original. Post the film's release, Raja said that his brother Jayam Ravi had help him in improving the script. Another reported influence for the film was the costume worn by Vijay, which was believed to have been "loosely borrowed" from the Assassin's Creed video game series, bearing a resemblance to the robes of young Altaïr, one of the protagonists in the series, leading to criticism of the film being "copied" from the video game.

Soundtrack

Velayudham

Front Cover

Soundtrack album to Velayudham by Vijay Antony

Released

28 August 2011

Recorded

Audiophiles

Genre

Feature film soundtrack

Length

25:04

Language

Tamil

Label

Sony Music Entertainment

Producer

Vijay Antony

Vijay Antony chronology

Yuvan Yuvathi
(2011)

Velayudham
(2011)

Vedi
(2011)

The soundtrack is scored by Vijay Antony. The audio right was bought by Sony Music for huge amount. The soundtrack consists of 6 tracks and was released on 28 August 2011, at CSI Grounds in Madurai, attended by thousand of Vijay fans. Vijay, Hansika Motwani, S. A. Chandrasekhar, Vijay Antony, Viveka, and several distributors and theatre owners were present in function. In a press statement Ashok Parwani, Sony Music Entertainment Chennai, said, “We are overwhelmed with the response the movie and the music have received. Velayudham has broken all records and we have sold all our units within a day of its launch. The soundtracks are original, soulful and memorable. We’re sure that the compositions will go down in history as some of the best melodies of our times.”
The audio launch was held in Madurai on August 28.

Tracklist
No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Rathathin Rathame"	Annamalai	Haricharan, Sri Madhumitha	4:38
2.	"Molachu Moonu"	Vivega	Prasanna, Supriya Joshi	4:52
3.	"Chillax"	Annamalai	Karthik, Charulatha Mani	4:25
4.	"Mayam Seidhayo"	Vivega	Sangeetha Rajeshwaran	4:14
5.	"Sonna Puriyadhu"	Siva Shanmugam	Vijay Antony, Veera Shankar	5:39
6.	"Vela Vela Velayutham"	Priyan	Vijay Antony, Mark	1:16
Total length:				25:04

Critical response

The soundtrack received mixed to positive reviews, with critics recommending the album for Vijay's fans. Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff gave it 2 out of 5 stating "Vijay Antony plays it safe mostly, with the result that there's nothing new." P. G. Devi from Behindwoods gave it 2.5 out of 5 and said "Vijay Antony continues to flaunt his success this time around with Velayutham. The album has a bunch of entertaining soundtrack like, 'Molachu moonu', 'Mayam Seidhayo' and usual mass beat tracks 'Sonna Puriyadhu' and 'Vela Vela'." Prakash Upadhyaya from Oneindia.in said "Vijay Antony's music has met the expectations of the audience. The album has all kinds of songs and the music director has targeted the mass as well as class listeners". Indiaglitz said "the music album [...] presents us a variety fare, however with the main target being the 'mass audience'", labelling it as a "food festival for the appetite of Vijay fans, who are craving for mass masala numbers from their hero".

Release

The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Jaya TV for a price of

4 crore. The film was given a "U" (Universal) certificate by the Indian Censor Board on October 13, 2011 and the theatrical trailer was released in October 2011 to positive response. The film was initially supposed to be released on 22 June, coinciding with Vijay's birthday, but was postponed due to delay in production.
Velayudham released on 26 October 2011, during the Deepavali festival. The film was released with over 820 prints worldwide. It also saw a release in about 100 theaters in Karnataka and 120 theaters in Kerala. As per overseas distributor Ayngaran International, the film released in 17 theatres in UK. The US theatrical rights were acquired by GK Media.
Karnataka Rakshana Vedike (KRV), a pro-Kannada outfit, requested all the theatres in the state not to screen any non-Kannada movie on the occasion of Kannada Rajyaotsava Day but some of the cinema halls did not take their plea seriously, which irked the KRV activists to show their anger against the Tamil film. However, the theatre authorities realised that the situation might reach out of control and hence, they agreed to cancel all the shows of the day. The film was distributed by producer K Manju in Karnataka.
The film's theatrical distribution rights were sold for

40 crore.

Reception

The film opened up to mixed to positive reviews reviews from critics. Sify called it a "paisa vassol film", stating that the film was a "perfect outing with family, but far too long in length". Rediff.com gave the film 2.5 out of 5, while noting that it "doesn't take itself seriously and doesn't expect you to either. In other words, it's paisa vasool." CNN-IBN defined the film as a "must watch" and "treat for Vijay fans". Indiaglitz labelled it a "racy entertainer this Deepavali season" and cited it was a "right choice for the festival mood". The Times of India gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, and concluded that Velayudham is sure to add to his box-office muscle. Behindwoods. named the film a "regular mass entertainer spiced up by Vijay" and gave the film 3 out of 5 as well. Similarly Oneindia.in described it as a "complete masala entertainer", highlighting its story and "amazing action-sequences" with a rating of 4 out of five stars. Nowrunning.com rated it 2.5/5, writing: "Velayudham, part comedy part action sails through both streams smoothly until it is struck and sunk by crude melodrama". The Hindu stated that the film "simply enters and entertains" and that Raja had "churn[ed] out reasonably engaging fare", adding that it had a "strong story, a neat screenplay [...] arresting action, admirable dance movements, one or two hum-worthy numbers and the ever-helpful sister sentiment". Indo-Asian News Service gave the film 2.5 out of 5, citing that it "defies all logic, but has the magic of the star called Vijay".

Box office

India

Velayudham took a big opening on Diwali day. The film topped the overseas box office, forcing the producers to release more prints. In its opening weekend, spanning five days, the film grossed

2.1 crore in Chennai. According to trade sources, the film grossed

19 crore in Tamil Nadu and around

40 crore during the first week worldwide. On October 28, 2011, two days after its release, Vijay, Vijay Antony and director Raja met the press at a hotel in Chennai to celebrate the success of the film. The total collections in Chennai amounted to

7.75 crore in seven weeks. Velayudham also grossed

5.20 crore in Kerala during its complete run.

Overseas

Velayudham was a relatively high grosser in Europe and North America, with Taran Adarsh, a Bollywood film critic highlighting that the film was "rocking internationally". Velayudham collected a total of £5,244 in UK. In Australia too, the film collected A$7,175.

Accolades

Velayudham was honored with the Best Film Award at V4 Entertainment Awards 2011. Velayudham won the honours in the Best Musician category too. Actor Vijay received Edison Award for Best Actor and Superstar Rajini Award in the year 2012 for Velayudham. Vijay received "Hero of the year" award at the 7th Variety award 2011 held on 16 December 2012.

Nanban (English: Friend) is a 2012 Tamil coming-of-age comedy-drama film directed by Shankar. It is a remake of Rajkumar Hirani's 3 Idiots (2009), which itself was adapted from the novel Five Point Someone – What not to do at IIT! by Chetan Bhagat. featuring an ensemble cast that includes Vijay, Jiiva, Srikanth, Ileana D'Cruz, Sathyan and Sathyaraj.
The film's soundtrack and background score were composed by Harris Jayaraj and cinematography was handled by Manoj Paramahamsa. The film was produced by Gemini Film Circuit, who had purchased the remake rights of 3 Idiots in early 2010. A lengthy and controversial delay in casting delayed filming by a year. Filming took place for a total of eight months in various locations in Europe and India. The film saw its worldwide release on 12 January 2012 to positive reviews. Its dubbed version in Telugu, Snehithudu, released on 26 January 2012 in Andhra Pradesh to mixed reviews. Nanban was screened at the Melbourne Indian Film Festival on 12 June 2012.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Soundtrack
5 Release
6 Box office
7 Awards
8 References
9 External links

Plot

Wildlife photographer Venkat Ramakrishnan (Srikanth) receives a phone call from his college-mate Srivatsan, better known as "Silencer" (Sathyan), telling him that their lost college friend Panchavan "Paari" Paarivendhan (Vijay) has been located. Venkat stops the flight he is on and hires a car. Along with Sevarkodi Senthil (Jiiva), Venkat goes to their college water tank, where Silencer had asked them to come. After boasting about his success in life, Silencer reveals that he wants to know whether Paari won or lost a bet he made with Paari during their college-days which was to see who of the two would become more successful. Then the trio go by car to Ooty, where Paari is believed to be. On their way, they recall their moments with Paari. Paari was a brilliant student, who believed in studying by understanding, while Silencer was involved in meaningless rote learning. Venkat pursues higher studies for his father's ambition of making him an engineer, burying his interest in Wildlife Photography while Senthil studies to improve his poor family's financial status and to get his elder sister married. But Paari studies only to gain knowledge. Paari has a constant tussle with the college's principal, Virumandi Santhanam (Sathyaraj), whom students refer to as "Virus".
One day, when Virus doesn't approve the project of student Paneer Selvam, Paneer commits suicide. Paari tells Virus that he is the cause for the suicide, thus making Virus write letters to the families of Venkat and Senthil. The fury and rage of Virus towards Paari increase when the trio crash Virus's elder daughter Swetha's (Anuya Bhagvath) marriage. He is caught by Virus and his younger daughter Ria (Ileana D'Cruz). Soon, Ria falls for Paari after seeing his kindness. Virus becomes more infuriated and asks Venkat and Senthil to shift to Srivatsan's room, and cut their friendship with Paari. Senthil briefly distances himself from Paari, but they eventually reconcile. Meanwhile the trio pass their exams and Virus challenges Paari that neither of Venkat nor Senthil would get a job in the college's campus placements.
During their final year at IEC, the trio ends up drunk in Virus's house as Paari proposes to Ria. Venkat and Senthil urinate at the entrance of Virus's house and create ruckus. Virus, having noticed Senthil during the act, threatens to expel him or Paari. Senthil attempts suicide and ends up paralysed. Following his recovery, Senthil gets a job at the campus placements, while Venkat goes to his father and tells him of his interest in photography and his father accepts it.
On learning this, an infuriated Virus creates a tough exam paper, to fail Senthil. Ria tells this to Paari, and he and Venkat fetch a copy of the question paper from Virus's office. Virus comes to know of this and expels the trio from IEC. Ria hears this and she tells Virus that his deceased son committed suicide, due to Virus's enforcement on him to pursue engineering. Ria leaves for her hospital. Meanwhile the pregnant Swetha goes into labour. When the ambulance stops due to heavy rain, Paari, Senthil and Venkat help Swetha deliver her baby successfully. Virus informs the trio that they will not be expelled. Paari and Senthil pass their exams while Venkat becomes a wildlife photographer.
Returning to the present, Venkat and Senthil reach Paari's house, where they are shocked to see a different man with the name Paari (S. J. Suryah). Silencer tells them that when his secretary Lara came to Ooty to get the appointment for meeting Kosaksi Pasapugazh, the great scientist, he found Paari in a photograph. They go to Paari's house and ask the other man where their friend is. He tells them that, their friend is not Paari, but Pappu, and that the real Paari made Pappu study engineering under his name. He reveals that Pappu, their friend, is at Dhanushkodi. They go to Coimbatore and get Ria from an unwanted marriage and go to Dhanushkodi. They eventually reunite with their long lost friend, who is requested by Silencer to sign a declaration of defeat on losing the bet. Venkat, Senthil and Ria ask their friend what his real name is. He tells them that it is Kosaksi Pasapugazh. Pasapugazh calls Silencer and reveals to him that he is the world-renowned scientist that Silencer had hoped to create a business deal with, proving Silencer had in fact lost the bet.

Cast

Vijay as Panchavan Pariventhan(Paari)/Pappu/Kosaksi Pasapugazh
Jiiva as Sevarkodi Senthil
Srikanth as Venkat Ramakrishnan
Ileana D'Cruz as Ria Santhanam
Sathyaraj as VIRUmandi Santhanam (Virus)
Sathyan as Srivatsan (Silencer)
Anuya Bhagvath as Swetha Santhanam
Manobala as Bose
Aadukalam Naren as Ramakrishnan
Uma Padmanabhan as Mrs. Ramakrishnan
Indrans as Govindan
Vijay Vasanth as Paneerselvam
S. J. Surya as Panchavan Pariventhan (Guest appearance)
Ajay Rathnam as Panchavan's father
T. M. Karthik as "Price Tag" Rakesh
Rani as Senthil's sister
Balaji Venugopal as ragging senior
Rinson as Millimeter/Manimaran
Shanmugasundaram
Shankar in a special appearance

Production

La Defense Office was one of the highlights in the song "Asku Laska"

Development

Following Gemini Film Circuit's purchase of the remake rights for 3 Idiots in January 2010, there was much speculation in regards to the three title roles essayed by Aamir Khan, R. Madhavan and Sharman Joshi in the original. Gemini Film Circuit approached noted directors Shankar, Vishnuvardhan and S. Dharani to replace Rajkumar Hirani as the director, with the approval from Shankar leading to him being signed. Despite speculation that he was set to pull out from directing his first remake as it would be a step down from his previous film, Enthiran, Shankar stated his commitment in October 2010. He later added that, "he came across 3 Idiots during the making of Endhiran, and it was that moment he decided to break his self-imposed rule – making only original movies - and decided to direct his first remake venture." As Shankar's norm music director, A. R. Rahman couldn't be retained for the project due to his busy schedules. Harris Jayaraj and Yuvan Shankar Raja were approached to compose the soundtrack, with Shankar settling for the former with whom he had worked in the 2005 action film Anniyan earlier. Meanwhile, Manoj Paramahamsa, whose work in Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa and Eeram had been critically acclaimed, was signed on as the cinematographer. Sound designer Resul Pookutty and visual effects designer V. Srinivas Mohan joined the crew, following a successful collaboration in Enthiran.

Casting

The Crystal Palace in Buen Retiro Park, another highlight in the song "Asku Laska"

For the lead role enacted by Aamir Khan, initial reports suggested that Suriya was the front runner, who however dismissed the link citing that his commitments had left him busy. A special screening for the film industry included Vijay, who expressed his desire to work in the film, and was subsequently signed up by Gemini Film Circuits to portray the lead role. However, by mid-December 2010, soon after trial shoots were held, Vijay walked out the film following disputes over his dates, with Surya being labelled as his likely replacement. Reports claimed that talks with Surya failed, since the actor had demanded salary increase and dubbing rights for the Telugu-version of the film. Surya's reasons for refusing the offer was later confirmed not to be true, with Surya himself revealing that he had opted out only because of other film commitments and "did not want to keep Shankar waiting." As a result, Vijay was once again finalised for the role.
The roles of the other two titular characters took considerably longer to confirm. Madhavan was initially approached to reprise his role from the original but made it clear that he was unwilling to be a part of the remake, citing the film had already "gone down in history". Early indications suggested that Udhayanidhi Stalin had replaced him but the claims were false. In November 2010, reports emerged that Vinay Rai or Nakul were set to play the role, however Vinay cited that he refused the project as the role was not as meaty as the other two characters. Consequently, the production house signed Srikanth to play the role, after seeing his performance in Drohi, which had come after several box-office failures for him. Sharman Joshi's role was originally offered to Silambarasan, but after discussions, it was revealed that Silambarasan could not associate himself with the character. Subsequently the role was offered to Siddharth, a protege of Shankar, who also went on to refuse the project. Despite further reports that Arya and Jiiva were being considered, the latter signed on and agreed with Shankar that he would play Joshi's role instead of Madhavan's. The role played by Kareena Kapoor in the original was reported to be played by either Shruti Haasan or Asin. However Ileana D'Cruz was signed on for the film after attempts to cast Katrina Kaif in the film had failed. The college professor's role was given to Sathyaraj, despite early indications that Prakash Raj would be approached. Omi Vaidya was unable to reprise his role from the original and comedian Sathyan Sivakumar was signed on to essay his role, while S. J. Surya signed on to appear in a guest role, portraying the role enacted by Javed Jaffrey. Anuya Bhagvath was signed up for a supporting role.

Filming

The first schedule of filming was held in Ooty, where scenes involving Ileana, Srikanth and Jiiva were shot. During the second schedule scenes involving the lead cast were canned at Forest Research Institute, Dehradun and a car chase at various places in Chennai, while two songs were filmed in London and Buckingham during the third schedule. Some significant parts of the film were shot in Chennai at Sun Studios and the Ampa Skywalk Mall, as well as in the Koyambedu water tank for three days, for which an Akila crane was used. Further filming, including the climax, was held at various locations in Europe, Andamans and Coimbatore. Filming was wrapped-up in October with a song featuring Vijay and Ileana, which was choreographed by Farah Khan. The filming process lasted for eight months.

Soundtrack

Nanban

Original cover

Soundtrack album by Harris Jayaraj

Genre

Feature film soundtrack

Label

Gemini Audio

Producer

Harris Jayaraj

Harris Jayaraj chronology

7aum Arivu
(2011)

Nanban
(2012)

Oru Kal Oru Kannadi
(2012)

The soundtrack and background score was composed by Harris Jayaraj, working with Shankar for the second time after Anniyan (2005), while scoring for a Vijay-starrer for the first time. The soundtrack, consisting of six original songs, was released on 23 December 2011, at Hindusthan College of Arts and Science in Coimbatore, before Jayaraj's concert, Harris: On The Edge, commenced at the same venue. Lyrics were provided by Pa. Vijay, Viveka, Na. Muthukumar and Madhan Karky, the latter two penning lyrics for two songs each. Notably, Karky's lyrics in "Asku Laska" include more than 16 different languages.

Tracklisting
No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"En Frienda Pola"	Vivega	Krish, Suchith Suresan	3:57
2.	"Heartile Battery"	Na. Muthukumar	Hemachandran, Mukesh	5:35
3.	"Asku Laska"	Madhan Karky	Vijay Prakash, Chinmayi, Suvi	6:21
4.	"Enthan Kan Munne"	Madhan Karky	Aalap Raju	2:10
5.	"Irukana"	Pa. Vijay	Vijay Prakash, Javed Ali, Sunidhi Chauhan	5:10
6.	"Nalla Nanban"	Na. Muthukumar	Ramakrishnan Murthy	4:25
Total length:				26:58

Telugu version

Lyrics are Penned by Sirivennela Sitaramasastri, Vanamali, Ramajogayya Sastry. The release of the Telugu version album Snehithudu^{[disambiguation needed]} was held on 19 January in Hyderabad. It was attended by Ram Charan Teja, Vijay, S. Shankar, Ileana, Srikanth, Harris Jayaraj, Sathyaraj, S. J. Surya, Sathyan and Dil Raju. Also present were Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra and Sharman Joshi, who were part of the original film 3 Idiots.

Tracklisting
No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Mana Friendalle"	Krish, Suchith Suresan	3:57
2.	"Heartu lo Battery"	Hemachandran, Mukesh	5:35
3.	"Asku Laska"	Vijay Prakash, Chinmayi, Suvi(Rap)	6:21
4.	"Toli Adugaina Padalede"	Aalap Raju	2:10
5.	"Ileana Chitti Belliana"	Vijay Prakash, Javed Ali, Sayanora Philips	5:10
6.	"Ne Vupiri Ne Sonthama"	Ramakrishnan Murthy	4:25
Total length:			26:58

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
600024.com
Behindwoods
Rediff

The album received positive reviews. IndiaGlitz.com wrote that the music album is "ready to mesmerize you". Behindwoods.com labelled it a "winner all the way", adding that it had "good variety all through the album [...] and ample scope for festivities in the theater". Top10cinema.com wrote that it had three songs that "strike spectacularly with its rich music and commendable lyrics", calling it a "good work by Harris". 600024.com mentioned: "Overall, this Nanban is your well-Known Friend". KollyTalk.com called it "Youthful and refreshing". On the contrary, Pavithra Srinivasan from Rediff wrote that there was "nothing new about the music in Nanban", concluding that Harris Jayaraj had "obviously taken the safe route, sticking to his usual template for most of the songs in this album".

Release

Prior to the release, Nanban was voted the "most expected film" of 2012 through an online public poll conducted by Vikatan. The satellite rights of the film were bagged by STAR Vijay for a huge price of

120 million (US$2.0 million). After being certified with a "U" certificate by the Censor Board, the film was released on 12 January 2012 for Pongal in 925 screens worldwide.
Nanban advance booking opened well in Chennai city and suburbs. It had the highest number of 77 shows in a single day at Mayajaal multiplex in Chennai at that time. The film opened in nearly 625 screens in Tamil Nadu. It was released in 50 screens in Chennai and 31 screens in Hyderabad. It released simultaneously in UK, the US, Malaysia and Singapore. Nanban became the first Tamil film to be released with French subtitles in France. It also became the first film to get exempted from the 30 percent entertainment tax in Tamil Nadu by the new scheme introduced by the Government of Tamil Nadu.
Telugu film distributor Dil Raju bought the theatrical rights of Snehitudu, the Telugu dubbed version of Nanban for Andhra Pradesh market. Snehitudu was released on 26 January 2012.

Critical response

The film opened to extremely positive reviews. Sify called it an "engaging film with noble intentions. It deserves viewing because films like this are hard to find". Behindwoods.com rated the film 3.5/5 and wrote: "Nanban has got more than something for everyone. It is very unlikely that a person finds such a wholesome package unsatisfying. All is absolutely well!" Pavithra Srinivasan from Rediff.com gave the film 3/5 stars, describing it as "the perfect feel-good fare for the festive season, despite minor glitches". Malathi Rangarajan from The Hindu wrote: "Nanban is an enjoyable cocktail of humour with some sentiment and sadness thrown in for that extra appeal. Once again Shankar proves the master craftsman that he is". Anupama Subramanian from Deccan Chronicle gave the film 3/5 stars, while labelling it as a "feel-good film with a larger message and a brilliant feat by Vijay which makes the film a not-to-be-missed one!" Venkateswaran Narayanan from Times of India wrote: "All is well with Nanban because Shankar's retelling of 3 Idiots retains its soul and has its heart in the right place". Zee News wrote: "Nanban is a must watch, grab your tickets now. It’s the best gift Vijay could have given to his diehard fans this Pongal". IndiaGlitz.com named it a "clear entertainer", "a whiff of fresh air from the mindless masala movies" and a welcome change". Rohit Ramachandran of nowrunning.com rated it 3/5 stating that "Nanban is Rajkumar Hirani's 3 Idiots staged and presented by Shankar in a different language with grandeur. The base material is solid and Shankar obediently traces it. Out comes an uplifting entertainer that will draw raves from viewers of all kinds". Oneindia.in gave a positive verdict and wrote, "All is well. It is a Shankar's Sankrathi feast for the audience! Do not hesitate to watch Nanban even if you have seen 3 Idiots". CNN-IBN said that it was "sweet and satisfying". Acclaimed actor Kamal Hassan appreciated Vijay's performance in the movie and lauded the team's effort in making such a good entertainer. At the Internet Movie Database the film stands up with a rating of 7.8 out of 10 stars. Jeevi from Idlebrain.com with regards to the Telugu version Snehithudu commented that "the magic of 3 idiots is missing", and gave 3/5 stars. Indiaglitz stated that Snehithudu was a "passable remake". On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an audience rating of 96% based on nearly 1200 votes.

Box office

India

In Chennai city, the film netted

22.7 million (US$380,000) in its first weekend and 64% of the takings, and

49.5 million (US$830,000) at the end of the first week, staying at first rank. The film accounted for 66% of the takings at the Chennai box office on its second weekend and 64% on its third weekend. The film grossed around

78.9 million (US$1.3 million) in Chennai after seven weeks, out of which about

10 million (US$170,000) came from Sathyam Cinemas multiplex. In Coimbatore and Nilgiris area, Nanban opened in 70 screens and netted

52 million (US$870,000) in the first week. It also got a great opening at the Bangalore box-office, where it was still featured in Top 5 even one month after its release. The film's gross collection after its first week from 4 circuits of Coimbatore was around

55 million (US$920,000), the highest yield since Endhiran. The film completed a 100-day run at the box-office on 20 April 2012.

Overseas

Nanban was released in 7 screens in Australia and grossed $76,580 in its first weekend. Overall it had grossed $110,422. In UK, it collected $173,789 in its first week with a per screen average of $7,241 in 24 theatres. After its 4-week run the film collected £214,735 (

16.6 million) and became the 4th highest grosser in UK. It also secured the first place in the Malaysian box-office in the first week released in 37 screens, and collected a total of $871,959 after a six-week run. It collected a sum of

5.8 million (US$97,000) after 18 days at the Australian box office, whereas it had collected

38.2 million (US$640,000) at the Malaysian box office within the same period.

Awards

Awards	Category	Nominee	Result
Vijay Awards	Best Supporting Actor	Sathyaraj	Won
	Best Comedian	Sathyan	Nominated
	Best Music Director	Harris Jayaraj	Nominated
	Best Art Director	T. Muthuraj	Nominated
	Best Costume Designer	Kunal Rawal/Deepali Noor/Sai	Nominated
	Best Male Playback Singer	Vijay Prakash (Asku Laska)	Nominated
	Best Choreographer	Farah Khan (Irukkaana)	Nominated
	Entertainer of the Year	Vijay	Won
	Favorite Heroine	Ileana D'Cruz	Nominated
	Favorite Film	Nanban	Nominated
	Favorite Director	Shankar	Nominated
Edison Awards	Best Director	Shankar	Nominated
	Best Male Character	Sathyaraj	Nominated
	Best Comedian	Sathyan	Nominated
	Best Background Score	Harris Jayaraj	Nominated
	Best Supportive Actor	Naren	Nominated
	Best Male Playback Singer	Vijay Prakash (Asku Laska)	Nominated
	Best Female Playback Singer	Chinmayi (Asku Laska)	Won
	Best Art Director	T. Muthuraj	Nominated
	Best Editor	Anthony	Nominated
	Best Lyricist	Vivega (Yen Frienda Pola)	Nominated
Ananda Vikatan Awards	Best Actor	Vijay	Won
Ananda Vikatan Awards	Best Costume Designer	Kunal Rawal/Deepali Noor/Sai	Won
2nd South Indian International Movie Awards	Best Actor in a Supporting Role	Satyaraj	Pending
	Best Lyricist	Madhan Karky for "Aska Laska"	Nominated
	Best Female Playback Singer	Chinmayi for "Aska Laska"	Nominated

Thuppakki (English: The Gun) is a 2012 Tamil action thriller film written and directed by AR Murugadoss. It features Vijay and Kajal Aggarwal in the lead roles, Vidyut Jamwal as main antagonist, as well as Jayaram and Sathyan in supporting roles. The film, produced by S. Thanu, features background score and soundtrack composed by Harris Jayaraj with cinematography handled by Santhosh Sivan, who with Thuppakki, introduced the Arri Alexa camera to Indian cinema.
The story revolves around an Indian army intelligence officer from a Mumbai-based Tamil family and the decisions he takes after his life undergoes a sudden turn. The film, which commenced production in December 2011 in Mumbai, was released on 13 November 2012, coinciding with the festival of Diwali. Upon release, the film opened to mostly positive reviews from critics and became the highest grossing film of 2012 in Tamil. The film was also released in Telugu in Andhra Pradesh, where it was also very well received. Murugadoss is remaking the film in Hindi as Holiday, while it is also being remade in Bengali as Game by Baba Yadav.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Marketing
5 Soundtrack
6 Release
7 Accolades
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

Plot

Jagdish (Vijay), a captain in the Indian Army, returns to Mumbai from Kashmir. On his arrival, his parents and younger sisters force him to see Nisha (Kajal Aggarwal), who they chose for him to be married to. At the bride-viewing ceremony, Jagdish makes up excuses to avoid marrying her, which includes commenting about her being old-fashioned. On the contrary, Nisha is a college-level boxer, who is completely modern in her outlook. Jagdish realises this and falls for her, which she reciprocates.
One day, while meeting with his police officer-friend Balaji (Sathyan), Jagdish witnesses the explosion of a bus in which they had travelled. He captures the man, who planted the bomb in that bus, and soon finds out that he is a mere executor, a sleeper cell, whose only role was to plant the bomb. He also discovers that the Islamic terrorist group Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami, which the bomber belongs to, has planned various such attacks in the city in a couple of days. Enlisting the help of his fellow Army men and Balaji, Jagdish manages to thwart these attacks and kill sleeper Cell leader brother and eleven other terrorists.
When the leader of the terrorist group (Vidyut Jamwal) finds out about the role of Jagdish in the failure of the terrorist attack, he begins to target the families of the army men, except Jagdish, by kidnapping someone close to them. When Jagdish realises the plan, he substitutes one of the people to be kidnapped with his younger sister Sanjana (Deepthi Nambiar). Using his pet dog and his sister's dupatta, he manages to reach the terrorists' hideout, rescuing his sister, who was about to be killed after Jagdish's bluff was exposed, and the other victims and eliminating the terrorist personal. Asif Ali, second-in-command of the sleeper-cell is captured and killed by Jagdish.
When this attack fails the terrorist leader decides to target Jagdish himself. He asks Jagdish to surrender to him, or else there would be more terrorist attacks. Jagdish decides to sacrifice his life and hatches a plan with his fellow army men. Jagdish meets the leader in a ship, which has been rigged with a bomb planted by Jagdish's henchman. When he finds out about the leader's plan however, which is to expose Jagdish's army team as terrorists and knowing about a Muslim terrorist in the Indian defence — Kameeruddin (Zakir Hussain), he fights the leader and escapes with him in a boat. After the ship explodes, he kills the leader. The film ends with the suicide of Kameeruddin, and Jagdish and his team returning to Kashmir.

Cast

Vijay as Jagdish, captain of the Indian Army; also a Defense Intelligence Agent (DIA specialist)
Kajal Agarwal as Nisha, a boxer who is Jagdish's love interest
Sathyan as Balaji, Sub Inspector of Bandra, also Jagdish's friend
Vidyut Jamwal as the sleeper cell's leader, the antagonist
Jayaram as V. Ravichandran, a senior to Jagdish
Zakir Hussain as Kameeruddin as a sleeper cell
Deepthi Nambiar as Sanjana, Jagdish's younger sister
Manobala as Nisha's father
Anupama Kumar as Nisha's mother
Akshara Gowda in a special appearance
Md Asif as Asif Ali, the sleeper cell second in Command
Prayas Mann as sleeper cell leader's Brother
Prashant Nair as Noel, Joel's younger brother
Gautham Kurup as the first sleeper cell
Meenakshi in a Special appearance
AR Murugadoss (Special appearance in the song "Google Google")
Santhosh Sivan (Special appearance in the song "Google Google")

Production

Development

In July 2011, sources reported that Vijay and AR Murugadoss would collaborate to make an action film, after completing their respective ongoing projects, Velayudham and 7aum Arivu. Vijay's father S. A. Chandrasekhar was initially going to produce the film, but Kalaipuli S. Thanu took over the project. Although Maalai Nerathu Mazhaithuli was initially considered as the title, the film became titled Thuppakki. National Film Award winners A. Sreekar Prasad and Thotta Tharani, who was making a comeback to Tamil films after a three-years hiatus, and Santhosh Sivan were hired for editing, art direction and cinematography, respectively; all of whom worked on an AR Murugadoss film for the first time.

Casting

Deepika Padukone was first reported to be the female lead. Subsequently, several actresses, including Bollywood actresses Sonam Kapoor, and Priyanka Chopra, who later clarified that she was never approached for the film. Priya Anand, who played the female lead in Vaamanan, Pranitha, and Kingfisher Calendar model Angela Jonsson were rumoured to play the role, with the latter even taking part in a brief photo shoot in Chennai. Kajal Aggarwal was eventually confirmed, while Akshara Gowda was cast to play the second female lead. Gautham Kurup was chosen to play an antagonistic role, while Vidyut Jamwal, who was simultaneously shooting for Ajith Kumar's Billa II, would be playing a role with negative shades. Sathyan, following several collaborations with Vijay, confirmed that he was part of this project, too. Further, Malayalam actor Jayaram also confirmed his presence in this project. Murugadoss denied reports which claimed that Jai was acting in the film, while confirming that he himself would appear in a cameo role. Sarathkumar was rumoured to be acting in the film, however the actor denied the reports. Dubai-based Malayali orthodontist Prasanth Nair was also signed to play a small but important role, making it his acting debut in Tamil cinema.

Filming

According to early reports, filming was to commence at Thiruchendur and continue in Mumbai. Even though it was supposed to start on 26 November 2011, filming began on 5 December in Mumbai. Vijay would appear in a completely different hairstyle as well as a facial makeover. The first schedule, that lasted for 35 days, was completed by January 2012. At Linking Road in Bandra, Mumbai, Vijay acted and operated the camera himself for one scene with cinematographer Santosh Sivan's assistance, which had to be filmed quickly with the unaware public. Sivan commented that it was shot perfectly and decided to retain it in the film. Sivan further told that a major part of the film was being shot in real locations with hidden cameras. He did not use the usual 35 MM camera to shoot the film, but was said to have exploited the latest Arri digital technology, that was introduced in 2011, becoming one of the first persons in the world to make use of the technology.
In March, the unit completed a 10-day shoot in Bangkok for a song sequence, featuring Vijay and Kajal. The second schedule started on 12 April in Mumbai. The third schedule was wrapped up in May 2012, following which only two songs were remaining, both of which had been scheduled to be shot in Thailand. Vijay met with a minor accident during the shoot and hurt his knee. The shooting was stalled following the incident and the actor left to London to undergo treatment. The team then moved on to Pune for canning three songs. One of the songs was shot atop of a train, along with 300 dancers constructed by art director Sunil Babu. The dance sequence, choreographed by Shobi, was shot in the Mumbai Pune Expressway. The crew then left for Switzerland to shoot a romantic number, with Vijay and Kajal Aggarwal, at various locations, for which Sivan was unable to give dates, and the man behind the lens was a popular cameraman of the Hindi film industry, Nutty. The final song shoot took place at DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai, with which the entire filming was wrapped up.

Marketing

Thuppakki's first look poster was leaked on the internet on 30 April 2012, a day prior to its scheduled release on 1 May. The poster, that depicted Vijay holding a cigar in his mouth, led to criticism by social activists for violating the Indian Tobacco Act, which prohibits advertising tobacco products. Murugadoss however defended the poster, explaining that it was only for promotional purposes and added that the film had no such scenes, claiming that even a small sequence featuring Vijay smoking had been deleted from the film.
Murugadoss approached a Mumbai-based trailer specialist for the first official teaser of Thuppakki. The makers confirmed that it would be released on 22 June, coinciding with Vijay's birthday. However, Murugadoss announced that the teaser was to be released on 1 July, ten days later. Upon progression, the teaser and poster launch event was delayed, following an injunction order from the court, which had directed the makers of the film not to use the Thuppakki title in any form.
With the court case coming to an end on 5 October, the first teaser was released on 10 October 2012, a day before the audio launch of the film, the teaser garnering more than 1,000,000 views within a few days on YouTube. It recorded the highest-ever user hits for a Tamil film, breaking the record of Neethaane En Ponvasantham and Billa 2. The teaser was also highly anticipated on social networking sites like Twitter and soon became the most searched keyword at Google India. The teaser of the song Google Google was released in late October 2012, receiving positive response from viewers. The theatrical trailer was released on 26 October and received a positive response, fetching over 600,000 hits on YouTube and over 7,000 likes in three days.

Soundtrack

Main article: Thuppakki (soundtrack)

Harris Jayaraj composed the soundtrack, teaming up with AR Murugadoss for the third time. The soundtrack album consists of 7 tracks. The lyrics were written by Na. Muthukumar, Vivega and Madhan Karky, who had written over 35 pallavis for one of the songs. Reports stating that Senegalese American R&B singer Akon would sing the title song of the film were dismissed. Vijay, seven years after his last attempt at playback singing, and Andrea Jeremiah lent their voices for the track Google Google, a party number in the film. Though Harris Jayaraj had announced in August that Thuppakki's music launch would take place the following month, the audio was eventually released on 10 October 2012.

Tracklist
No.	Title	Lyrics	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Google Google"	Madhan Karky	Vijay, Andrea Jeremiah, Joe, Krishna Iyer	06:07
2.	"Antarctica"	Madhan Karky	Vijay Prakash, Krish, Devan, Rajeev	04:58
3.	"Kutti Puli Kootam"	Viveka	Hariharan, Tippu, Narayanan, Sathyan, Ranina Reddy	06:06
4.	"Poi Varava"	Pa. Vijay	Karthik, Chinmayi	05:46
5.	"Vennilave"	Na. Muthukumar	Hariharan, Bombay Jayashri	04:47
6.	"Alaikaa Laikka"	Pa. Vijay	Javed Ali, Sayanora Phillip, Sharmila	05:01
7.	"Jagadish on Mission (Theme)"		Instrumental	03:24
Total length:				36:12

Release

The distribution rights for Thuppakki in Tamil Nadu were bought by Gemini Film Circuit. Several distributors including Bellamkonda Suresh, Geetha Films and Suresh Films were competing for the Telugu dubbing rights, with SVR eventually purchasing the rights for

15 crore, the second highest in terms of obtaining the Telugu rights after Kamal Hasan's Dasavatharam. ATMUS Entertainment had reportedly paid the highest price for a Vijay film to distribute the film in North America. It was distributed in France by BR Films International in more than 10 centres. The satellite rights of the film were purchased by STAR Vijay. Thuppakki was originally passed with a U/A certificate from the Indian censor board, but "slight alterations" were later made to the film to receive a U certificate. The film was initially due to release on 9 November 2012, but was postponed by four days to 13 November, coinciding with Diwali day. The film released in more than 1500 screens, becoming the widest release for a Vijay film.
Upon release, an Islamic group violently protested against the film, claiming that it portrayed Muslims as terrorists and traitors. Murugadoss, S. Thanu and Vijay's father S. A. Chandrasekhar later tendered an open apology to representatives of 23 different Muslim outfits, and agreed to delete the scenes to which objections were raised, after activists had gathered near Vijay's residence at Neelankarai and raised slogans against him and the film in Arabic and Urdu.

Reception

L Romal M Singh of DNA India stated that the film "is different. The difference is visible in every shot, every dialogue spoken and the amazing attention to detail. What stands out most in this incredibly entertaining film is that Tamil films have finally come of age – in so many interesting ways". Behindwoods.com rated the film 3.5 out of 5 stars, calling it "a fully loaded festival package from Vijay, Murugadoss and co". Deccan Chronicle rated it 3.5/5 and cited: "Thuppaki has come out as an action thriller that depends on mind games and smart plans rather than bloody fights. This is Murugados’s film in its true sense and Vijay adds immense value to it by his performance". IBNLive named it a "well written Tamil film that engages the audience" and added that it had "the energy of Vijay and intellect of AR Murugadoss".
Manoj Kumar of International Business Times wrote: "Director AR Murugadoss makes sure that he does not regress with any of his films. He frequently comes out with a different plot and narration style, and "Thuppaki is a brilliant example of this". Sify's critic stated that Murugadoss "has made a complete entertainer that blends with Vijay’s mass image, thanks to his racy script", calling it a "perfect Diwali entertainer". Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu commented: "One of the first promos of the film, with snapshots of Mumbai, lurking terror, the antagonist threatening Vijay to which he responds 'I am waiting' went viral on social networks. The wait, clearly, has been worth it for the audience. And the man who’s probably having the last laugh is Murugadoss". OneIndia rated the film 3 out of 5 and said, "Vijay is stupendous in the role of an army officer. He brings a lot of energy to his character and thrills the audience in action sequences. Kajal Aggarwal looks good. Vidyut Jamwal has done decent job and Satyan is good". Haricharan Pudipeddi of The New Indian Express said, "Most of the characters are made to look dumb as Vijay steals all the attention. Kajal's role as a boxer, which she squanders with her cliched performance, is definitely a turn off in the film. Jayaram and Sathyan, who're supposed to make us laugh, fail miserably in the process" and concluded, "In essence, "Thuppakki" has the energy of Vijay and intellect of A.R. Murugadoss".
J Hurtado of Twitch Film called the film's cinematography "astonishingly good" and added that, "Murugadoss and Vijay have never worked on a better-looking movie", but called the film "an enjoyable, though largely forgettable film". Kanchana Devi of Truthdive rated the film 3.75/5, calling it "a perfect action entertainer and a great treat for Diwali from Vijay and A.R.Murugadoss". Indiaglitz said, "Murugadoss has packaged 'Thuppakki' in such a manner that Vijay's mass image keeps the film afloat and he has ensured that there is everything for a (Vijay) fan to look forward to." N. Venkateshwaran of The Times of India said, "'Thuppakki' will definitely be picked up by a big Bollywood star for a remake. For, the gun was bang on target". In contrast, Vivek Ramz from in.com rated it 3 out of 5 and said that it "doesn't meet the huge expectations it had created for itself", calling it "another regular commercial film which entertains in bits and pieces". Pavithra Srinivasan of Rediff rated the film 2.5 out of 5, saying "Vijay fans will find plenty to rejoice in this subdued avatar of their star, but audiences who seek intelligence in their movies will find it rather dull".
The Telugu version also met with positive reviews from critics. Jeevi of idlebrain.com gave 3.25/5, naming it a "stylish and slick entertainer", going on to add: "The director has stuck with the main theme and didn’t dilute it for the sake of masala. It is a subject that has pan-India appeal and it’s an intelligent game between two individuals who are working for and against the country". Mahesh K S of 123telugu.com gave 3.5/5 claiming that it was "one film which has everything going right for it. A stylish Vijay, some exceptional thrilling moments and edge of the seat action makes this film surely worth a watch." Oneindia Entertainment stated: "Vijay has improved his performance and body language to suit the Telugu nativity. Because of the director's exceptional ideas, the action scenes, kidnap scenes and mind games worked out well. Kajal Aggarwal did not have much scope to perform but did her part well, as she was almost limited to dance sequences. Vidyut Jamwal did a very good job as a bad guy. Thuppakki is a good action-thriller".

Box office

India

On the opening day, Thuppakki netted around

92.5 million (US$1.5 million) in Tamil Nadu box office alone. It collected a sum of

456 million (US$7.6 million) in Tamil Nadu, and

653.2 million (US$11 million) worldwide by its first week. In Chennai city alone, the film netted

48.3 million (US$810,000) in its first week with an average theatre occupancy of 99%. The second week witnessed an occupancy of 90% in the city and netted around

94.1 million (US$1.6 million) creating a new record for Vijay and taking a distributor share of

46.0 million (US$770,000) in 13 days. It still stood in the number one position by the third week resulting in a total collection of

113.6 million (US$1.9 million). After a long run for 8 weeks at the Chennai box office, the film netted

134 million (US$2.2 million), the second highest figure among Tamil films.
Ten days after the release, Thuppakki was successfully released in 31 screens in Mumbai. It was bought for a record price in Karnataka by a leading distributor, and opened well at the box office there. The opening 3-day collection from 8 multiplexes of Bangalore alone netted at

3180000 (US$53,000) Thuppakki was released in 126 screens in Kerala and raked in

40 million (US$670,000) in just two days with a distributor share of

20 million (US$330,000), which is a record for any Tamil release. Many of the centres witnessed police charging before the shows and were forced to go for a fifth show on the first day which resulted in almost 600 shows in a single day: a record number of screenings for any film in the state. The film reached the

1 billion (US$17 million) mark in 11 days of its release. In its financial results for the quarter ending 31 December 2013, Eros announced a domestic net revenue of

1.8 billion (US$30 million) for Thuppakki.

Overseas

In its first weekend, Thuppakki earned £134,280 (

11.8 million) at the UK Box office. The film has collected

50 lakh in the second weekend on 11 screens. The total collection of the film in the UK and Ireland region was

1.85 crore after the fourth weekend. In the US, the film collected $320,349 (

17.6 million) on 36 screens for the first week. The per screen average stands at $8,899 (

488,000) and the Telugu version earned

846,000 from nine screens. At the end of its second week, it once again topped the collection chart by adding

7.5 million to its 13-day total

2.51 crore ($4,52,734). In Australia, Thuppakki grossed A$80,264 (

46,73,000) on 6 screens and the average per screen collection of the film stands out at A$1656 after two weeks. The film continued to do good business at the International box office in its second week. It performed well in Malaysia, where it grossed around

87.7 million (US$1.5 million) at the box office after 3 weeks.

Accolades

Award	Category	Nominee	Result
60th Filmfare Awards South	Best Film	Thuppakki	Nominated
	Best Director	A. R. Murugadoss	Nominated
	Best Actor	Vijay	Nominated
	Best Supporting Actor	Vidyut Jamwal	Nominated
	Best Music Director	Harris Jayaraj	Nominated
	Best Lyricist	Madhan Karky (Google Google)	Nominated
	Best Female Playback Singer	Andrea Jeremiah (Google Google)	Nominated
7th Vijay Awards	Entertainer of the Year	Vijay	Won
	Favorite Film	Thuppakki	Won
	Favorite Director	AR Murugadoss	Won
	Favorite Hero	Vijay	Won
	Favorite Heroine	Kajal Aggarwal	Won
	Favorite Song	Google Google	Won
	Best Film	Thuppakki	Nominated
	Best Director	A R Murugadoss	Nominated
	Best Actor	Vijay	Nominated
	Best Actress	Kajal Aggarwal	Nominated
	Best Villain	Vidyut Jamwal	Nominated
	Best Editor	A. Sreekar Prasad	Nominated
	Best Art Director	Sunil Babu	Nominated
	Best Choreographer	Shobi (Antartica)	Nominated
	Best Choreographer	Sridar (Alaikka Laikka)	Nominated
	Best Stunt Director	Kechcha	Nominated
2nd South Indian International Movie Awards	Best Film	S. Thanu	Nominated
	Best Director	AR Murugadoss	Nominated
	Best Actor	Vijay	Nominated
	Best Actress (Critics)	Kajal Aggarwal	Won
	Best Actor in a Negative Role	Vidyut Jamwal	Won
	Best Comedian	Jayaram	Nominated
	Best Male Playback Singer	Vijay	Nominated
	Best Music Director	Harris Jeyaraj	Won
	Best Dance Choreographer	Shobhi	Nominated
	Best Fight Choreographer	Kecha	Won
4th Edison Awards	Best Director	A.R. Murugadoss	Nominated
	Best Actor	Vijay	Nominated
	Best Music Director	Harris Jayaraj	Nominated
	Best DOP	Santosh Sivan	Nominated
	Best Editor	Sreekar Prasad	Won
	Best Producer	Kalaipuli S. Dhanu	Won
	Best Villain	Vidyut Jamwal	Nominated
	Best Lyricist	Madhan Karky (Google Google)	Won
	Best Screenplay	A.R. Murugadoss	Nominated
	Best Choreographer	Shobi (Antartica)	Nominated
	Best Female Playback Singer	Andrea Jeremiah (Google Google)	Nominated
	Best Character Role Female	Deepthi	Nominated
Cosmopolitan People's Choice Awards	Best Actor - Tamil	Vijay	Won
Cosmopolitan People's Choice Awards	Best Actress - Tamil	Kajal Agarwal	Won
Ananda Vikatan Award	Best Actor	Vijay	Won
Ananda Vikatan Award	Best Choreography	Shobi	Won
CineMAA Awards	Best Actor - Female (Tamil)	Kajal Agarwal	Won
Chennai Times Film Awards	Best Film	Thuppakki	Pending
	Best Director	A. R. Murugadoss	Pending
	Best Actor	Vijay	Pending
	Best Actor in a Negative Role	Vidyut Jamwal	Pending
	Best Screenplay	A. R. Murugadoss	Pending

Plot

The movie begins with Sivan (Mohanlal), a Madurai-based don, being cornered by a gang while taking his pregnant wife (Poornima Jayaram) to the hospital. He manages to thwart the gang, following which he adopts his slain driver's son Shakthi. Shakthi witnessed his father being killed by a police officer during the fight, which induces a hatred for the police in him to such an extent that he does not tolerate others wearing a khaki shirt or even dreaming of becoming a police officer, including his friend Gopal (Soori), who aspires to join the police when he grows up.
Several years later, Shakthi, now a young man (Vijay), has become Sivan's most trusted aide, assisting him in his criminal activities and also doubling up as his bodyguard and driver. His aversion for the police has not waned, even rejecting a woman named Shanthi (Kajal Aggarwal), for whom he had an infatuation after witnessing her admonishing two female police constables (Jangiri Madhumitha and Vidyullekha Raman) taking a bribe until he found out that she is a police inspector herself. Life goes smoothly for Sivan and Shakthi until the new police commissioner for Madurai (Pradeep Rawat) takes charge. The commissioner takes Sivan to the outskirts of Madurai, threatens him to quit his nefarious activities or else face arrest, following which he leaves him there. This incident leaves Sivan humiliated, prompting him to force Shakthi to join the police to save his crime syndicate and prove the commissioner's word's wrong (A policeman can think like a criminal, but a criminal can never think like a policeman). Shakthi, due to his hatred for the police, deliberately fails the exam and physical tests required to become a police officer, but still ends up becoming a police officer due to Sivan's "backroom dealing". Shakthi reluctantly takes up the job as Assistant Commissioner, giving Sivan and his henchmen a free rein to perform their criminal activities. However, after witnessing a mass scale destruction caused by Sivan and his gang, which led to the death of several innocent people, including children and mothers, being admonished by Shanthi for showing disrespect for the police profession, and witnessing the assault of a woman (Meenal) (who had come to the police station to lodge a complaint against Sivan for being responsible for the death of her husband due to the destruction) at the hands of Sivan's gang, he changes gears and decides to become an honest and upright police officer. He lodges Sivan's henchmen in prison, and tries to convince Sivan to give up his criminal activities, which does not go well with him, forcing them to part ways.
Undaunted by Sivan disowning him, Shakthi decides to rid Madurai of Sivan's influence within one night by launching Operation Clean. The operation proves to be a success, with most of Sivan's henchmen ending up in jail when the night is over. This angers Sivan, who tries to get Shakthi removed from the police force by using a minister named Aadhi Kesavam (Sampath Raj), who was also adopted by Sivan as a young boy. However, this proves counterproductive; Shakthi is instead promoted to Deputy Commissioner. Sivan then reacts by not inviting Shakthi for his daughter Mahalakshmi's (Niveda Thomas) wedding, a gesture which makes Shakthi upset, as he is very fond of Mahalakshmi. Mahalakshmi too supports her father until she is assaulted by her new father-in-law (R. K) (who had been cheated and insulted by Sivan ten years ago), forcing her to call Shakthi, who immediately rushes over and beats up her father-in-law. When Sivan finds out however, he again insults Shakthi, telling him to stay away from his family, despite Mahalakshmi's pleas. Shakthi is still not daunted by Sivan's insults and later thwarts Sivan's illegal land grab to construct a factory. Meanwhile, Shakthi and Shanthi fall in love.
Later, a lorry owned by Sivan rams into Shakthi's car while he is driving. Shakthi survives with minor injuries and then traces down who sent the lorry to kill him, knowing that his adopted father would never try to kill him, despite their stand-off. He soon finds out who sent the lorry: it was Aadhi. Aadhi has plans to kill Sivan; he was the son of the police officer who killed Shakthi's father. A young Aadhi witnessed Sivan murdering his father after the latter had killed Shakthi's father, which prompted him to attempt to murder Sivan. This failed, and he ended up being adopted by Sivan instead. He decided to bide his time for his revenge, instead using Sivan's influence to become a minister, following which he decided to take his revenge by subtle means, all of which were thwarted by Shakthi in his efforts to thwart Sivan. Aadhi then plans to ensure that Sivan ends up killing Shakthi by using Sivan's son Vignesh (Mahat Raghavendra). Vignesh is made to instigate riots in Madurai at the words of Aadhi. Aadhi's ultimate plan is to kill Vignesh and put the blame on Shakthi, who will end up being killed by Sivan in retaliation, which will allow him to finish off Sivan. Shakthi, who is aware of Aadhi's plan, arrests Vignesh and locks him up in a hut, with his friend Sub-Inspector Gopal (Soori) made to guard the hut and take care of Vignesh. Despite Shakthi's pleas however, Vignesh refuses to believe that he is being made as a pawn in Aadhi's plans. He manages to escape from the hut after knocking out Gopal, and then calls Aadhi for help. Aadhi comes over to the place where Vignesh is hiding from Shakthi, and kills him in front of Shakthi's eyes.
Shakthi decides to avenge Vignesh's murder by tracking down Aadhi in order to kill him. When he is about to attack him however, he is kicked in the chest by Sivan, who is also present. It appears that Sivan is on Aadhi's side until Aadhi mentions that Shakthi killed Vignesh, which causes Sivan, who knows that Shakthi would never kill his foster brother, to turn against Aadhi. Sivan and Shakthi reconcile and then team up to finally kill Aadhi.
The movie ends with a now-reformed Sivan asking Shakthi to arrest him for his misdemeanours, a request to which he reluctantly agrees.

Cast

Mohanlal as Sivan
Vijay as Shakthi
Kajal Aggarwal as Shanthi
Mahat Raghavendra as Vignesh
Niveda Thomas as Mahalakshmi
Soori as Gopal
Sampath Raj as Aadhi Kesavan
Pradeep Rawat as DC
R. K
Thambi Ramaiah
Poornima Bhagyaraj as Sivan's Wife
Vidyullekha Raman
Ravi Mariya as Paandi
Jangiri Madhumitha
Pandi as Murugesan
Azhagam Perumal
Joe Malloori as Veera Paandi
Surekha Vani as a Nun
Meenal
Imman Annachi as Exam Supervisor
Vinodhini
Muthuraman as Muthu
L. B. Sriram as Astrologer
Meesai Rajendran as Inspector who is beaten by young Sakthi
V. I. S. Jayapalan as Periyavar
Stunt Silva as Royapuram Guna
Saran as Young Sakthi
Sri Ram as Young Aadhi Kesavan
Jiiva (Special appearance)
Jithan Ramesh (Special appearance)
R. T. Neason (Special appearance)
Scarlett Mellish Wilson (Special appearance)

Production

Upon the completion of Velayudham (2011), Vijay announced his next project to be with R. T. Neason, who had worked in Velayudham as an assistant to director Jayam Raja. The project however commenced only two years later, after Vijay completed three other films. Neason described Jilla as a "Madurai-based movie" and also revealed that right from 2009, he had this story line about two powerful characters and their emotional interaction, making it his second directorial after Muruga (2007). Vijay who had several collaborations with R. B. Choudary decided to produce the film. Vairamuthu was chosen to pen the lyrics for a song in Jilla, who would be writing a song for a Vijay-starrer after 12 years. Mohanlal liked the script and accepted the film. Master Raju Sundaram will be choreographing the dance sequences in the film.
Nisha Agarwal was rumored to be performing in the film, but she denied these rumors on Twitter, stating that she had not been approached for a film role. Kajal Aggarwal and Poornima Bhagyaraj were also slated to perform in the film. Gautam Kurup was signed up as the second antagonist. Niveda Thomas said that she would be playing the daughter of Mohanlal's character and sister of Vijay's character. Due to clash of dates, cinematographer Natarajan Subramaniam was replaced by R. Ganesh. During a photoshoot with the main cast, Nesan announced that filming would take place in Madurai, Chennai and Andhra Pradesh, while songs would be filmed overseas.
The opening ceremony for the film was held on March 11, 2013 at R. B. Choudary's Chennai office. The first schedule of film shooting took off on May 13 in Madurai and Karaikudi with Mohanlal and Poornima Bhagyaraj. Vijay was reported to join by the end of the month, but this didn't materialise. For the next schedule the film crew shifted to a Chennai-based studio where large sets resembling the city of Madurai were build up for the film. In September 2013, it was reported that Vijay and Kajal Aggarwal would be playing police officers in the film.
The fourth schedule of the film was supposed to start on August 14. However, the shooting got cancelled due to heavy rain. In October it was reported that 80% of the film had been completed with only the song sequences remaining.
Some reports claim that the producers are planning to remake the movie in Telugu, instead of dubbing it, with Ram Charan reprising Vijay's role and Chiranjeevi reprising Mohanlal's role.

Soundtrack

Main article: Jilla (soundtrack)

Release

The satellite rights of the film were bagged by Sun TV. The film was a "U" certificate by the Indian Censor Board.

Critical reception

Jilla received mostly positive reviews from critics. Sify stated "Jilla is masala entertainment and a full course meal that leaves you with a smile on your face", calling it "a perfect outing with your family this festival season". The Times of India gave 3.5 stars out of 5 and stated "As far as commercial films are concerned, Jilla is definitely assured filmmaking", while adding, "the main issue with Jilla is that it is overlong. Neason, probably in an effort to make it a wholesome entertainer, keeps packing in scenes oblivious to the running time. So, we have an unwarranted sub-plot involving Sakthi's sister and forcefully fitted songs which only make the film lengthy".
Indiaglitz gave 3.25/5 and stated "Pure family entertainer and movie will not disappoint you". Behindwoods gave 2.75 out of 5 and stated, "The charismatic screen presence of Vijay and Mohanlal, few enjoyable musical tracks and comedy scenes and power packed action sequences mark Neason’s Jilla that travels on a standard template and satiates Vijay’s fans". Bangalore Mirror gave 3.5 out of 5 and called it "a perfect festival film that has all the trappings of a blockbuster". tikkview.com gave 3.5 out of 5 and they wrote that "Real mass entertainer. Go for MohanLal and Vijay".

Vijay Films

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