Anniyan

<p>Ramanujam “Ambi” Parthsarthy, a straightforward from , , expects everyone to follow the law and prosecutes those who violate it, but his efforts are unsuccessful due to circumstantial evidence favouring the accused. His efforts to raise civic awareness go unacknowledged due to general lack of seriousness and widespread corruption. Ambi’s suppressed anger manifests as an called Anniyan, a -themed vigilante, who seeks out corrupt and indifferent individuals to eliminate them. Anniyan creates a website, where he compiles a list of wrongdoers and kills them using punishments described in the ancient scripture . Ambi secretly loves his neighbor Nandini, a medical student and an aspiring singer, but never expresses his feelings due to fear of rejection. When he gets the courage to propose her during the annual with the help of his friend Chari, she rejects him as she cannot bear his overbearing nature, constant complaining and nitpicking. Distraught, Ambi attempts suicide, almost drowning himself before having second thoughts. He subsequently develops another personality named Remo, a metrosexual fashion model. Nandini becomes smitten with Remo and falls in love with him, and their marriage is eventually fixed. While purchasing a plot of land for her , Nandini undervalues the property to evade . Ambi, who accompanies her to the government office, refuses to help her. Later, when Nandini and Remo are on a date in a hotel, Remo transforms into Anniyan and attempts to punish her for corruption. As Anniyan is about to kill her, Nandini calls out for Ambi and Anniyan reverts to Ambi, who collapses and loses consciousness. Nandini takes Ambi to , where he is diagnosed with . Through , Vijaykumar, the chief psychiatrist, uncovers Ambi’s past. When Ambi was ten years old, he witnessed the accidental death of his younger sister Vidya due to civic apathy. The incident left a deep emotional scar, which was the reason for his lofty ideals. Vijaykumar realises that although Anniyan and Remo know about Ambi, albeit as a separate person, Ambi is oblivious to their existence within him. Vijaykumar declares that Remo will cease to exist if Nandini reciprocates Ambi’s feelings, but Anniyan will cease to exist only when society reforms. Nandini accepts Ambi’s love and Remo disappears. Meanwhile, Prabhakar and Chari investigate the murders committed by Anniyan. In disguises, they discover clues left behind by Anniyan, which are the names of the punishments meted out to victims. Prabhakar is personally determined to punish Anniyan as one of Anniyan’s victims, Chockalingam, an errant catering contractor with the , was his elder brother. In a dramatic publicity stunt, Anniyan admits to the murders when he appears amidst the public and the press. Anniyan explains the rationale behind the murders and adds that only when every Indian is responsible and sincere can the country can prosper on par with developed nations. His methods draw both praise and criticism. Prabhakar tries to catch Anniyan, but he escapes. On investigating the phone records and of Anniyan’s internet activity, as well as analysing the security footage of Anniyan’s appearance, Prabhakar realises that Anniyan is Ambi. Prabhakar arrests and brutally tortures Ambi till he is almost dead. The near-death experience and pain trigger Anniyan’s reappearance. Ambi’s personality alternates between himself and Anniyan; he brutally subdues Prabhakar as Anniyan while begging for mercy as Ambi. Chari secretly records Prabhakar’s torture of Ambi and presents it as evidence of Ambi’s mental state during his trial, while Vijaykumar also reveals Ambi’s diagnosis. Ambi is acquitted, but is directed to undergo in a mental hospital and will be eligible for release when cured. When Ambi is released two years later, his rigid adherence to protocol has diminished and he appears more open and accommodating. He marries Nandini. While travelling on a train during their honeymoon, Ambi notices a man drinking among fellow passengers, who also happened to be lineworker responsible for his younger sister’s death when he was caught drinking at work. Moving himself and Nandini away from the man, Ambi secretly throws him off the train to his death but hides the incident from Nandini, revealing that he and Anniyan now maintain a . During the making of his directorial debut starring in early 2001, director had conceived a titled . A futuristic set in the 22nd century , the film was to star and . However, after completing a photo-shoot featuring the two, the production was shelved due to various reasons, including Haasan’s unavailability of dates and creative differences with the director. Shankar postponed the project indefinitely and made the film, (2003). When the post-production work of was underway, Shankar was awaiting the return of its composer , who was then outside India, to complete the background score. In the meantime, Shankar had an idea for a storyline and called , who expressed enthusiasm for the subject. As a common man, so many happenings in society disturb me. These leave scars on my mind. In fact, they are my creative spur. I react to social happenings on an imaginative plane. Following the release of in August 2003, Shankar began work on his next directorial venture entitled . It was initially thought to be Shankar’s pet project revived with a new title, but this was later proven not to be correct. Shankar said the film was his “dream project” and disclosed that it would be a racy, fantasy-thriller. When questioned on how the idea behind the film had come to him, the director revealed, “The seeds of all my movies were sown when I was young, long before I started making movies. So many things disturbed me, and these stayed with me. Those were the seeds. I make films based on them.” With the highest production value among Tamil films of its time, the film was touted to be the director’s and was labelled “the most eagerly awaited film of the year” by the media. The film deals with a person having , commonly known as “multiple personality disorder” (MPD) or “split personality syndrome”. It was compared to , released two months before, as it also focused on a character with the same syndrome. To portray the lead character, Shankar needed a performer who could play an . He chose Vikram as he felt that the actor, in addition to being a performer, had the image of an action hero. While his casting was made public in a November 2003 news report announcing the project’s inception, the director revealed that Vikram was added to the cast in mid-2003 and refuted theories that the actor’s casting was to capitalise on his new-found popularity following his success at the , where he won the for his performance in the film (2003). Stating that Vikram was selected for the lead role months before the theatrical release of , Shankar added, “I don’t look at actors that way.” He further remarked that Vikram was the “life and soul” of . The heroine role of a “devoted Iyengar Brahmin girl” was originally offered to , who was too busy to accommodate production dates. After months of waiting for her call sheet, Shankar eventually offered the role to . Expressing hope that it would be “an important movie” in her career, Sadha accepted the offer, working on the film for 120 days, adding, “I have a major role to play in . There are few heavy portions involving me in the movie that I have given my b-” She considered being a part of a Shankar film, especially during the early stages of her career, as a “god’s gift” and a “once-in-a-lifetime experience”. However, when offered similar roles following the film’s success, she refused to be and stated, “I am now looking for roles where my creative potential is tapped. I don’t want to be part of such cinema where all one has to do is dance around trees.” , , and Nassar appear in supporting roles. Mohan Vaidhya, a carnatic vocalist and occasional actor, plays a minuscule role as Sadha’s father Krishna. was approached to play Vikram’s mother; she rejected the offer, stating, “I am too young to do a screen mom and too old to be a heroine!” , , , and make cameo appearances as delinquent citizens. Haneefa played an indifferent car owner who refuses to help an accident victim as he does not want his “brand new car” to be soiled with blood. Following Haneefa’s death in February 2010, Vikram recalled the actor’s appearance in the film and said, “Though he’d come only in a few scenes no one could miss him. For roles that have some ambiguity about whether it’s a good guy or a bad guy, he is one of the best choices. Until the end, one cannot really guess if he’ll end up being good or bad.” Comedian and character artiste played an unnamed wastrel and alcoholic who extorts money from his ageing parents for his expenses and is considered by Anniyan to be a liability to society. Charle was instructed by Shankar, “People should see only the character. Only later should they realise that it was Charle.” The role of the younger Ambi was played by child actor alias Viraj. When he came to the recording studio to voice his lines, he was accompanied by his father , a singer and dubbing artiste. Shankar recognised Surendar and asked him to lend his voice for Nedumudi Venu as the latter was a . In the 2004 comedy film , which featured Sadha in the female lead, played the second lead role of a “naughty” Brahmin girl. Shankar, apparently impressed with Kanika’s performance in the film, asked her to attend a voice t- When the film-makers preferred Kanika’s accent and modulation among the thirty females whose voices were tested, she was selected to dub for Sadha’s Brahmin role. The film was produced by under his own film production and distribution company ‘Oscar Films’ (presently ‘Aascar Films’). The screenplay was written by Shankar and the film had dialogue written by writer . Shankar retained , his from , to handle the set design; the scenes were edited by . While the action sequences were orchestrated by and assisted by , the dance sequences were choreographed by , Kalyan and Ahmed Khan. Film institute student Prabhu Raja Chozhan, who would later turn director with (2013), joined Shankar as his protégé and worked as his assistant. Shankar, who grew up admiring the works of cinematographer in films like (1987), (1988) and (1989), desired to collaborate and was in talks with him to handle the photography. While Sreeram was intent on working in , he could not accept the offer due to prior commitments. It was initially reported in the media that Sreeram had been recruited; however, Shankar chose as the , impressed with his work in (2004). Manikandan had earlier collaborated with Shankar when he shot the music video of the song “Secret of Success” in . Manikandan gave six months of bulk dates for the project; but, when the production was troubled by delays, Shankar demanded three more months to complete the film. Manikandan walked out in October 2004 citing scheduling conflicts and Shankar replaced him with . During the stage of , the film’s cinematographer was temporarily unavailable and his then-assistant Ravi Varman handled the camera to film ‘s makeup t- Subsequently, Varman nurtured a desire to work with Shankar. Before Shankar commenced work on , Varman expressed his desire to work in the film and was hopeful of landing the assignment. He was disappointed when Shankar recruited Manikandan for the project. However, when Manikandan abandoned the project after completing almost half the film, Shankar asked Varman to shoot the remaining portions of the film. Varman had committed to work in director ‘s next film, work on which was scheduled to begin shortly; he dropped out of it to accept Shankar’s offer and termed working in “a dream come true”. The film credits both Manikandan and Ravi Varman as cinematographers in title credits. I observe a lot in life and it helps perform better. Illnesses like MPD have a clinical history and you will have to stick to it to avoid an ‘atypical’ performance. I studied the literature on MPD and was clear about retaining the identity of each character — be it the proverbial Ambi, the rampaging Anniyan or the cool Remo. Vikram allotted 18 months and 190 days of his call sheet for the film, including 165 days of bulk dates spread across six months. Speaking on the extent of his involvement in the filmmaking process, Vikram said, “Before beginning the film, I was totally involved in the research and preparation, but once on the sets, I go by what the director says.” He further clarified that he discussed every shot with Shankar, went for re-takes where necessary to make the scenes better, and gave suggestions, but left the “ultimate verdict” to the director. Disclosing that, among the three shades to his character, he found playing Ambi to be the toughest, he reasoned, “Because as a hero you are not used to being a wimp on screen. It’s difficult digesting getting beaten up.” In contrast, being a graduate in English literature, he found playing Remo much easier and more in his comfort zone. In an interview with , Vikram spoke of the challenges in portraying all three characters while wearing the same costumes. He said, “I love such challenges. […] Although the costume defined each of the three characters in , there were scenes where Ambi would suddenly become Remo and Remo would become Anniyan. There I made it dramatic to bring out each character.” He credited his wife Shailaja Balakrishnan, a , for helping him in fleshing out the character of Ambi, a person who has multiple personality disorder. In a conversation with film critic , Shailaja recalled the times the film was being made and spoke of Vikram, saying, “I felt we should live in two houses. It’s not easy to live with a man who can get that eccentric, an actor who wants to be that difficult on himself. I wouldn’t say he becomes the character, but there’s definitely some kind of internalisation.” Vikram confessed that he had a tough time during the film’s making as playing different characters affected him and he found himself going mad. He added that he would take a break after a 15-day shoot and watch the pigeons on his terrace as a way of dealing with the pressure. Vikram grew a tummy to portray Ramanujam while he sported a “macho look” for Anniyan. He also grew his hair long in preparation for his role and rejected other film offers to maintain the continuity in his looks. Together with his character looks and those that he sported in the song sequences, Vikram appears in the film in 18 different getups. Vikram’s look in the film was created by make-up artiste . For those parts that show him as Remo, he coloured his hair in streaks of and . Unwilling to reveal his ‘new look’ until the film was ready, Vikram avoided the media despite winning the aforementioned National Award for the year 2003. Meanwhile, Sadha’s make-up and hair styling were done by Mumbai-based celebrity stylist Ojas M. Rajani. The film was officially launched with a traditional and on 5 March 2004 at , . The studio was decorated with life-sized stills showing Vikram in three distinct looks, “a hunter, a pious ‘ ‘ and a bubbling youth”; this led the media to speculate that Vikram would be playing either a triple role or a character with three shades. The film’s caption was ‘He who comes from hell is not afraid of hot ashes’. During the launch function, Shankar expressed hope of completing the film in six months and releasing the film on 12 November 2004, coinciding with the festival. However, the production, which began shortly afterwards in March 2004, was marred by several delays and took 14 months to complete. The film was shot in , , , , , , and . The film stars a scene at the . The is a week-long music festival which commemorates the 18th-century saint-composer , revered as one of the greatest composers of , and is held annually at his resting place in , Thanjavur. With the use of sets, the art department recreated the near in Tamil Nadu. For filming the scene, the crew recreated a performance of the famous “Jagadānanda kārakā”, the first of the five compositions of Tyagaraja, as performed during . The , held on the fifth day of the festival, witnesses exponents of carnatic music from across the world converging at his , where they sing his pancharatna kritis in unison as an homage to the saint. Shankar approached maestro , a regular participant at the actual event, to conceive and orchestrate the sequence. Vaidyanathan was serving as the secretary of Sri Thyagabrahma Mahotsava Sabha, the committee which organises the . The scene features him in a cameo and was shot in June 2004 at a studio in Chennai. Realistic sets were erected to resemble the actual venue and leading carnatic vocalists , , O. S. Arun, and instrumentalists such as violinist , mridangam exponent were recruited to add a touch of authenticity. The two-minute scene was brought to life in “painstaking detail”. The sequence was much talked about and well appreciated. In a fight sequence, Anniyan encounters about a hundred martial artists inside the fictional International Martial Arts School, Vodao. About a dozen stuntmen crashed down from the balcony, injuring themselves badly after the rope which they were tied to gave in. The action sequence was shot using 120 cameras for employing the time slice photography technique, a visual effect known as ” ” and popularised by the American film (1999), to achieve the frozen-time effect. Shankar had earlier toyed with the idea of time-slice and tried it while filming the song “Ale Ale” in his . While the time-freeze sequence in was achieved by the linking of 60–62 cameras to attain a 180° rotation, employed 120–122 cameras for a 270° rotation. The scene where Anniyan addresses a huge gathering was shot in a stadium in Hyderabad. As he speaks to the audience, the lights turn on and off in the background. Speaking on how the sequence was filmed, Ravi Varman said that they decided not to light up the entire stadium as they felt it would have looked flat. As the sequence was important to the film, he juxtaposed the stadium with light and shadow so that it would look different. During the pre-climax scene, when Ambi is held custody and enquired by Prabhakar, Ambi’s persona keeps switching between the characters Ambi and Anniyan. Vikram claims to have completed the sequence in a single take. For the scene where Remo Nandini, a chemical tube brought from Malaysia was used to measure how attractive a person is. The semi-classical song “Kumari” was the first of the scenes to be shot. Filmed at the World Flower Show in May 2004, the sequence was picturised in a large garden located in the city of near , . The song was shot during the Netherlands International Flower Show called , a decennial event which was held between 10 April and 20 October 2004. While the crew had planned to film another song at a garden in , they were denied permission by the authorities as a previous Indian film crew had damaged the habitat a few weeks before. The song features the lead pair singing amidst a flower farm as and players accompany them in the background. As part of their roles, the male supporting actors who appear in the song were required to wear a and , leaving most of their body exposed to the freezing cold. The shoot began as early as 5:30 AM and the locals, who thought they should be out of their mind to be dressed so, came up to them and warned that they might freeze to death. “Iyengaru Veetu”, a semi-classical song, begins with a prelude of the Pancharatna Kriti “Jagadānanda kārakā”. The actual song which follows later was picturised on a set erected at AVM Studios made to look like an old traditional home in Thanjavur. The song was shot extravagantly with the lead pair and the dozens of support dancers sporting rich, colourful costumes. In December 2004, a ten-day shoot was held in Mumbai for the “Kadhal Yaanai” featuring Vikram alongside a top model, whose identity was initially undisclosed to generate curiosity. It was later revealed to be -based model . Filmed by Ravi Varman and choreographed by Ahmed Khan, the song was filmed like a fashion show where Vikram and Yana Gupta wear fashionable clothes and sashay along a ramp. The song was filmed in a set erected in a studio to resemble a famous night-spot in . The track “Kannum Kannum Nokia”, a peppy and trendy love duet choreographed by Raju Sundaram, was picturised on the lead pair and had them wearing costumes made entirely of . The song was picturised in Malaysia at the and . The song, filmed during the night, was reportedly the first song to be shot at the airport. Ravi Varman revealed in an interview that the song was shot like a commercial. The song was also filmed at the in , . The folk song “Andangkaaka” was shot in a village near . For filming the song, a huge set was erected to resemble a village. The sets were visualised and created by Sabu Cyril, the film’s art director. Shankar adopted a village near and Sabu Cyril painted all the houses, roads, rocks and even a bridge in varied colours. They then hired hundreds of lorries and old model cars and painted faces on them. The faces of actors were painted on rock mountains. The lead pair were joined by hundreds of dancers and the total cost of the song worked out to 10 million. In all, 350 houses were painted. In the narrative, Ambi is referred to the website, . Shankar envisioned that the website would take visitors through all the punishments that await sinners in hell. For designing the website, Shankar wanted to recreate hell and approached the Visual Computing Labs (VCL) of , a Mumbai-based company with which he had collaborated earlier for the song “Girlfriend” in . The team at VCL conceptualised and created a ‘hell’ in 3d animation with the punishments taken from ancient scriptures. They also designed a grim reaper astride his bull who guides visitors through hell. Pankaj Khandpur, creative director of VCL said, “We tried to stay true to the scriptures, while creating imagery that wasn’t too gory. […] an interesting project since we had to visualise it all without any reference point.” The animation was done in a span of three months. VCL also did the for a “cosmic zoom” scene, where the camera zooms from beyond the clouds to the streets of city, which no real camera can achieve. Aerial views and paintings of the city were stitched together along with computer generated images (CGI) of clouds to create the long, one-piece camera zoom. Animator and special effects designer L. I. Kannan, who would later turn director with the long-delayed with Vikram in the lead, also worked on the special effects. Meanwhile, the special effects for the time-slice sequence were rendered by Big Freeze in . The scene where Anniyan addresses a packed audience in was filmed with the space empty. The crowd was created through visual effects using crowd multiplication methods. The VFX for the sequence was done under the supervision of visual effects consultant Zameer Hussain of Land Marvel Animation Studios, Chennai. The scene, in which hundreds of buffaloes chase down a delinquent car owner into an abandoned sand quarry and trample him to death, was accomplished through CGI using just one buffalo. The CG work, was supplied by Jayakumar and of the Chennai-based firm, Indian Artists Computer Graphics. Srinivas and his team had earlier worked with Shankar in . Speaking of the sequence, Srinivas quipped, “The animals are lethargic and listless in their movements. Nothing can make them agile.” The storyline in is typical of Shankar’s yen for showcasing society’s ills and targets the inept, rules-flouting public. The film sheds light on the increasing social apathy and public negligence, and attempts to address these issues which plague the society and hamper the development of India. S. Anand of noted that most of Shankar’s films portray the hero as a “one-man agent of change” and cited, “From the neo-Nazi character plays in to his last film , featuring a schizophrenic Brahmin serial killer who butchers ‘wrongdoers’, Shankar has always offered fascist-fantastic solutions to what he perceives as social ills resulting from typical governmental inertia.” In an interview with , Shankar elaborated on the message he conveys through the film: I have travelled to many parts of the globe, especially the developed countries, and I am fascinated by the rapid strides that they have made in all fields. But back home, I am upset to see the neglect, poverty and the laid back approach of our youngsters. I often think that we are a lazy country. […] My story is about a person who tries to bring (about) a change within our society. The issue that I am trying to solve is inherent weakness within our society and some motivation to move forward like other nations. Following the release of the trailer on 7 May 2005, the film was believed to be inspired by the 1886 novel, . Upon the film’s release, drew parallels between it and the 1998 novel by . Shankar denied that the film was inspired by , claiming that he knew of the novel only after completing the script. Sify compared the character of Ambi to the protagonist of (1994), a film about a “mild mannered guy changing into a one-man army, craving to see natural justice realised”. The methods of punishment meted out to the sinners by Anniyan in the film is based on , a which speaks of life after death and punishments for wrongdoers. The album marked Shankar’s first collaboration with ; all his previous directorial ventures had composing the music. As Rahman was busy with his debut musical and had also signed up for another musical , Rahman and Shankar decided to part ways. In early 2004, Harris Jayaraj went on a trip to in for some inspiration for the album; he was accompanied by Shankar and . Eventually, the three songs penned by the lyricist were composed in the island. The visit took place much before the tragic struck the countries bordering the and wreaked havoc. In a chat with Shankar, Harris Jayaraj said “the music was a challenge because the film was a mix of genres – action, comedy, thriller. In essence, it was a cock-mocktail ..” Harris Jayaraj commenced the film’s re-recording in April 2005 and took more than a month to complete, delaying the film’s release. The soundtrack album features six tracks, including a theme music; the lyrics for the songs were written by Vairamuthu, and . The album was released as a soft launch on 13 May 2005. The film cleared the censors without any cuts and was rated by the . While Shankar had hoped to release the film on 2004, there were numerous production delays which postponed the release date through early 2005. While production was completed in March 2005, the re-recording which began in April took more time than anticipated lasting nearly 45 days with Harris Jayaraj being blamed for further delays. After the film was postponed from 20 May 2005, and later, from 27 May 2005, the film was finally scheduled for 10 June 2005. But, Shankar released it a week later on 17 June 2005 as he considered 8 as his lucky number (1+7 yielding 8). The film was dubbed into other South Indian languages and was released simultaneously in , , and . The film was also released in key overseas countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Malaysia and Singapore. The film was released with 404 prints in Tamil and Telugu alone. Later, the film was dubbed into French by . Reportedly, is the first Indian film to be dubbed into French and released in French-speaking countries worldwide by . The film was further dubbed and released in Hindi as on 19 May 2006. At a private screening held a day before its Hindi theatrical release, the film received a “warm reception”. was rereleased on 17 May 2024 in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Malathi Rangarajan of said that the film works as it melds an interesting screen line with racy action. She also noted that the story resembled Shankar’s (1996) a lot while also bearing semblance to his (1993). She remarked that the story and screenplay deserved to be lauded for its “ingenious sparks in narration” but problems arose with respect to its plausibility. She then declared, ” […] some of the best camera shots, stunts and locations on a mind-boggling scale have been showcased. If you enjoy magnificence in cinema you will like this .” Krishnakumar wrote for that learning from the debacle of , the director went back to his strength by taking a social theme, spicing it up and serving the perfect commercial fare. He added that in trying to explain multiple personality disorder in the simplest of terms, the director has only succeeded to a certain extent as a majority of viewers who are not that well informed might not even comprehend what is being said. Visual Dasan of wrote that both the art director Sabu Cyril and composer Harris Jayaraj lent their hand to Shankar’s grand visions, adding that everyone could bow down to Shankar’s social responsibility of exaggerating colorful entertainment and sensitising the fan by watching Anniyan once while appreciating Vikram for his performance in three different characters and that Anniyan’s transformation reminded him of Jim Carrey from . Dasan also appreciated Shankar for perfectly using other actors wherever necessary. Labelling the film as a “must see”, a reviewer at acclaimed that the film holds the viewers riveted with its racy narration, a relevant message backed with technical wizardry, never-seen before colourful song picturisation and particularly the performance of Vikram. Yet, the reviewer criticised that the film was too lengthy and the story too thin on logic. Reviewing , the Telugu version of the film, said that it was watchable. Regarding the Hindi version of the film, Raja Sen of derided the pathetic dubbing though saying that it was refreshing and watchable, despite boasting of enough masala to make the viewers sneeze. He concluded his review by saying, “Overall, is a slickly made, well-paced actioner that works quite well, despite the dub. The film is engaging and crisply scripted, and the action is never too excessive, lightened by jokes and general tomfoolery that never offensively interrupts the actual plot.” Nitin V Nambiar of criticised the “poor recording” and “strictly average” dubbing, noting that Shankar’s direction chooses “palatability over plausibility”. Following the commercial success of the Telugu version , which was a runaway hit in Andhra Pradesh, Shankar was felicitated by Sri Venkateswara Social and Cultural Organisation (SVESCO) of and was conferred the title ‘Darsaka Brahma’. In a conversation with athlete , actor remarked, ” was a runaway hit in Kerala. But if a Malayalam star had tried out an -kind of role with a weird hairdo, it would have been a disaster!” The film received numerous awards and nominations. The film won National Award in the Special Effects category. became the fourth film directed by Shankar to receive that award; the other three are (1994), (1996) and (1998). It also won eight out of the total 15 awards awarded by Filmfare for the best of Tamil cinema. By the time the production was nearing completion, the trade sources had estimated the film to cost around 12-15 crores; but, as often happens with films directed by Shankar, the budget was overshot. It was finally made on a budget of ₹26.38 crores (worth ₹141.43 crores in 2021 prices); it was touted as the most expensive South Indian film to be ever made during the time of its release. was the first Tamil film and the first in South India to get institutional finance. For its institutional finance, it procured a sum of 95 million from . was insured by United India Insurance for 15 crores, thereby making it the first South Indian film to be insured and also the largest insurance cover extended to a South Indian film at that time. With the amount of hype the film generated in the media, theatre owners eagerly came forward and offered hefty prices as Minimum Guarantee (MG). In , funds amounting to 120 million were gathered as MG and advance. The MG raised through audio rights and movie distribution to theatres in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and overseas fetched a combined sum of 224 million. The film was distributed and released throughout Tamil Nadu by Aascar Films. The rights for , the Telugu-dubbed version, was bought by a producer for an all-time record price. Meanwhile, the film was sold in for 13 million, which was again a record for a Tamil film there. The US rights was bought by the distribution house Bharat Creations. With the theatrical rights and pre-release booking, the</p>