Adithya Varma

<p>Adithya Varma is the youngest son of wealthy business tycoon Vasudeva Varma. He is studying in , India. Despite being a brilliant student, he has severe issues that earn the wrath of the dean of the college. Adithya’s aggressive nature also earned him a reputation among his juniors as a college bully. After having a brawl alongside his friend Tarun against members of the opposing team during an inter-college football match, the dean asks Adithya to either apologise or leave the college. Adithya initially chooses to leave, but stays back after meeting an first-year student, Meera Shetty because he experienced love at first sight. Adithya and his friend Parthi enter a third-year classroom and announce that Adithya is in love with Meera and asserts that she is exclusive to him. Initially afraid, Meera starts adjusting herself to Adithya’s overbearing attitude. She eventually reciprocates his feelings and they develop an intimate relationship. Adithya graduates with an degree and leaves for to pursue a master’s degree in orthopaedic surgery. Over the course of three years, Adithya’s and Meera’s relationship becomes stronger. Months later, Adithya visits Meera’s house, where her father Manohar Shetty sees them kissing and throws Adithya out. Manohar opposes her and Adithya’s relationship due to Adithya’s brash behaviour and also because they belong to different . Adithya demands that Meera must make a decision within six hours; otherwise he will end their relationship. Following this incident, Meera’s parents seize her phone, making her unable to contact Adithya. By the time she manages to visit Adithya’s house, he is drunk, injects morphine into himself, and becomes unconscious for two days. Meera is then forcibly married to someone from her caste. Adhi learns about the marriage from Parthi and goes to her house in prot- He is assaulted and gets arrested for making a scene. Adhi’s father, Vasudevan Varma, ostracises him from the family home for damaging his reputation. With Parthi’s help, Adhi finds a rented apartment and joins a private hospital as a surgeon. To cope with his emotions, he starts taking drugs, attempts one-night stands, buys a pet dog and names it after Meera and drinks alcohol; all of which are unsuccessful. Within months, he becomes a successful surgeon and a who is feared by the hospital’s staff members, one of the reasons being his high surgery count. Adhi’s self-destructive behaviour and refusal to move on worry Parthi and Tarun. He persuades one of his patients, Priya Menen, a leading film star, to have a no-strings relationship with him, which he ends when she falls in love with him. On a day off, Adhi unwillingly agrees to perform life-saving surgery and collapses with dehydration. The hospital staff examine his blood samples, which show traces of alcohol and cocaine. The hospital chief files a case against Adhitya, who accepts the truth on the grounds of violating his professional ethics during an in-house court hearing, despite Parthi making arrangements to bail him out. Adhi’s medical license is cancelled for five years and he is evicted from the flat. The next morning, Parthi manages to reach Adithya to convey his grandmother’s death; he meets Vasudevan, and they reconcile. Adhi gives up his self-destructive habits soon after. While leaving for a vacation, Adhi sees a pregnant Meera sitting in a park. Convinced that she is unhappy with her marriage, Adhi meets her after returning from his vacation. Meera reveals that she left her husband days after their marriage and continued to work in a clinic. She tells Adhi that he is the child’s father, and they reunite. The pair marries, and Meera’s father apologises for misunderstanding their love for each other. Additionally, Priya Anand’s Bumblebee plays the title character’s pet dog. made a uncredited appearance in the song “Dhooram” as a visitor in Dehradun. In September 2017, it was announced that E4 Entertainment had bought the rights to remake the film (2017) in and languages. The following month, was chosen to direct the yet-untitled Tamil remake. On 10 November 2017, the title was announced as , later amended to . was chosen to pen the dialogues. was selected to handle the cinematography and was chosen as the film editor, after having earlier worked for Bala’s (2018). Producer Mukesh Mehta said the remake would be 20 minutes shorter than the Telugu original. Actor ‘s son was cast as the male lead, in what would have been his acting debut. It would have been the debut for the -based model , who was chosen to play the female lead. Akash Premkumar was chosen to play the lead character’s best friend. began in early March 2018 at , , and a week later, after completing the first schedule there, the crew shifted to Chennai for the second schedule. However, shooting of the film was briefly stalled due to the Tamil Film Producers Council strike, but resumed in April after the strike ended. The final schedule of the film took place in August 2018, for which the team had shifted to . It was completed in September 2018, thus principal photography of the film has . On 7 February 2019, E4 Entertainment issued a press statement stating that they would go for a re-shoot of the entire film as they were not satisfied with the final cut provided by . They added that the film would be relaunched with a completely new cast and crew while retaining Dhruv. Bala decried these comments, saying it was his own decision to quit the film “in order to safeguard creative freedom” because he was asked to make changes. This became the first such incident in the history of Tamil cinema that the producer of the film refuses to release the film due to unsatisfactory final cut despite the completion of the film. On 19 February 2019, the new title was announced. Mehta said the new version would begin filming in March 2019, with writer-director ‘s assistant Gireesaaya was announced as the new director, making his directorial debut. was announced as the heroine, in her Tamil film debut, as well as as the supporting actress. Anbu Thasan joined the cast in March as the title character’s friend, replacing Akash Premkumar. and were announced as the cinematographer and the editor respectively. Principal photography for began on 11 March. Following the filming of a song sequence in (including ) in mid-April 2019, 65% of the film’s shoot was complete. Major portions of the film had been completed in mid-May, with the exception of patchwork scenes, for which Ravi K. Chandran’s son handled the cinematography. The principal photography was wrapped up within July 2019. The film’s soundtrack and score were respectively provided by and , who also contributed for . The soundtrack album was preceded by two singles: “Edharkadi” and “Yaen Ennai Pirindhaai”, released on 16 August and 23 September 2019, respectively. The album in its entirety was launched on 18 October 2019. For all the songs (with the exception of “Yaen Ennai Pirindhaai”), Radhan reused the tunes from his own compositions from . was initially scheduled to release on 8 November 2019. In a turn of events, the makers postponed the release due to distribution problems and did not initially reveal the new release date. Later, the makers announced that the film will be released on 21 November 2019. was given an , from the , despite the makers of the film hoping it would receive a . E4 later pushed the film’s Indian release to 22 November, a day after the worldwide release. Shakthi Film Factory acquired the film’s Tamil Nadu distribution rights when it was titled , but E4 later acquired them for . The film opened in 350 screens worldwide, making it the biggest for a debut hero’s film, and according to trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai, the film had made a pre-release business of (US$1.9 million), including the theatrical, digital and satellite rights. collected (US$810,000) during its opening weekend. The for was released on 23 September 2018. It was widely ridiculed and criticised on social media, while a critic from called it “a failed attempt to remake the original”. The teaser for was released on 16 June 2019. It was positively received by a number of critics, in contrast to the teaser for . The official trailer of the film was unveiled on 19 October 2019, coinciding with the film’s audio launch event. The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV. The film’s television premiere took place on 26 January 2020, coinciding with . The film was digitally premiered on on 20 December 2019. received positive reviews from critics praising the performance of Dhruv, and the adaptation of the film from the original. M. Suganth of gave 3.5 out of 5 stars rating “A well-made, if overtly faithful, remake of with Dhruv”. gave 3 out of 5 stars stating “Dhruv Vikram makes a strong debut with Adithya Varma, but the story gets repetitive if you have watched Arjun Reddy and Kabir Singh.” rated 3.5 out of 5 and summarised ” has proved that Dhruv is a super talented performer who can be the next chocolate boy of Tamil cinema.” reviewed it as “The highlight of this faithful remake of Telugu hit Arjun Reddy is the performance of debutant Dhruv Vikram. He is refreshing and sincere as a flawed medical student.” Sreedhar Pillai, writing for gave 3.25 out of 5 and reviewed ” is a raw and hard-hitting film which rides on Dhruv Vikram’s performance. This is a star in the making; truly, a chip off the old block.” gave the film 3 out of 5 stated “Dhruv Vikram shines in this faithfully-remade problematic film.” S. Srivatsan of wrote “The third installment of this script still has no proper justification for the lead character’s aggressiveness, despite a decent showing from Dhruv Vikram in his Tamil debut.” wrote for , “Like , this is a beautifully made film. The director allows it to breathe. Ravi K Chandran doesn’t romanticise the already Romantic story. Except in a few shots, his palette is neutral, natural.., the editor Vivek Harshan cuts many scenes a few frames earlier than you’d expect the “finish” (the segues are amazingly dynamic)…I don’t recall the editing pattern of , but these rhythms feel refreshingly new for Tamil cinema”.</p>