Thuppakki
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Thuppakki (English: The Gun) is a 2012 Indian Tamil action thriller film written and directed by A. R. Murugadoss. It features Vijay and Kajal Aggarwal in the lead roles, along withVidyut Jamwal,[7] Jayaram, Sathyan, Anupama Kumar, Gautham Kurup and Akshara Gowda in supporting roles.[8] The film is produced by S. Thanu and features background score and soundtrack composed by Harris Jayaraj with cinematography handled by Santhosh Sivan, who with Thuppakki will introduce the Arri Alexa camera to Indian cinema.
The story revolves around a youngster from a Mumbai-based Tamil family and his decisions he takes after his life undergoes a sudden turn.[12] The film, which commenced
production in December 2011 in Mumbai, was released on 13 November 2012, coinciding with the festival of Diwali. The film opened to highly positive reviews from
both the critics and audiences.[13] A Telugu-dubbed version was simultaneously released under the same title in Andhra Pradesh, and was also very well received.
| Thuppakki | |
|---|---|
Film poster | |
| Directed by | A. R. Murugadoss |
| Produced by | Kalaipuli S. Dhanu |
| Written by | A. R. Murugadoss |
| Starring | Vijay Kajal Aggarwal Jayaram Vidyut Jamwal Sathyan Anupama Kumar |
| Music by | Harris Jayaraj |
| Cinematography | Santosh Sivan |
| Editing by | A. Sreekar Prasad |
| Studio | Kalaipuli Films International |
| Distributed by | Gemini Film Circuit SVR Media (Andhra Pradesh)[1] |
| Release date(s) |
|
| Running time | 165 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
| Budget |  70 crore (US$12.74 million)[2][3][dubious ] |
| Box office | 150 crore (US$27.3 million) |
Plot
The movie begins with Jagdish (Vijay), a captain in the Indian Army, returning to Mumbai from Kashmir. On his arrival, he is forced by his parents and younger sisters into seeing Nisha (Kajal Aggarwal), a girl of their choice for their son to get married to. At the bride-viewing ceremony, Jagdish makes up excuses to avoid marrying her, such as commenting that she is old-fashioned. On the contrary however, Nisha turns out to be a college-level boxer who is completely modern in outlook. Jagdish realises this and falls for her, which she reciprocates.
One day, while hanging out 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 pawn (a sleeper cell) whose only role was in planting the bomb and that the terrorist group he belongs to have 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.
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), kidnapping someone close to them. When Jagdish finds out, he substitutes one of the people to be kidnapped with his younger sister. 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 others and killing the terrorists.
With this attack too failed, the terrorist leader decides to target Jagdish himself. He asks Jagdish to surrender to him, failing which 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), he fights the leader and escapes with him in a boat. After the ship explodes, he kills the leader.
The movie ends with Jagdish and his team returning to Kashmir.
Production
Development
In July 2010, sources reported that Vijay and A. R. Murugadoss would collaborate to make an action film, after completing their respective ongoing projects, Velayudham and 7aum Arivu.[15][16][17] Vijay's father S. A. Chandrasekhar was to produce the film initially, before Kalaipuli S. Thanu took over the project.[18] Although Maalai Nerathu Mazhaithuli was considered as the title initially, the film became titled as Thuppakki.[19][20] National Film Award winners A. Sreekar Prasad, Thotta Tharani, who was making a comeback to Tamil films after a three-years hiatus, and Santhosh Sivan were roped in for editing, art direction and cinematography, respectively; all of whom worked on an A. R. Murugadoss film for the first time.[21]
Casting
Deepika Padukone was first reported to essay the female lead.[22] Subsequently several actresses, including Bollywood actresses Sonam Kapoor,[23] and Priyanka Chopra,[24] who later clarified that she was never approached for the film,[25] Priya Anand, who played the female lead in Vaamanan,[26] Pranitha,[27] and Kingfisher Calendar model Angela Jonsson[28] were rumoured to play the role, with the latter even taking part in a brief photo shoot in Chennai. Kajal Aggarwal was eventually confirmed,[29] Akshara Gowda was cast to play the second female lead.[30] Gautham Kurup was chosen to play a significant role,[31] while Vidyut Jamwal, who was simultaneously shooting for Ajith Kumar'sBilla II, would be playing a role with negative shades.[32] Sathyan, following several collaborations with Vijay, confirmed that he was part of this project, too.[33] Further Malayalam actor Jayaram also confirmed his presence in this project.[34] Murugadoss denied reports which claimed that Jai was acting in the film,[35] while confirming that he himself would appear in a cameo role.[36][37] Sarath Kumar was rumoured to be acting in the film,[38][39] however the actor denied the reports.[40]
Filming
According to early reports, filming was to commence at Thiruchendur and continue in Mumbai.[41] Supposed to start on November 26, 2011,[42] it began on 5 December in Mumbai.[43] Vijay would appear in a completely different with a different hairstyle as well as a facial makeover.[44] The first schedule that lasted for 35 days was completed by January 2012.[45] The climax featuring a stunt sequence involving Vijay and 60 fighters was shot using nearly 7 cameras towards the end of January.[46] 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 taken quickly with the unaware public.[47] Sivan commented that it was shot perfectly and decided to retain it in the film.[48][49] Sivan further told that a major part of the film was being shot in real locations with hidden cameras.[50] 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.[51]
In March, the unit completed a 10 day shoot in Bangkok for a song sequence featuring Vijay and Kajal.[52] The second schedule started on April 12 in Mumbai.[36] The third schedule was wrapped up in May 2012,[53] following which only two songs were remining, both of which had been scheduled to be shot in Thailand.[54] 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.[55] The team then moved on to Pune for canning three songs.[56] One of the songs was shot atop of a train, constructed by art director Sunil Babu. The dance sequence, choreographed by Shobi, was shot in theMumbai Pune Expressway.[57] The crew then left for Switzerland to shoot a romantic number on Vijay and Kajal Aggarwal at various locations.[58] The final song shoot took place at DY Patil Stadium in Mumbai, with which the entire filming was wrapped up.[59]
Controversies
Thuppakki's first look poster, depicting Vijay holding a cigar in his mouth, created a stir, since the Government of India had imposed a rule that later films should not feature scenes relating to tobacco or smoking. Director Murugadoss however defended the poster, saying that it was only for promotional purposes and that the film had no such scenes.[60]
A city court stayed advertisements of Thuppakki, on a civil suit filed by a former assistant director who has claimed that he had already registered a title Kalla Thuppakki along with the logo now being used in the Thuppakki's advertisements. The II assistant judge of the city civil court granted stay till July 16 after C Ravi, an assistant director-turned producer, complained that though he has registered a title Kalla Thuppakki and has been renewing it every year since 2009, the producers of the had been using a similar title and a gun logo infringing on his rights. Noting that he had renewed the title last on April 27, Ravi said that as per norms a title registered with any of the three bodies; Tamil Film Producers Council, the Film and Television Producers Guild of South India and the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce, cannot be used by another producer unless the original title-holder issues a no-objection certificate.[61][62] Kalaipuli S Dhanu filed a counter affidavit denying the accusations made against them and said that Thuppakki and Kallathuppakki are not the same and the comparison should not be drawn between the titles. "Thuppakki means a licensed weapon and Kallathuppakki means an unlicensed weapon," he pleaded.[63] The case eventually came to an end on October 5, when the crew of Kalla Thuppaki withdrew the court case.[64]
Another promotional poster, which depicted a police-uniform clad Vijay carrying Kajal Aggarwal on his hands was claimed to have been lifted from a poster of the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman which depicted its lead, actorRichard Gere lifting actress Debra Winger.[65] Murugadoss claimed that Thuppaki [sic] did not have an army backdrop like Gere's film but was set in Mumbai instead, going on to assert that everything in his film was original.[66] He however admitted to "stealing" the poster of An Officer and a Gentleman,[67] and stated, "Sometimes, you admire something so much that sub-consciously it becomes a part of your work."[68]
Post Thuppakki's release, an Islamic group protested against the film, claiming that the film portrayed Muslims as terrorists and traitors.[69][70] The team quickly apologized, and agreed to cut the demanded scenes.[71][72]
Marketing
Murugadoss approached a leading Mumbai-based trailer specialist for the first official teaser for Thuppakki.[73] The makers confirmed that it would be released on 22 June coinciding with Vijay's birthday.[74] However, Murugadoss announced that the teaser is to be released on July 1, ten days later.[75] Upon progression, the teaser and poster launch event got delayed following an injunction order from the court, which has directed the makers of the film not to use the Thuppakki title in any form.[76]
With the court case finally coming to an end on October 5, the first teaser was released on 10 October 2012, a day before the audio launch of the film and the teaser garnered 1,000,000 plus views within few days on Youtube. It recorded the highest-ever hits for a Tamil movie breaking the record of Neethaane En Ponvasantham and Billa 2.[77] It has also to be noted that the teaser was trending on social networking sites like Twitter. While it became buzz words in Chennai on Twitter by 11 am, it took four more hours to become hot keywords searched by people in India.[78] The teaser of "Google Google" song was uploaded on 22 October 2012 receiving positive response from viewers.[79] The theatrical trailer was released on October 26 and got an overwhelming response as well, fetching over 600,000 hits on YouTube and over 7,000 likes in just three days.[80]
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