Vada Chennai will hit screens on October 17.
After being in production for more than two years, Vada Chennai is all set to hit screens on Thursday. It is easily the most ambitious attempt by director Vetrimaaran and actor-producer Dhanush.
“This film would not have been possible without Dhanush’s support. As a producer, he never asked me when will I finish the movie. And as a lead actor, he never felt insecure when other characters grew in importance in the narration,” Vetrimaaran said at a press meet.
Vetrimaaran said director Ameer’s character called Rajan was a very small role when he started shooting the movie. “As we progressed, Rajan evolved into a dominating character in the film. And, Dhanush enjoyed Rajan’s character, instead of asking me to just shoot a film that I promised him,” he said.
Dhanush added that Rajan is the central character of the saga. “Rajan is the reason for everything that happens in Vada Chennai. His character is central to the narration in all the three parts,” the actor said.
Vetrimaaran and Dhanush had been planning to shoot Vada Chennai for over a decade now. They wanted to make this film after Polladhavan (2007) but ended up doing Aadukalam (2011), which was the favourite of the corresponding awards season.
Then, Vetrimaaran announced that he will make the movie with another actor. “One day he called me to tell he was going to make Vada Chennai with Simbu,” he recalled. “I told him that if not me, I see Simbu in the film. He called me again and offered a character called Kumar. It was a very strong character that gets about 30-40 minutes screen time in the movie.”
“I told him that I am generous but I don’t have such generosity to play that role,” Dhanush recalled telling Vetrimaaran while refusing the offer.
After some time, Vetrimaaran went back to Dhanush as for some unknown reasons the project did not take off with Simbu. “But I was worried about the optics of immediately doing the film as it was first announced with Simbu. I told him we will do some other film first and after a small gap, we can return to Vada Chennai,” Dhanush recalled.
While the talks were still on, Vetrimaaran drifted towards Visaranai (2015), and Dhanush came on board as the producer of the film. Visaranai was based on the novel Lock Up, which told the tragic story of four simpletons who get trampled under the weight of corrupt police force. The film became a hit at the festival circuit and even got picked as India’s official entry to the 2017 Academy Awards.
By that time, Vetrimaaran had already started shooting Vada Chennai. However, the project had to be put on hold as the director got really busy pursuing an Oscar nomination for Visaranai. The film, however, did not make the cut in the final list of nominees and he returned to Vada Chennai sets.
“After making a huge round, the project eventually came back to me. Every grain of rice has a person’s name written on it,” said the actor. “Without any shame, I will tell you, I was so happy when I got this project back. This is definitely a big character in an actor’s career. Films such as this don’t come around very often.”
“In that case, no actor would want to lose such a script. Even I was greedy for this film. I think I’m really blessed that I got to do this film,” Dhanush added.
Vada Chennai has a huge star cast including seasoned directors like Samuthirakani and Ameer. Aishwarya Rajesh, Andrea Jeremiah, Daniel Balaji and Kishore among others play pivotal roles in the three-part gangster drama.
The first part of Vada Chennai is due in cinemas on October 17.
“We will start shooting for the second part next year. But before that Vetrimaaran and I will shoot an entirely different movie together as we wanted a break from Vada Chennai,” Dhanush revealed.