Rajinikanth’s Annaatthe released recently on Deepavali to mixed reviews, but it’s only now that the Superstar has spoken out on how it got made.
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The 70-year-old revealed the story behind how the film came into the being, in a recent post on voice-based social media platform Hoote. “Petta showed me in a stylish avatar, and released along with Viswasam, which was directed by Siva and starred Ajith. Both films were super-hits, and so I was very curious to watch Viswasam. Its producer (Satya Jyothi Thyagarajan) arranged a screening. I found the film interesting till the interval, but was still puzzled on why it was such a huge success. However, as it neared the climax, its colours changed, and I started clapping towards the end,” revealed Rajinikanth.
Subsequently, the actor met up with Siva. “He said that it was very easy to deliver a hit with me. That left me stunned, because no one has said that to me before. All he said was that I should star in a story-based film (like Muthu, Annamalai and Padayappa) and that it should be set in a village.”
Rajinikanth then asked Siva to come up with a script in the same mould, to which Siva requested him for 15 days.
In 12 days itself, Siva came back to meet Rajinikanth with a script. “All he asked was two-and-half hours of my time and three bottles of water. After the narration, I started crying, and hugged him,” recalls the star, adding that Annaatthe has clicked big-time with audiences.