It was Pongal January 14th, Vijay walked in to the flat of the producer and sat there grumpily. He said - Look Sir, there is no body at the theater. All shows are houseful for Dheena and Vanchinathan.". Producer say -" look brother , things will improve from Monday. I have encountered this situation before in my career ". Vijay bursts out - "You could have sold the overseas rights and who will buy it now. My father wants to speak to you" . Father SAC on the line tells the producer -" I would not call it confidence but foolishness in not selling the overseas righ"t and hangs up. Vijay walks out with a low spirits and eyes moist.
Second day , Vijay comes again- "Sir, the theaters are full of laughter but the audience is still few,". His morale is a bit better. Producer goes to theater ( Udhyan complex where only mini Chandran was allotted), he sees that a the few people who inside the theater are enjoying the film. He goes to Thana Thanthi - Dinakaran- Dinamalar and says- "Look I want to book front page advt for one month. I have my agency and so give me credit. ( Film Advertisement do not come in regular pages and come in a pull out as it was the practice of Tamil Dailies. The rates for film advts in these pull outs were lesser than the commercial advts in regular pages).
On Sunday, it was houseful in Chandran and producer saw that the crowds going back were enough to fill two more shows. As it was Pongal, all films were running full but this overflow was not there and taking a cue, Front page advts started to come and from Monday onwards there was no looking back . Film ran for 175 days. This was narrated by Swarga Chitra Appachan, the producer of Friends and who is now producing the fifth sequel to CBI Diary Kurippu with Mammooty.
Vadivelu's carprtner Nesamani is still remembered and a recent tweet on this beat even a tweet on Modi. Vijay acted in the Tamil remake of Aniyathipravu , produced by Appachan. Titled Kathuluku Mariuyadai and produced by Sangli Murugan, Appachan met Vijay and asked him what his salary was. Vijay said Rs 17 lakhs. Appachan said that after this film he would charge Rs 1 crore. A visibly happy Vijay said that - Rs 50 lakhs will do. Both then agreed that they would do a Tamil remake of a Malayalam film. This was in 1997. In 2001, Appachan went with Friends project and asked him what was his fees. Vijay said Rs 3 crores and added that he need pay only Rs 2 crore. A gesture for a person whose prediction of bigtime came true.
Suriya was paid only Rs 5 lakhs. There is another sidelight - Father Sivakumar was upset that a leading magazine said that Suriya was not cut out for acting ( post Neruku Ner in which Vijay and Suriya acted ). He threw out Appachan and Editor T R Sekar from the house. It was Suriya's mother who told Sekar to give her son a chance. At first, it was Jyotika who was cast opposite Vijay and Suvaluxmi opposite Suriya, Even publicity stills were released. Jyotika was replaced by Devyani and Vijaylakshmi for Suvalaxmi. Vijay - Jyotika later collaborated for all time hit Khushi. It's director S J Suryah later revealed that Jyotika had termed Kushi as a film that she did not like.
Sidiq, assistant to Fazil who directed Friends was pitted against Shaji Kailas directed film Vanchinathan starring Captain Vijaykanth in a super cop role and Dheena was directed by none other than A R Murugadoss. , his debut and also Suresh Gopi first film in Tamil with Ajith playing the hit man of his gangster brother. It had Laila , then heart throb as heroine.
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