12 B

12 B (2001)

Unemployed Shakthi Singh lives a poor lifestyle along with his widowed and ailing mother and a sister. His mother falls ill and gets admitted in hospital. While on his way to an interview with HSBC, Shakthi sees a beautiful girl, gets distracted and misses his bus - route No.12B. As a result he misses the interview, and ends up getting employed as a Garage Mechanic with Madan, his friend. He does meet with the same girl, gets to know her name is Jyotika, who lives a wealthy lifestyle with her mother, Sulo, while her dad is away on business. Both continue meeting not aware that her marriage has been arranged with Pratap. This story also depicts the possibility of Shakthi catching the 12B on time, attending the interview and getting hired, pursuing Jyotika in vain, and ending up in the arms of his co-worker, Priya. Both possibilities end up with Shakthi getting involved in a vehicle accident - and no guarantees that he will survive or wed Jyotika.

Date of release
2001-05-15
TMDB
6.1 / 10 (8)
Runtime
2h 30m
Genres
Drama, Romance
Director
Jeeva

Casting

Interesting facts

12B is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy drama film written, cinematographed and directed by Jeeva; it is his directorial debut. The film stars Shaam in his debut with Simran and Jyothika in lead roles. Hindi actors Suniel Shetty and Moon Moon Sen play supporting roles with the former making a cameo appearance. The music was composed by Harris Jayaraj, with editing by B. Lenin and V. T. Vijayan.

Production

12B marked the directorial debut of cinematographer Jeeva and is narrated in a dual narrative format, one if Shakthi (the protagonist) catches the 12B bus to his job interview and one if he misses the same bus. Jeeva said the film would be titled 12B after a bus he used to take during his college days in Chennai.

Madhavan and Vikram were initially considered for the lead role, but they were busy with other projects. Srikanth was also briefly attached to the film. While the search for lead actor was ongoing, Simran and Jyothika, two of the leading Tamil actresses at the time, were cast in the other lead roles.

Shaam had worked as a model in Bangalore for four years before model coordinator Biju Jayadevan introduced him to director Jeeva, who was auditioning a debutant actor for his debut venture, 12B. Shaam had unsuccessfully auditioned for the lead role in Kadhalar Dhinam (1999); he said during his first meeting with Jeeva, he handed over his portfolio and introduced himself in English. Jeeva said: "Repeat what you just said, in Tamil".

Jyothika got more screen time while Simran called her role a "special appearance". Thota Tharani worked as the art director for the film. The promos of the film were critically praised; Shaam signed on to appear in several projects before 12B was released. The film also featured Jeeva's assistant director, Srinath, in a supporting role.

A leading Hindi actor was revealed to play a cameo in the film. The actor was later revealed upon release to be Sunil Shetty, who was cast to play Jyothika's uncle. Bengali actor Moon Moon Sen, mother of Riya Sen, was signed on to play Jyothika's mother in the film. In 12B, Shaam's voice was dubbed; an uncommon practice for male actors in Tamil cinema at that time.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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