Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai (2015)

Interesting facts

Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language political action thriller film directed by S. P. Jhananathan, and produced by Jananathan under Binary Pictures, in association with UTV Motion Pictures. The film stars Arya, Shaam, Vijay Sethupathi and Karthika, in her final film appearance. It revolves around a communist who is sentenced to death, while his comrade seeks his release.

Production

Three years after his last directorial Peraanmai (2009), S. P. Jananathan announced that his next directorial would feature Jiiva and Ravi Mohan, who both starred in Jananathan's earlier films, in the lead roles. However, the project failed to take off. In August 2013, Jananathan announced the revived project titled Purampokku with Arya and Vijay Sethupathi as the new leads.

Jananathan stated that the film's script was inspired by protests and opposition over the sentencing of the 26 accused in the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi to life imprisonment, changed from death sentence; and the lack of protests over the execution of serial killer Auto Shankar and convicted rapist Dhananjoy Chatterjee.

Jananathan stated that while Jiiva and Ravi were originally cast as the leads, he ultimately decided to replace them for freshness; Arya replaced Ravi and Sethupathi replaced Jiiva. Karthika was signed as the lead actress, and this became her last performance before her retirement from films. The name of Karthika's character, Kuyili, is a reference to the Indian freedom fighter of the same name.

Jananathan said he cast Karthika because he wanted an actress who was "tough" and could speak Tamil, unlike contemporary Tamil film actresses; and Arya, who he felt had been typecast as a "lover boy", to break this stereotype. Shaam shaved his moustache for the role at Jananathan's request; he was initially reluctant as police officers in Tamil Nadu are known for their moustaches, but agreed after the director wanted to depict a police officer un…

Principal photography began on 11 January 2014 in Kulu Manali, Himachal Pradesh. The film was shot extensively around Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chennai. When filming an emotional scene involving Shaam and Sethupathi, Jananathan shot the scene in a unique way such that he allowed the actors to enact the entire sequence at one stretch.

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