Gaganam

Gaganam (2011)

గగనం

When terrorists hijack a plane from Chennai, a struggle with the pilots damages the engine forcing them to make an emergency landing in Tirupati. NSG commando Ravi is entrusted with rescue operations.

Date of release
2011-02-11
TMDB
6.5 / 10 (17)
Runtime
2h 11m
Genres
Action, Drama, Thriller
Director
Radha Mohan

Casting

Interesting facts

Payanam (transl. Journey) is a 2011 Indian action thriller film that was directed and co-written by Radha Mohan. It was simultaneously filmed in the Tamil and Telugu languages, the latter being titled Gaganam (transl. Sky). The film's plot is based on an aircraft hijacking. The film stars Nagarjuna and Prakash Raj, alongside an ensemble cast featuring Rishi, Sana Khan, Brahmanandam, Thalaivasal Vijay, M. S. Bhaskar, Babloo Prithiveeraj and Poonam Kaur, amongst others. Payanam and Gaganam were produced by Raj and Dil Raju, respectively. The film was released on 11 February 2011 to a positive reception.

Production

Radha Mohan, after directing the family-oriented romance and drama films Azhagiya Theeye, Mozhi and Abhiyum Naanum, decided to produce an action thriller about an aircraft hijacking. He approached his close friend, actor-producer Prakash Raj, who had produced all his earlier films. Raj agreed to fund this film after reading Flight Into Fear by Devi Sharan. This new film would mark the pair's fourth collaboration.

Nagarjuna, starring in his first direct Tamil film in 13 years, was part of an ensemble cast that included around 45 actors from both the Tamil and Telugu industries, the cast being retained for both versions. This was Nagarjuna's first film without a love interest for his character. Nagarjuna found it difficult to mouth Tamil dialogues due to his lack of fluency in the language. His Tamil voice was dubbed by Sekar.

Despite widespread reports that Payanam was based on the 1999 hijacking of the Indian Airlines Flight 814, Raj has denied these reports, making clear it was about a fictional hijack that takes place at Tirupati Airport. Art director Kathir erected a grand set resembling Tirupati airport at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. The airport set was constructed within one month and cost ₹3 crore. The film was also shot at Chennai and Kullu-Manali.

The release of Payanam and Gaganam was postponed several times despite being them ready for release in September 2010: the release of Brindavanam (2010) in October, several high-key Tamil films in November, and Nagavalli (2010) and Ragada (2010) in December further delayed both versions of the film's release. The post-production of Gaganam was delayed by the strike in the Telugu film industry in January 2010.

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

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