Guru Sishyan (1988)

Interesting facts

Guru Sishyan is a 1988 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film directed by S. P. Muthuraman. A remake of the Hindi film Insaf Ki Pukar (1987), it stars Rajinikanth, Prabhu, Seetha and Gautami with Pandiyan, Cho Ramaswamy, Ravichandran, Radha Ravi, Senthamarai, Vinu Chakravarthy and Manorama in supporting roles. The film is about two ex-prisoners who set out to prove the innocence of their wrongfully convicted fellow prisoner. In the process, they uncover a bigger conspiracy.

Production

When filmmaker and writer Panchu Arunachalam was in financial crisis, director S. P. Muthuraman suggested actor Rajinikanth to collaborate with Arunachalam for a film. Rajinikanth agreed and offered to give a call-sheet of 10 days, asking Muthuraman to prepare a story. Muthuraman objected, saying that if Rajinikanth did a "guest role", the audience would not accept it and distributors would not buy the film, meaning low chances of profit.

Muthuraman had seen Insaf Ki Pukar (1987), a Hindi film with two heroes. He decided to remake this film in Tamil and told Rajinikanth 25 days was enough. Rajinikanth signed on the film but said he would not act for longer than the given dates. The film was produced by Arunachalam's wife Meena under their own company P. A. Art Productions, while Arunachalam wrote the screenplay. Cinematography was handled by T. S. Vinayagam, editing by R.

Muthuraman said he made Guru Sishyan to exploit Rajinikanth's flair for comedy. Rajinikanth and Prabhu were cast as Raja and Babu. This was the first film in which the two actors were seen together onscreen; though they had first acted together in Dharmathin Thalaivan, it was released later in 1988. Jayashree was initially cast as the police inspector Geetha, but she later backed out due to her marriage.

Principal photography began with the filming of the song "Jingidi Jingidi" at VGP Universal Kingdom, Chennai. Gautami was initially nervous dancing with Rajinikanth in "Jingidi Jingidi" because it was the first time they acted together so it was decided to film non-dancing scenes for two days then film the dance. Choreographer Puliyur Saroja trained Gauthami, who was able to dance convincingly.

The climactic fight sequence was planned to be filmed in the Borra Caves at Araku Valley, but because Rajinikanth's call-sheet dates were nearing the end and a round-trip to Araku Valley would take longer, Chalam designed an identical cave set in Chennai. The scene in which Raja and Babu escape through a tunnel while being pursued by a rolling boulder was based on a similar scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

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