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Anniyan

January 01, 1970

Anniyan (transl. Stranger) is a 2005 Indian Tamil-language psychological action thriller film directed by S. Shankar and produced by V. Ravichandran of Aascar Films. The film centres on a disillusioned everyman whose frustration at what he sees as increasing social apathy and public negligence leads to a split personality that attempts to improve the system. Vikram stars as Ambi, an idealistic, law-abiding lawyer who has multiple personality disorder and develops two other identities: a suave fashion model named Remo and a murderous vigilante named Anniyan. Sadha, Vivek, Nedumudi Venu, Nassar and Prakash Raj also featured in pivotial supporting roles.

Anniyan
Theatrical release poster
Directed byS. Shankar
Written byS. Shankar (Story & Screenplay)
Sujatha (Dialogues)
Produced byV. Ravichandran
Starring
Cinematography
Edited byV. T. Vijayan
Music byHarris Jayaraj
Production
company
Oscar Films
Distributed byOscar Films
Release date
  • 17 June 2005 (2005-06-17)
Running time
181 minutes[1]
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil
Budget₹20 crore
Box officeest. ₹57 crore[2]

Shankar conceived the film in mid-2003 during the post-production period of his previous film, Boys. He based the film on his own life experiences during his formative years when he was disturbed by what he saw around him, and his eventual displeasure with the society. Pre-production for Anniyan began in November 2003 and principal photography in March 2004. The making of the film, which included numerous production delays, took 14 months. The film was shot at Hyderabad, Thanjavur, Tindivanam and Chennai, and the song sequences were filmed in Mumbai, Malaysia, Amsterdam and Tenkasi. The film was notable for its recreation of the Tyagaraja Aradhana music festival and the extensive use of time slice photography in an action sequence.

Cinematographer V. Manikandan abandoned the project halfway through, until he was replaced with Ravi Varman. The technical departments were headed by V. T. Vijayan (editing), Sabu Cyril (production design), and Peter Hein (action choreography), and the soundtrack was composed by Harris Jayaraj, who was in his first collaboration with the director. The film was touted as the director's magnum opus and was budgeted at ₹263.8 million, making it at the time of its release the most expensive Indian film ever made. Notably, it was the first South Indian film to obtain institutional finance, and it had the highest insurance coverage available for films at that time.

Originally filmed in Tamil, and released simultaneously in the four South Indian states on 10 June 2005, Anniyan was dubbed into Telugu as Aparichithudu and Hindi as Aparichit The Stranger, was released a year later on 19 May 2006. The film was also dubbed into French and released in French-speaking countries worldwide by Columbia Tristar. The film received positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success across South India. In addition to winning a record breaking eight Filmfare Awards and six State Film Awards, the film also won a National Award in the Special Effects category.

Plot edit

Ramanujam Iyengar, alias Ambi, is a straightforward consumer protection advocate from Triplicane who expects everyone to follow the law and prosecutes those who violate it, but his efforts fail as circumstantial evidence favours the accused. Ambi's efforts to raise civic awareness fail due to a general lack of seriousness and widespread corruption. Frustrated, Ambi's suppressed anger manifests as an alter ego called Anniyan, a grim reaper-themed vigilante, who seeks out corrupt and indifferent individuals in order to eliminate them. Anniyan creates a website, where he compiles a list of wrongdoers and kills them using punishments described in the ancient Hindu scripture Garuda Purana. Ambi secretly loves his neighbour named Nandini, a medical student and an aspiring Carnatic singer, but never expresses his feelings due to fear of rejection.

When Ambi gets the courage to propose Nandini during the annual Thyagaraja Aradhana with the help of his friend, SI Chari, she rejects him as she cannot bear his overbearing nature and constant complaining and nitpicking. Distraught, Ambi attempts suicide, almost drowning himself before having second thoughts. Subsequently, Ambi develops another personality named Remo, a metrosexual fashion model. Nandini becomes smitten with Remo and falls in love with him.

While purchasing a plot of land for her dowry, Nandini undervalues the property to evade stamp duty. Ambi, who accompanies her to the government office, refuses to help her after learning of her intention to skirt the law. Later, when Nandini and Remo are on a date, Remo transforms into Anniyan and attempts to punish her for her corrupt act. As Anniyan is about to kill her, Nandini calls out for Ambi, and Anniyan reverts back to Ambi, who collapses and loses consciousness. Nandini takes Ambi to NIMHANS, where he is diagnosed with multiple personality disorder. Through recovered-memory therapy, Vijaykumar, the chief psychiatrist of NIMHANS, uncovers Ambi's past. When Ambi was ten years old, he witnessed the accidental death of his younger sister, Vidya, due to civic apathy. The incident left a deep emotional scar, which was the reason for his lofty ideals. The psychiatrist realises that although Anniyan and Remo know about Ambi as a separate person, Ambi is oblivious to their existence within him. Vijaykumar declares that Remo will cease to exist if Nandini reciprocates Ambi's feelings, but Anniyan will cease to exist only when society reforms. Nandini accepts Ambi's love and Remo vanishes.

Meanwhile, DCP Prabhakar and Chari investigate the murders committed by Anniyan. In disguises, they discover clues left behind by Anniyan, which are the names of the punishments he meted out to his victims. Prabhakar is determined personally to punish Anniyan as one of his victims named Chockalingam, an errant catering contractor with the Indian Railways, was his elder brother. In a dramatic publicity stunt, Anniyan admits to the murders when he appears amidst the public and the press at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Anniyan explains the rationale behind the murders and says that only when every Indian is responsible and sincere can the country can prosper on par with developed nations. His methods draw both praise and criticism. Prabhakar tries to catch Anniyan, but he escapes.

On investigating the phone records and IP address of Anniyan's internet activity, Prabhakar discovers that the connection belongs to Ambi. Upon further analysis of security footage of Anniyan's public appearance, Ambi's face gets revealed under the hood. Prabhakar arrests Ambi and subjects him to a polygraph test to make him confess to his crimes. The officers see that he is telling the truth and is oblivious to killing anyone, believing in his innocence. Prabhakar gets enraged, so he orders all the officers and Chari to leave and begins brutally attacking and tormenting Ambi alone with Garuda Puranam punishments. Ambi is eventually thrown into a saltwater tank by Prabhakar. When a traumatised Ambi begs for mercy, Prabhakar mockingly uses the rapid cooling system and makes the water extremely cold, where it becomes ice, so that Ambi will freeze to death. The near-death experience and pain trigger Anniyan's reappearance. Ambi's personality alternates between him and Anniyan; he brutally subdues Prabhakar as Anniyan while begging for mercy as himself.

When Ambi gets tried for several murders, Vijaykumar testifies to Ambi's mental condition. Chari also secretly recorded Ambi's interrogation and torture at Prabhakar's hands and presented it as evidence of Ambi's mental state. Ambi is acquitted but is directed to undergo psychotherapy in a mental hospital and will be eligible for release when cured. When Ambi is released two years later, his rigid adherence to protocol has diminished and he appears more open and accommodating. He marries Nandini, and while travelling on a train during their honeymoon, Ambi notices a man (an electrician who was indirectly responsible for his sister's death several years ago) drinking among fellow passengers. Moving himself and Nandini away from the man, he secretly transforms into Anniyan and throws the man off the train, thus killing him. However, Ambi hides the incident from Nandini, revealing that instead of eradicating his other personality, the two characters have blended into one identity.

Cast edit

  • Vikram as Parthasarathy Ramanujam "Ambi" Iyengar / Anniyan / Remo
    • Viraj as Young Ramanujam "Ambi" Iyengar
  • Sadha as Nandhini Krishnan, Ambi's love interest turned wife (voice dubbed by Kaniha)
  • Prakash Raj as DCP Prabhakar
  • Vivek as SI Chari, Ambi's best friend
  • Nedumudi Venu as Parthasarathy Iyengar, Ambi's father
  • Nassar as Vijay Kumar, Ambi's psychiatrist
  • Cochin Haneefa as Ramanathan, a delinquent car owner killed by Anniyan
  • Kalabhavan Mani as Ponnambalam, a covetous landlord later killed by Anniyan
  • Sairam Sukumaran as P. A. Bhirama
  • Charle as Aarumugam, a wastrel later killed by Anniyan
  • Shanmugarajan as Chockalingam, the railway contract caterer, DCP Prabhakar's brother killed by Anniyan
  • Saurabh Shukla as Ethirajan Naidu, the brake cable company owner killed by Anniyan
  • Shanthi Williams as Susheela Iyengar, Ambi's mother
  • Neelu as Ananthanarayanan, secretary of the Sangeetha Academy
  • Sriranjani as Janaki, Nandhini's mother (voice dubbed by Meera Krishnan)
  • Vatsala Rajagopal as Lakshmi, Ambi's grandma
  • Mohan Vaidya as Krishnan, Nandhini's father
  • Divya Nagesh as Vidya, Ambi's late sister
  • Citizen Mani as a cook who works under Chockalingam
  • P. Unnikrishnan in a cameo appearance as singer in Thyagaraja Festival
  • Master Wong as Karate Master
  • Manobala as TTR Raja
  • Suryakanth as Lineman Kandhasamy killed by Anniyan
  • Stunt Silva as a passerby (uncredited)
  • Yana Gupta as a club dancer in the item number "Kaadhal Yaanai"

Production edit

Pre-production edit

During the making of his Hindi film directorial debut Nayak starring Anil Kapoor in early 2001, director S. Shankar had conceived a science fiction film titled Robot. A futuristic techno-thriller set in the 22nd century Chennai, the film was to star Kamal Haasan and Preity Zinta.[a][5] However, after completing a photo-shoot featuring the two, the production was shelved due to various reasons, including Haasan's unavailability of dates and creative differences with the director.[6][7][8] Shankar postponed the project indefinitely and made the coming of age film, Boys (2003).[b] When the post-production work of Boys was underway, Shankar was awaiting the return of its composer A. R. Rahman, who was then outside India, to complete the background score. In the meantime, Shankar had an idea for a storyline and called Vikram, who expressed enthusiasm for the subject.[10][11]

Development edit

As a common man, so many happenings in society disturb me. These leave scars on my mind. In fact, they are my creative spur. I react to social happenings on an imaginative plane.

 — Shankar, on how the film evolved.[12]

Following the release of Boys in August 2003,[13] Shankar began work on his next directorial venture entitled Anniyan. It was initially thought to be Shankar's pet project Robot revived with a new title, but this was later proven not to be correct.[14] Shankar said the film was his "dream project" and disclosed that it would be a racy, fantasy-thriller.[15][16] When questioned on how the idea behind the film had come to him, the director revealed, "The seeds of all my movies were sown when I was young, long before I started making movies. So many things disturbed me, and these stayed with me. Those were the seeds. I make films based on them."[10]

With the highest production value among Tamil films of its time, the film was touted to be the director's magnum opus and was labelled "the most eagerly awaited film of the year" by the media.[10][17] The film deals with a person having dissociative identity disorder, commonly known as "multiple personality disorder" (MPD) or "split personality syndrome".[18][19] It was compared to Chandramukhi, released two months before, as it also focused on a character with the same syndrome.[20][21]

Casting edit

To portray the lead character, Shankar needed a performer who could play an action hero. He chose Vikram as he felt that the actor, in addition to being a performer, had the image of an action hero. While his casting was made public in a November 2003 news report announcing the project's inception, the director revealed that Vikram was added to the cast in mid-2003 and refuted theories that the actor's casting was to capitalise on his new-found popularity following his success at the National Film Awards, where he won the National Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film Pithamagan (2003). Stating that Vikram was selected for the lead role months before the theatrical release of Pithamagan, Shankar added, "I don't look at actors that way."[10][14] He further remarked that Vikram was the "life and soul" of Anniyan.[15]

The heroine role of a "devoted Iyengar Brahmin girl" was originally offered to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who was too busy to accommodate production dates. After months of waiting for her call sheet, Shankar eventually offered the role to Sadha.[22] Expressing hope that it would be "an important movie" in her career, Sadha accepted the offer, working on the film for 120 days, adding, "I have a major role to play in Anniyan. There are few heavy portions involving me in the movie that I have given my best." She considered being a part of a Shankar film, especially during the early stages of her career, as a "god's gift" and a "once-in-a-lifetime experience".[23][24][25] However, when offered similar roles following the film's success, she refused to be typecast and stated, "I am now looking for roles where my creative potential is tapped. I don't want to be part of such cinema where all one has to do is dance around trees."[26]

Vivek, Prakash Raj, Nedumudi Venu and Nassar appear in supporting roles.[27] Mohan Vaidhya, a carnatic vocalist and occasional actor, plays a minuscule role as Sadha's father Krishna.[28] Malavika Avinash was approached to play Vikram's mother; she rejected the offer, stating, "I am too young to do a screen mom and too old to be a heroine!"[29] Cochin Haneefa, Charle, Kalabhavan Mani, Shanmugarajan and Saurabh Shukla make cameo appearances as delinquent citizens.[30] Haneefa played an indifferent car owner who refuses to help an accident victim as he does not want his "brand new car" to be soiled with blood. Following Haneefa's death in February 2010, Vikram recalled the actor's appearance in the film and said, "Though he'd come only in a few scenes no one could miss him. For roles that have some ambiguity about whether it's a good guy or a bad guy, he is one of the best choices. Until the end, one cannot really guess if he'll end up being good or bad."[31] Comedian and character artiste Charle played an unnamed wastrel and alcoholic who extorts money from his ageing parents for his expenses and is considered by Anniyan to be a liability to society. Charle was instructed by Shankar, "People should see only the character. Only later should they realise that it was Charle."[32][33]

The role of the younger Ambi was played by child actor Hari Prashanth alias Viraj.[34] When he came to the recording studio to voice his lines, he was accompanied by his father S. N. Surendar, a singer and dubbing artiste. Shankar recognised Surendar and asked him to lend his voice for Nedumudi Venu as the latter was a Malayali.[35] In the 2004 comedy film Aethirree, which featured Sadha in the female lead, Kanika played the second lead role of a "naughty" Brahmin girl. Shankar, apparently impressed with Kanika's performance in the film, asked her to attend a voice test. When the film-makers preferred Kanika's accent and modulation among the thirty females whose voices were tested, she was selected to dub for Sadha's Brahmin role.[36]

Technical crew edit

The film was produced by V. Ravichandran under his own film production and distribution company 'Oscar Films' (presently 'Aascar Films').[37] The screenplay was written by Shankar and the film had dialogue written by writer Sujatha.[38][39] Shankar retained Sabu Cyril, his production designer from Boys, to handle the set design;[40][41] the scenes were edited by V. T. Vijayan.[15] While the action sequences were orchestrated by Peter Hein and assisted by Stunt Silva, the dance sequences were choreographed by Raju Sundaram, Kalyan and Ahmed Khan.[42][43][44] Film institute student Prabhu Raja Chozhan, who would later turn director with Karuppampatti (2013), joined Shankar as his protégé and worked as his assistant.[45]

Shankar, who grew up admiring the works of cinematographer P. C. Sreeram in films like Nayakan (1987), Agni Natchathiram (1988) and Idhayathai Thirudathe (1989), desired to collaborate and was in talks with him to handle the photography.[c] While Sreeram was intent on working in Anniyan, he could not accept the offer due to prior commitments.[46] It was initially reported in the media that Sreeram had been recruited;[22] however, Shankar chose V. Manikandan as the director of photography, impressed with his work in Main Hoon Na (2004). Manikandan had earlier collaborated with Shankar when he shot the music video of the song "Secret of Success" in Boys. Manikandan gave six months of bulk dates for the project; but, when the production was troubled by delays, Shankar demanded three more months to complete the film. Manikandan walked out in October 2004 citing scheduling conflicts and Shankar replaced him with Ravi Varman.[47][48]

During the casting stage of Boys, the film's cinematographer Ravi K. Chandran was temporarily unavailable and his then-assistant Ravi Varman handled the camera to film Genelia D'Souza's makeup test. Subsequently, Varman nurtured a desire to work with Shankar. Before Shankar commenced work on Anniyan, Varman expressed his desire to work in the film and was hopeful of landing the assignment. He was disappointed when Shankar recruited Manikandan for the project. However, when Manikandan abandoned the project after completing almost half the film, Shankar asked Varman to shoot the remaining portions of the film. Varman had committed to work in Bengali director Buddhadeb Dasgupta's next film, work on which was scheduled to begin shortly; he dropped out of it to accept Shankar's offer and termed working in Anniyan "a dream come true".[49] The film credits both Manikandan and Ravi Varman as cinematographers in title credits.

Preparation and character looks edit

I observe a lot in life and it helps perform better. Illnesses like MPD have a clinical history and you will have to stick to it to avoid an 'atypical' performance. I studied the literature on MPD and was clear about retaining the identity of each character — be it the proverbial Ambi, the rampaging Anniyan or the cool Remo.

 — Vikram on the mental make-up and preparation required to portray the role.[18]

 
Vikram as the character Anniyan, a psychotic serial killer, which won him the Filmfare Award for Best Actor.

Vikram allotted 18 months and 190 days of his call sheet for the film, including 165 days of bulk dates spread across six months.[19][22][50][51] Speaking on the extent of his involvement in the filmmaking process, Vikram said, "Before beginning the film, I was totally involved in the research and preparation, but once on the sets, I go by what the director says." He further clarified that he discussed every shot with Shankar, went for re-takes where necessary to make the scenes better, and gave suggestions, but left the "ultimate verdict" to the director. Disclosing that, among the three shades to his character, he found playing Ambi to be the toughest, he reasoned, "Because as a hero you are not used to being a wimp on screen. It's difficult digesting getting beaten up." In contrast, being a graduate in English literature, he found playing Remo much easier and more in his comfort zone.[51][52][53]

In an interview with Gulf News, Vikram spoke of the challenges in portraying all three characters while wearing the same costumes. He said, "I love such challenges. [...] Although the costume defined each of the three characters in Anniyan, there were scenes where Ambi would suddenly become Remo and Remo would become Anniyan. There I made it dramatic to bring out each character."[54] He credited his wife Shailaja Balakrishnan, a psychologist, for helping him in fleshing out the character of Ambi, a person who has multiple personality disorder.[53] In a conversation with film critic Baradwaj Rangan, Shailaja recalled the times the film was being made and spoke of Vikram, saying, "I felt we should live in two houses. It's not easy to live with a man who can get that eccentric, an actor who wants to be that difficult on himself. I wouldn't say he becomes the character, but there's definitely some kind of internalisation."[52] Vikram confessed that he had a tough time during the film's making as playing different characters affected him and he found himself going mad. He added that he would take a break after a 15-day shoot and watch the pigeons on his terrace as a way of dealing with the pressure.[54]

Vikram grew a tummy to portray Ramanujam while he sported a "macho look" for Anniyan.[10] He also grew his hair long in preparation for his role and rejected other film offers to maintain the continuity in his looks.[50][55] Together with his character looks and those that he sported in the song sequences, Vikram appears in the film in 18 different getups.[56] Vikram's look in the film was created by make-up artiste Banu.[57] For those parts that show him as metrosexual Remo, he coloured his hair in streaks of copper and blonde.[58] Unwilling to reveal his 'new look' until the film was ready, Vikram avoided the media despite winning the aforementioned National Award for the year 2003.[59] Meanwhile, Sadha's make-up and hair styling were done by Mumbai-based celebrity stylist Ojas M. Rajani.[60]

Filming edit

The film was officially launched with a traditional puja and muhurat shot on 4 March 2004 at AVM Studios, Chennai. The studio was decorated with life-sized stills showing Vikram in three distinct looks, "a voodoo hunter, a pious 'sami' and a bubbling youth"; this led the media to speculate that Vikram would be playing either a triple role or a character with three shades. The film's caption was 'He who comes from hell is not afraid of hot ashes'.[16][27][61][62] During the launch function, Shankar expressed hope of completing the film in six months and releasing the film on 12 November 2004, coinciding with the Diwali festival.[63] However, the production, which began shortly afterwards in May 2004, was marred by several delays and took 14 months to complete.[15] The film was shot in Amsterdam, Malaysia, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Tenkasi, Thanjavur, Villupuram and Chennai.[59][64][65]

The film stars a scene at the Thiruvaiyaru Thyagaraja Utsavam. The Utsavam is a week-long music festival which commemorates the 18th-century saint-composer Tyagaraja, revered as one of the greatest composers of carnatic music, and is held annually at his resting place in Thiruvaiyaru, Thanjavur.[66][67] With the use of sets, the art department recreated the Tyagaraja Aradhana near Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu.[68] For filming the scene, the crew recreated a performance of the famous kriti "Jagadānanda kārakā", the first of the five Pancharatna Kriti compositions of Tyagaraja, as performed during Tyagaraja Aradhana.[69][70] The aradhana, held on the fifth day of the festival, witnesses exponents of carnatic music from across the world converging at his samaadhi, where they sing his pancharatna kritis in unison as an homage to the saint.[71]

Shankar approached violin maestro Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, a regular participant at the actual event, to conceive and orchestrate the sequence. Vaidyanathan was serving as the secretary of Sri Thyagabrahma Mahotsava Sabha, the committee which organises the aradhana.[72] The scene features him in a cameo and was shot in June 2004 at a studio in Chennai.[73][74] Realistic sets were erected to resemble the actual venue and leading carnatic vocalists Sudha Ragunathan, Sirkazhi G. Sivachidambaram, O. S. Arun, P. Unni Krishnan and instrumentalists such as violinist A. Kanyakumari, mridangam exponent Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman were recruited to add a touch of authenticity.[75] The two-minute scene was brought to life in "painstaking detail". The sequence was much talked about and well appreciated.[76]

 
The camera setup employed for the time slice technique.[d]

In a fight sequence, Anniyan encounters about a hundred martial artists inside the fictional International Martial Arts School, Vodao.[77] The stunt scene was shot at the JJ Indoor Stadium in Chennai over a period of 25 days.[78][79] Peter Hein, the stunt choreographer, is a native of Vietnam. 127 professionally trained fighters were brought in from Vietnam for the shoot.[79][80] During the rehearsals, the rope, to which the stuntmen were tied and hung upside down, gave in.[78] About a dozen stuntmen crashed down from the balcony, injuring themselves badly.[81] The action sequence was shot using 120 cameras for employing the time slice photography technique, a visual effect known as "bullet time" and popularised by the American film The Matrix (1999), to achieve the frozen-time effect.[15] Shankar had earlier toyed with the idea of time-slice and tried it while filming the song "Ale Ale" in his Boys.[82] While the time-freeze sequence in Boys was achieved by the linking of 60–62 cameras to attain a 180° rotation, Anniyan employed 120–122 cameras for a 270° rotation.[83][84]

The scene where Anniyan addresses a huge gathering was shot in a stadium in Hyderabad. As he speaks to the audience, the lights turn on and off in the background. Speaking on how the sequence was filmed, Ravi Varman said that they decided not to light up the entire stadium as they felt it would have looked flat. As the sequence was important to the film, he juxtaposed the stadium with light and shadow so that it would look different.[49] During the pre-climax scene, when Ambi is held custody and enquired by Prabhakar, Ambi's persona keeps switching between the characters Ambi and Anniyan. Dubbed the "chameleon act" in the media, Vikram claims to have completed the sequence in a single take.[85][86]

An action sequence was filmed in a set erected in Campa Cola grounds, Chennai.[87] For the scene where Remo courts Nandini, a chemical tube brought from Malaysia was used to measure how attractive a person is.[88] For filming scenes based on the punishments, buffaloes and snakes were transported in hundreds exclusively from Vellore and the sequence was shot for about three days.[89] The "Anthakoopam" punishment sequence featuring the buffaloes was filmed in a set erected in Chennai's Prasad Studios. The animals were transported in 15 lorries containing 20 buffaloes each. For the scene where Charle's character is killed by Anniyan, the studio was filled with snake charmers who were brought in to handle the large number of snakes.[56]

Song sequences edit

The semi-classical song "Kumari" was the first of the scenes to be shot.[23] Filmed at the World Flower Show in May 2004, the sequence was picturised in a large tulip garden located in the city of Vijfhuizen near Amsterdam, Netherlands.[75] The song was shot during the Netherlands International Flower Show called Floriade, a decennial event which was held between 10 April and 20 October 2004.[17][90][91] While the crew had planned to film another song at a garden in Keukenhof, they were denied permission by the authorities as a previous Indian film crew had damaged the habitat a few weeks before.[90][e]

The song features the lead pair singing amidst a flower farm as mridangam and flute players accompany them in the background.[f][17] It was choreographed by Raju Sundaram who also appears in a cameo, playing a harmonium. As part of their roles, the male supporting actors who appear in the song were required to wear a panjakkacham and angavastram, leaving most of their body exposed to the freezing cold. The shoot began as early as 5:30 AM and the locals, who thought they should be out of their mind to be dressed so, came up to them and warned that they might freeze to death.[94]

"Iyengaru Veetu", a semi-classical song, begins with a prelude of the Pancharatna Kriti "Jagadānanda kārakā". The actual song which follows later was picturised on a set erected at AVM Studios made to look like an old traditional Iyengar home in Thanjavur. The song was shot extravagantly with the lead pair and the dozens of support dancers sporting rich, colourful costumes.[17]

In December 2004, a ten-day shoot was held in Mumbai for the item number "Kadhal Yaanai" featuring Vikram alongside a top model, whose identity was initially undisclosed to generate curiosity.[95] It was later revealed to be Czech-based model Yana Gupta.[96][97] Filmed by Ravi Varman and choreographed by Ahmed Khan, the song was filmed like a fashion show where Vikram and Yana Gupta wear fashionable clothes and sashay along a ramp.[44] The song was filmed in a set erected in a studio to resemble a famous night-spot in London.[17]

The track "Kannum Kannum Nokia", a peppy and trendy love duet choreographed by Raju Sundaram, was picturised on the lead pair and had them wearing costumes made entirely of designer labels. The song was picturised in Malaysia at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Petronas Towers. The song, filmed during the night, was reportedly the first song to be shot at the airport.[17][44][51][98] Ravi Varman revealed in an interview that the song was shot like a commercial.[49] The song was also filmed at the Nokia Headquarters in Espoo, Finland.[99]

The folk song "Andangkaaka" was shot in a village near Sengottai.[100] For filming the song, a huge set was erected to resemble a village.[15] The sets were visualised and created by Sabu Cyril, the film's art director. Shankar adopted a village near Tenkasi and Sabu Cyril painted all the houses, roads, rocks and even a bridge in varied colours. They then hired hundreds of lorries and old model ambassador cars and painted faces on them. The faces of actors were painted on rock mountains.[75] The lead pair were joined by hundreds of dancers and the total cost of the song worked out to ₹10 million.[17][41] In all, 350 houses were painted.[101]

Post-production edit

In the narrative, Ambi is referred to the website, www.anniyan.com. Shankar envisioned that the website would take visitors through all the punishments that await sinners in hell. For designing the website, Shankar wanted to recreate hell and approached the Visual Computing Labs (VCL) of Tata Elxsi, a Mumbai-based company with which he had collaborated earlier for the song "Girlfriend" in Boys. The team at VCL conceptualised and created a 'hell' in 3d animation with the punishments taken from ancient scriptures. They also designed a grim reaper astride his bull who guides visitors through hell. Pankaj Khandpur, creative director of VCL said, "We tried to stay true to the scriptures, while creating imagery that wasn't too gory. [...] an interesting project since we had to visualise it all without any reference point." The animation was done in a span of three months.[102]

VCL also did the CGI for a "cosmic zoom" scene, where the camera zooms from beyond the clouds to the streets of Chennai city, which no real camera can achieve. Aerial views and paintings of the city were stitched together along with computer generated images (CGI) of clouds to create the long, one-piece camera zoom.[102] Animator and special effects designer L. I. Kannan, who would later turn director with the long-delayed period film Karikalan with Vikram in the lead, also worked on the special effects.[103][104] Meanwhile, the special effects for the time-slice sequence were rendered by Big Freeze in London.[84]

The scene where Anniyan addresses a packed audience in Nehru Stadium was filmed with the space empty. The crowd was created through visual effects using crowd multiplication methods. The VFX for the sequence was done under the supervision of visual effects consultant Zameer Hussain of Land Marvel Animation Studios, Chennai.[105] The scene, in which hundreds of buffaloes chase down a delinquent car owner into an abandoned sand quarry and trample him to death, was accomplished through CGI using just one buffalo. The CG work, was supplied by Jayakumar and V. Srinivas Mohan of the Chennai-based firm, Indian Artists Computer Graphics. Srinivas and his team had earlier worked with Shankar in Boys. Speaking of the sequence, Srinivas quipped, "The animals are lethargic and listless in their movements. Nothing can make them agile."[106][107]

Themes and influences edit

The storyline in Anniyan is typical of Shankar's yen for showcasing society's ills and targets the inept, rules-flouting public.[38] The film sheds light on the increasing social apathy and public negligence, and attempts to address these issues which plague the society and hamper the development of India.[108] S. Anand of Outlook noted that most of Shankar's films portray the hero as a "one-man agent of change" and cited, "From the neo-Nazi character Kamal Haasan plays in Indian to his last film Anniyan, featuring a schizophrenic Brahmin serial killer who butchers 'wrongdoers', Shankar has always offered fascist-fantastic solutions to what he perceives as social ills resulting from typical governmental inertia."[109]

In an interview with The Hindu, Shankar elaborated on the message he conveys through the film:[15]

I have travelled to many parts of the globe, especially the developed countries, and I am fascinated by the rapid strides that they have made in all fields. But back home, I am upset to see the neglect, poverty and the laid back approach of our youngsters. I often think that we are a lazy country. [...] My story is about a person who tries to bring (about) a change within our society. The issue that I am trying to solve is inherent weakness within our society and some motivation to move forward like other nations.

Following the release of the trailer on 7 May 2005, the film was believed to be inspired by the 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson novel, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.[110][111] Upon the film's release, The Hindu drew parallels between it and the 1998 novel Tell Me Your Dreams by Sidney Sheldon.[112] Shankar denied that the film was inspired by Tell Me Your Dreams, claiming that he knew of the novel only after completing the script.[113] Sify compared the character of Ambi to the protagonist of The Mask (1994), a film about a "mild mannered guy changing into a one-man army, craving to see natural justice realised".[44]

The methods of punishment meted out to the sinners by Anniyan in the film is based on Garuda Purana, a Vaishnavite purana which speaks of life after death and punishments for wrongdoers. Shankar pointed out that he "worked tirelessly day and night and intense research was done with the help of a professor in department of Vaishnavism in Madras University."[114]

Music edit

Main article: Anniyan (soundtrack)

The album marked Shankar's first collaboration with Harris Jayaraj; all his previous directorial ventures had A. R. Rahman composing the music.[15] As Rahman was busy with his debut Broadway musical Bombay Dreams and had also signed up for another musical Lord of the Rings, Rahman and Shankar decided to part ways.[14] In early 2004, Harris Jayaraj went on a trip to Phuket Islands in Thailand for some inspiration for the album; he was accompanied by Shankar and Vairamuthu. Eventually, the three songs penned by the lyricist were composed in the island. The visit took place much before the tragic 2004 tsunami struck the countries bordering the Indian Ocean and wreaked havoc.[115] In a chat with Shankar, Harris Jayaraj said "the music was a challenge because the film was a mix of genres – action, comedy, thriller. In essence, it was a cock-mocktail .."[12] Harris Jayaraj commenced the film's re-recording in April 2005 and took more than a month to complete, delaying the film's release.[116] The soundtrack album features six tracks, including a theme music; the lyrics for the songs were written by Vairamuthu, Na. Muthukumar and Kabilan. The album was released as a soft launch on 13 May 2005.[117][118]

Release

The film cleared the censors without any cuts and was rated "U" (Universal) by the Central Board of Film Certification.[119] While Shankar had hoped to release the film on Diwali 2004, there were numerous production delays which postponed the release date through early 2005.[61] While production was completed in March 2005, the re-recording which began in April took more time than anticipated lasting nearly 45 days with Harris Jayaraj being blamed for further delays.[120] After the film was postponed from 20 May 2005, and later, from 27 May 2005,[110][121] the film was finally scheduled for 10 June 2005.[122] But, Shankar released it a week later on 17 June 2005 as he considered 8 as his lucky number (1+7 yielding 8).[123]

The film was dubbed into other South Indian languages and was released simultaneously in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.[86] The film was also released in key overseas countries like the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Germany, Malaysia and Singapore. The film was released with 404 prints in Tamil and Telugu alone.[37] Later, the film was dubbed into French by Paramount Pictures.[124] Reportedly, Anniyan is the first Indian film to be dubbed into French and released in French-speaking countries worldwide by Columbia Tristar.[108][125] The film was further dubbed and released in Hindi as Aparichit: The Stranger on 19 May 2006.[126] It is the first film featuring Vikram in the lead to have a theatrical release in Hindi.[127] At a private screening held a day before its Hindi theatrical release, the film received a "warm reception".[53]

Reception edit

Malathi Rangarajan of The Hindu said that the film works as it melds an interesting screen line with racy action. She also noted that the story resembled Shankar's Indian (1996) a lot while also bearing semblance to his Gentleman (1993). She remarked that the story and screenplay deserved to be lauded for its "ingenious sparks in narration" but problems arose with respect to its plausibility. She then declared, " [...] some of the best camera shots, stunts and locations on a mind-boggling scale have been showcased. If you enjoy magnificence in cinema you will like this Anniyan."[38]

Krishnakumar wrote for Rediff.com that learning from the debacle of Boys, the director went back to his strength by taking a social theme, spicing it up and serving the perfect commercial fare. He added that in trying to explain multiple personality disorder in the simplest of terms, the director has only succeeded to a certain extent as a majority of viewers who are not that well informed might not even comprehend what is being said.[128]

Visual Dasan of Kalki wrote that both the art director Sabu Cyril and composer Harris Jayaraj lent their hand to Shankar's grand visions, adding that everyone could bow down to Shankar's social responsibility of exaggerating colorful entertainment and sensitising the fan by watching Anniyan once while appreciating Vikram for his performance in three different characters and that Anniyan's transformation reminded him of Jim Carrey from The Mask. Dasan also appreciated Shankar for perfectly using other actors wherever necessary.[129]

Labelling the film as a "must see", a reviewer at Sify acclaimed that the film holds the viewers riveted with its racy narration, a relevant message backed with technical wizardry, never-seen before colourful song picturisation and particularly the performance of Vikram. Yet, the reviewer criticised that the film was too lengthy and the story too thin on logic.[44]

Reviewing Aparichithudu, the Telugu version of the film, The Hindu said that it was watchable.[130] Regarding the Hindi version of the film, Raja Sen of Rediff.com derided the pathetic dubbing though saying that it was refreshing and watchable, despite boasting of enough masala to make the viewers sneeze. He concluded his review by saying, "Overall, Aparichit is a slickly made, well-paced actioner that works quite well, despite the dub. The film is engaging and crisply scripted, and the action is never too excessive, lightened by jokes and general tomfoolery that never offensively interrupts the actual plot."[131]

Awards edit

Following the commercial success of the Telugu version Aparichitudu, which was a runaway hit in Andhra Pradesh, Shankar was felicitated by Sri Venkateswara Social and Cultural Organisation (SVESCO) of Tirupati and was conferred the title 'Darsaka Brahma'.[132] In a conversation with athlete Shiny Wilson, actor Jayaram remarked, "Anniyan was a runaway hit in Kerala. But if a Malayalam star had tried out an Anniyan-kind of role with a weird hairdo, it would have been a disaster!"[133]

The film received numerous awards and nominations. The film won National Award in the Special Effects category.[102][134] Anniyan became the fourth film directed by Shankar to receive that award; the other three are Kadhalan (1994), Indian (1996) and Jeans (1998).[135] It also won eight out of the total 15 awards awarded by Filmfare for the best of Tamil cinema.

Economics edit

Pre-release edit

By the time the production was nearing completion, the trade sources had estimated the film to cost around ₹120–150 million; but, as often happens with films directed by Shankar, the budget was overshot.[15] Made at a cost of ₹263.8 million (worth ₹1,414.3 million in 2021 prices), Anniyan was touted as the most expensive South Indian film to be ever made during the time of its release.[37]

IndiaGlitz estimates that the total production cost, excluding the remuneration cost of the cast and technicians, is ₹90 million.[56] It was the first Tamil film and the first in South India to get institutional finance. For its institutional finance, it procured a sum of ₹95 million from IDBI Bank.[15][37] Anniyan was insured by United India Insurance for ₹150 million, thereby making it the first south Indian film to be insured and also the largest insurance cover extended to a south Indian film at that time.[51]

Distribution edit

With the amount of hype the film generated in the media, theatre owners eagerly came forward and offered hefty prices as Minimum Guarantee (MG).[g][63] In Tamil Nadu, funds amounting to ₹120 million were gathered as MG and advance.[37] The MG raised through audio rights and movie distribution to theatres in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka and overseas fetched a combined sum of ₹224 million.[140] The film was distributed and released throughout Tamil Nadu by Aascar Films.[140]

The rights for Aparichithudu, the Telugu-dubbed version, was bought by a producer for an all-time record price.[15][64] Meanwhile, the film was sold in Kerala for ₹13 million, which was again a record for a Tamil film there.[63] The US rights was bought by the distribution house Bharat Creations.[141] With the theatrical rights and pre-release booking, the trade circuit predicted that the film would recover its cost within ten days of its release.[37]

Box office edit

The advance booking for the film began on 14 June 2005 across Tamil Nadu and received overwhelming response from the audience which the trade circuit felt was "phenomenal".[142] The film took a "historic opening" worldwide and set multiple records at the box office. A day after release, the film was touted as a hit. In its opening weekend (17–19 June), Anniyan grossed ₹5.024 million from only six multiplexes in Chennai and reached #1 position at the Chennai box-office. In Sathyam Cinemas alone, the film grossed ₹1.4 million, the highest ever three-day opening from a single multiplex in South India.[143][144][145]

A week after release, the film grossed more than ₹10 million in Chennai, ₹2.7 million in Sathyam Cinemas, ₹7.1 million from 10 prints in Salem and netted ₹4.1 million in Coimbatore which were all box office records. And beyond Tamil Nadu, the film earned the distributors ₹12.7 million from Nizam in Andhra, ₹5 million in Karnataka and ₹1 million from 3 screens in Mumbai.[146] The film got a hundred percent opening and surpassed Chandramukhi as the top-grossing Tamil film of the week, a position occupied by the latter since its release on 14 April 2005. IndiaGlitz likened the Vikram-Shankar combo to that of Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara batting together.[147] The trade pundits estimated that V. Ravichandran would get a distributor's share of ₹80–100 million in its first week from cinemas across Tamil Nadu. A week after its release, the Telugu-dubbed version Aparichithudu was declared a hit in Andhra Pradesh. Distributor Karunakara Reddy of Megha Films in Hyderabad quipped, "Aparichitudu has taken an opening just like a Telugu superstar film and should collect a distributor's share of Rs. 5–7 crores for the Nizam area alone."[143] In Kerala, Anniyan released in 35 screens across the state, receiving a "record opening" for a Tamil film and became the first Tamil film to get a distributors' share of ₹6.2 million in its first week.[148] A fortnight after its release, the film was labelled a "super hit" in Tamil cinema's half-yearly report compiled by film trade analyst for The Hindu Sreedhar Pillai.[149]

In exactly a six-week theatrical run, Anniyan netted ₹10.5 million with a distributor's share of around ₹5.2 million. It was an "all India record for collections, the highest share in least number of days from any theatre in India." However, in Tamil Nadu, collections began dropping five weeks after its release and it was estimated that the film would earn a share of ₹ 160 million.[150] In September 2005, the film's gross earnings surpassed the US$2 million milestone.[151] At the completion of a 50-day run at Sathyam Cinemas, Anniyan "recorded the highest 50 days collection for a Tamil film from a single screen in the world" earning ₹11.29 million.[152]

Anniyan was declared a blockbuster at the close of the year and, together with Chandramukhi, earned an estimated gross of ₹1.1 billion worldwide.[153] The film also collected a distributor's share of ₹20 million.[154] In Andhra Pradesh, Aparichitudu was named the biggest hit of 2005.[155][156] The film did better business than straight Telugu films.[157][158] It was the highest grosser among all Telugu films released that year.[159] The film's success earned Vikram a big fan-following in Andhra.[160] It also prompted producers in the Telugu film industry, which had hit a rough patch following a spate of box-office failures, to acquire the dubbing rights to Vikram's previous Tamil films and release them in Telugu.[161][162]

In Kerala, the film ran for more than 150 days and grossed over ₹60 million, it became the highest grossing Tamil film in Kerala at that time.[163][164] In Karnataka too, the film was a "big success" although the exact box-office figures are not known.[165] However, the film's Hindi version Aparichit opened to poor reception earning only ₹21 million across 150 screens and was declared a flop by Box Office India.[166][167] While acknowledging that the film underperformed at the box-office, Vikram stated that it nevertheless made an impact. He further added that the film got him recognition from people in the remote corners of India as the drama and the action sequences greatly appealed to them.[168] By the end of its theatrical run, the film had grossed ₹570 million in its lifetime.[2][169]

Legacy edit

In an August 2005 seminar titled "Revisiting psychiatric disorders in Tamil films", where the discussion revolved around the films Chandramukhi and Anniyan, psychiatrist Asokan found many logical faults in both films. While acknowledging that Anniyan was a technically better film, he stated that it did not explain some of the medical theories.[170] In another August 2005 seminar conducted to mark the anniversary of the Quit India Movement, where participants were urged to actively fight corruption, the convener T. Hema Kumari referred to the films Bhaarateeyudu (the Telugu dubbed version of Indian) and Aparichitudu. She noted that while such films which depict a fight against corruption were appreciated, people were reluctant to join movements against such issues.[171]

Remake plans edit

In April 2021, it was announced that Shankar would direct a Hindi remake with Ranveer Singh reprising Vikram's role.[172] However, in August 2021, it was reported that the remake is stalled due to the differences with producer V. Ravichandran.[173][174][175] Ravichandran alleged that the film was getting a remake without his consent and he challenged it.[176]

Impact edit

During the 20th Vijayawada Book Festival held at Vijayawada in January 2009, Garuda Puranam, one of the 18 puranas of Hinduism, was a best-seller. Writing for The Hindu, G.V. Ramana Rao said that the book was made popular following several mentions in the film and sold like "hot cakes".[177] Following the stupendous success of Aparichitudu in Andhra Pradesh, the State Transport Corporation of Warangal named a bus Remo, after the character played by Vikram in the film.[156] When stand-up comedian and television anchor Bosskey launched a quirky play titled Dada (Don) in October 2005, he named the cast after famous characters in Tamil films. Accordingly, Anniyan (one of Vikram's character in the film), Badshah (Rajinikanth in Baashha) and Velu Nayakkar (Kamal Haasan's role in Nayakan) play the central characters of a family of brothers.[178] Similarly, in the 2013 comedy film Onbadhule Guru, in which the characters were named after popular protagonists of Tamil cinema, a member of the supporting cast was christened Anniyan.[179]

The characters played by Vikram were spoofed by Vadivelu in the Tamil film Aaru (2005); the comedy sequence also features four songs from the film's soundtrack album.[180][181] Aparichitudu, the film's Telugu version, was parodied by comedian Venu Madhav in the Telugu films Chatrapati (2005) and Seenugadu Chiranjeevi Fan (2005).[182][183] It was also parodied, along with Chandramukhi, in the film Rajababu (2006).[184] In the 2010 film Thamizh Padam, a full-length parody on stereotypical characters and clichéd sequences in Tamil cinema, the lead actor Shiva recreates the "Anthakoopam" punishment sequence to comic effect, where he tries to force a herd of buffaloes into stampeding a villain but fails in his attempt.[185][186] Later, the comedy sequence was re-enacted by Allari Naresh in Sudigadu (2012), an official remake of Thamizh Padam.[187][188] In the 2012 Kannada film Yaare Koogadali, a remake of the Tamil film Poraali (2011), the long and unkempt hair sported by Puneeth Rajkumar was reportedly inspired by the look of Anniyan.[189] The character Remo inspired Sivakarthikeyan's film to have a title of the same name.[190][191]

See also edit

Notes edit

  1. ^ According to a 2004 report by The Hindu, the film was supposedly set in 2200 A.D. whereas a 2008 report by Sify claims that, according to the director's original one-line script, the film was set in 3000 A.D.[3][4]
  2. ^ He would later renew Robot as Enthiran (2010) with Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai featuring in the lead.[9]
  3. ^ Earlier, Sreeram had turned down Shankar's offer to work in Indian (1996) as he did not want to affect the career chances of his former assistant Jeeva, who was the cinematographer in Shankar's directorials until that point.[46]
  4. ^ According to Shankar, time-slicing is about numerous stills on a camera system consisting of 120 cameras, a special ring and precise control in post-production to achieve a frozen-time effect.[15]
  5. ^ However, according to Aparna Karthikeyan of The Hindu and a 2011 report by Sify, the song was shot in the tulip gardens of Keukenhof.[92][93]
  6. ^ Written as per sources. In the song however, the accompanying instruments include one each of a mridangam, harmonium, shruti box and kanjira.
  7. ^ The Economic Times defines 'Minimum Guarantee' as an initial sum that is paid to the producer by the distributor irrespective of how the film performs. A revenue sharing arrangement is worked out, whereby the producer will get a portion of the profits that the distributor makes.[139]

References edit

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Bibliography edit

External links edit

January 01, 1970
anniyan, transl, stranger, 2005, indian, tamil, language, psychological, action, thriller, film, directed, shankar, produced, ravichandran, aascar, films, film, centres, disillusioned, everyman, whose, frustration, what, sees, increasing, social, apathy, publi. Anniyan transl Stranger is a 2005 Indian Tamil language psychological action thriller film directed by S Shankar and produced by V Ravichandran of Aascar Films The film centres on a disillusioned everyman whose frustration at what he sees as increasing social apathy and public negligence leads to a split personality that attempts to improve the system Vikram stars as Ambi an idealistic law abiding lawyer who has multiple personality disorder and develops two other identities a suave fashion model named Remo and a murderous vigilante named Anniyan Sadha Vivek Nedumudi Venu Nassar and Prakash Raj also featured in pivotial supporting roles AnniyanTheatrical release posterDirected byS ShankarWritten byS Shankar Story amp Screenplay Sujatha Dialogues Produced byV RavichandranStarringVikram SadhaCinematographyRavi Varman V ManikandanEdited byV T VijayanMusic byHarris JayarajProductioncompanyOscar FilmsDistributed byOscar FilmsRelease date17 June 2005 2005 06 17 Running time181 minutes 1 CountryIndiaLanguageTamilBudget 20 croreBox officeest 57 crore 2 Shankar conceived the film in mid 2003 during the post production period of his previous film Boys He based the film on his own life experiences during his formative years when he was disturbed by what he saw around him and his eventual displeasure with the society Pre production for Anniyan began in November 2003 and principal photography in March 2004 The making of the film which included numerous production delays took 14 months The film was shot at Hyderabad Thanjavur Tindivanam and Chennai and the song sequences were filmed in Mumbai Malaysia Amsterdam and Tenkasi The film was notable for its recreation of the Tyagaraja Aradhana music festival and the extensive use of time slice photography in an action sequence Cinematographer V Manikandan abandoned the project halfway through until he was replaced with Ravi Varman The technical departments were headed by V T Vijayan editing Sabu Cyril production design and Peter Hein action choreography and the soundtrack was composed by Harris Jayaraj who was in his first collaboration with the director The film was touted as the director s magnum opus and was budgeted at 263 8 million making it at the time of its release the most expensive Indian film ever made Notably it was the first South Indian film to obtain institutional finance and it had the highest insurance coverage available for films at that time Originally filmed in Tamil and released simultaneously in the four South Indian states on 10 June 2005 Anniyan was dubbed into Telugu as Aparichithudu and Hindi as Aparichit The Stranger was released a year later on 19 May 2006 The film was also dubbed into French and released in French speaking countries worldwide by Columbia Tristar The film received positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success across South India In addition to winning a record breaking eight Filmfare Awards and six State Film Awards the film also won a National Award in the Special Effects category Contents 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Production 3 1 Pre production 3 2 Development 3 3 Casting 3 4 Technical crew 3 5 Preparation and character looks 3 6 Filming 3 7 Song sequences 3 8 Post production 4 Themes and influences 5 Music 6 Release 7 Reception 8 Awards 9 Economics 9 1 Pre release 9 2 Distribution 9 3 Box office 10 Legacy 11 Remake plans 12 Impact 13 See also 14 Notes 15 References 16 Bibliography 17 External linksPlot editRamanujam Iyengar alias Ambi is a straightforward consumer protection advocate from Triplicane who expects everyone to follow the law and prosecutes those who violate it but his efforts fail as circumstantial evidence favours the accused Ambi s efforts to raise civic awareness fail due to a general lack of seriousness and widespread corruption Frustrated Ambi s suppressed anger manifests as an alter ego called Anniyan a grim reaper themed vigilante who seeks out corrupt and indifferent individuals in order to eliminate them Anniyan creates a website where he compiles a list of wrongdoers and kills them using punishments described in the ancient Hindu scripture Garuda Purana Ambi secretly loves his neighbour named Nandini a medical student and an aspiring Carnatic singer but never expresses his feelings due to fear of rejection When Ambi gets the courage to propose Nandini during the annual Thyagaraja Aradhana with the help of his friend SI Chari she rejects him as she cannot bear his overbearing nature and constant complaining and nitpicking Distraught Ambi attempts suicide almost drowning himself before having second thoughts Subsequently Ambi develops another personality named Remo a metrosexual fashion model Nandini becomes smitten with Remo and falls in love with him While purchasing a plot of land for her dowry Nandini undervalues the property to evade stamp duty Ambi who accompanies her to the government office refuses to help her after learning of her intention to skirt the law Later when Nandini and Remo are on a date Remo transforms into Anniyan and attempts to punish her for her corrupt act As Anniyan is about to kill her Nandini calls out for Ambi and Anniyan reverts back to Ambi who collapses and loses consciousness Nandini takes Ambi to NIMHANS where he is diagnosed with multiple personality disorder Through recovered memory therapy Vijaykumar the chief psychiatrist of NIMHANS uncovers Ambi s past When Ambi was ten years old he witnessed the accidental death of his younger sister Vidya due to civic apathy The incident left a deep emotional scar which was the reason for his lofty ideals The psychiatrist realises that although Anniyan and Remo know about Ambi as a separate person Ambi is oblivious to their existence within him Vijaykumar declares that Remo will cease to exist if Nandini reciprocates Ambi s feelings but Anniyan will cease to exist only when society reforms Nandini accepts Ambi s love and Remo vanishes Meanwhile DCP Prabhakar and Chari investigate the murders committed by Anniyan In disguises they discover clues left behind by Anniyan which are the names of the punishments he meted out to his victims Prabhakar is determined personally to punish Anniyan as one of his victims named Chockalingam an errant catering contractor with the Indian Railways was his elder brother In a dramatic publicity stunt Anniyan admits to the murders when he appears amidst the public and the press at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium Anniyan explains the rationale behind the murders and says that only when every Indian is responsible and sincere can the country can prosper on par with developed nations His methods draw both praise and criticism Prabhakar tries to catch Anniyan but he escapes On investigating the phone records and IP address of Anniyan s internet activity Prabhakar discovers that the connection belongs to Ambi Upon further analysis of security footage of Anniyan s public appearance Ambi s face gets revealed under the hood Prabhakar arrests Ambi and subjects him to a polygraph test to make him confess to his crimes The officers see that he is telling the truth and is oblivious to killing anyone believing in his innocence Prabhakar gets enraged so he orders all the officers and Chari to leave and begins brutally attacking and tormenting Ambi alone with Garuda Puranam punishments Ambi is eventually thrown into a saltwater tank by Prabhakar When a traumatised Ambi begs for mercy Prabhakar mockingly uses the rapid cooling system and makes the water extremely cold where it becomes ice so that Ambi will freeze to death The near death experience and pain trigger Anniyan s reappearance Ambi s personality alternates between him and Anniyan he brutally subdues Prabhakar as Anniyan while begging for mercy as himself When Ambi gets tried for several murders Vijaykumar testifies to Ambi s mental condition Chari also secretly recorded Ambi s interrogation and torture at Prabhakar s hands and presented it as evidence of Ambi s mental state Ambi is acquitted but is directed to undergo psychotherapy in a mental hospital and will be eligible for release when cured When Ambi is released two years later his rigid adherence to protocol has diminished and he appears more open and accommodating He marries Nandini and while travelling on a train during their honeymoon Ambi notices a man an electrician who was indirectly responsible for his sister s death several years ago drinking among fellow passengers Moving himself and Nandini away from the man he secretly transforms into Anniyan and throws the man off the train thus killing him However Ambi hides the incident from Nandini revealing that instead of eradicating his other personality the two characters have blended into one identity Cast editVikram as Parthasarathy Ramanujam Ambi Iyengar Anniyan Remo Viraj as Young Ramanujam Ambi Iyengar Sadha as Nandhini Krishnan Ambi s love interest turned wife voice dubbed by Kaniha Prakash Raj as DCP Prabhakar Vivek as SI Chari Ambi s best friend Nedumudi Venu as Parthasarathy Iyengar Ambi s father Nassar as Vijay Kumar Ambi s psychiatrist Cochin Haneefa as Ramanathan a delinquent car owner killed by Anniyan Kalabhavan Mani as Ponnambalam a covetous landlord later killed by Anniyan Sairam Sukumaran as P A Bhirama Charle as Aarumugam a wastrel later killed by Anniyan Shanmugarajan as Chockalingam the railway contract caterer DCP Prabhakar s brother killed by Anniyan Saurabh Shukla as Ethirajan Naidu the brake cable company owner killed by Anniyan Shanthi Williams as Susheela Iyengar Ambi s mother Neelu as Ananthanarayanan secretary of the Sangeetha Academy Sriranjani as Janaki Nandhini s mother voice dubbed by Meera Krishnan Vatsala Rajagopal as Lakshmi Ambi s grandma Mohan Vaidya as Krishnan Nandhini s father Divya Nagesh as Vidya Ambi s late sister Citizen Mani as a cook who works under Chockalingam P Unnikrishnan in a cameo appearance as singer in Thyagaraja Festival Master Wong as Karate Master Manobala as TTR Raja Suryakanth as Lineman Kandhasamy killed by Anniyan Stunt Silva as a passerby uncredited Yana Gupta as a club dancer in the item number Kaadhal Yaanai Production editPre production edit During the making of his Hindi film directorial debut Nayak starring Anil Kapoor in early 2001 director S Shankar had conceived a science fiction film titled Robot A futuristic techno thriller set in the 22nd century Chennai the film was to star Kamal Haasan and Preity Zinta a 5 However after completing a photo shoot featuring the two the production was shelved due to various reasons including Haasan s unavailability of dates and creative differences with the director 6 7 8 Shankar postponed the project indefinitely and made the coming of age film Boys 2003 b When the post production work of Boys was underway Shankar was awaiting the return of its composer A R Rahman who was then outside India to complete the background score In the meantime Shankar had an idea for a storyline and called Vikram who expressed enthusiasm for the subject 10 11 Development edit As a common man so many happenings in society disturb me These leave scars on my mind In fact they are my creative spur I react to social happenings on an imaginative plane Shankar on how the film evolved 12 Following the release of Boys in August 2003 13 Shankar began work on his next directorial venture entitled Anniyan It was initially thought to be Shankar s pet project Robot revived with a new title but this was later proven not to be correct 14 Shankar said the film was his dream project and disclosed that it would be a racy fantasy thriller 15 16 When questioned on how the idea behind the film had come to him the director revealed The seeds of all my movies were sown when I was young long before I started making movies So many things disturbed me and these stayed with me Those were the seeds I make films based on them 10 With the highest production value among Tamil films of its time the film was touted to be the director s magnum opus and was labelled the most eagerly awaited film of the year by the media 10 17 The film deals with a person having dissociative identity disorder commonly known as multiple personality disorder MPD or split personality syndrome 18 19 It was compared to Chandramukhi released two months before as it also focused on a character with the same syndrome 20 21 Casting edit To portray the lead character Shankar needed a performer who could play an action hero He chose Vikram as he felt that the actor in addition to being a performer had the image of an action hero While his casting was made public in a November 2003 news report announcing the project s inception the director revealed that Vikram was added to the cast in mid 2003 and refuted theories that the actor s casting was to capitalise on his new found popularity following his success at the National Film Awards where he won the National Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film Pithamagan 2003 Stating that Vikram was selected for the lead role months before the theatrical release of Pithamagan Shankar added I don t look at actors that way 10 14 He further remarked that Vikram was the life and soul of Anniyan 15 The heroine role of a devoted Iyengar Brahmin girl was originally offered to Aishwarya Rai Bachchan who was too busy to accommodate production dates After months of waiting for her call sheet Shankar eventually offered the role to Sadha 22 Expressing hope that it would be an important movie in her career Sadha accepted the offer working on the film for 120 days adding I have a major role to play in Anniyan There are few heavy portions involving me in the movie that I have given my best She considered being a part of a Shankar film especially during the early stages of her career as a god s gift and a once in a lifetime experience 23 24 25 However when offered similar roles following the film s success she refused to be typecast and stated I am now looking for roles where my creative potential is tapped I don t want to be part of such cinema where all one has to do is dance around trees 26 Vivek Prakash Raj Nedumudi Venu and Nassar appear in supporting roles 27 Mohan Vaidhya a carnatic vocalist and occasional actor plays a minuscule role as Sadha s father Krishna 28 Malavika Avinash was approached to play Vikram s mother she rejected the offer stating I am too young to do a screen mom and too old to be a heroine 29 Cochin Haneefa Charle Kalabhavan Mani Shanmugarajan and Saurabh Shukla make cameo appearances as delinquent citizens 30 Haneefa played an indifferent car owner who refuses to help an accident victim as he does not want his brand new car to be soiled with blood Following Haneefa s death in February 2010 Vikram recalled the actor s appearance in the film and said Though he d come only in a few scenes no one could miss him For roles that have some ambiguity about whether it s a good guy or a bad guy he is one of the best choices Until the end one cannot really guess if he ll end up being good or bad 31 Comedian and character artiste Charle played an unnamed wastrel and alcoholic who extorts money from his ageing parents for his expenses and is considered by Anniyan to be a liability to society Charle was instructed by Shankar People should see only the character Only later should they realise that it was Charle 32 33 The role of the younger Ambi was played by child actor Hari Prashanth alias Viraj 34 When he came to the recording studio to voice his lines he was accompanied by his father S N Surendar a singer and dubbing artiste Shankar recognised Surendar and asked him to lend his voice for Nedumudi Venu as the latter was a Malayali 35 In the 2004 comedy film Aethirree which featured Sadha in the female lead Kanika played the second lead role of a naughty Brahmin girl Shankar apparently impressed with Kanika s performance in the film asked her to attend a voice test When the film makers preferred Kanika s accent and modulation among the thirty females whose voices were tested she was selected to dub for Sadha s Brahmin role 36 Technical crew edit The film was produced by V Ravichandran under his own film production and distribution company Oscar Films presently Aascar Films 37 The screenplay was written by Shankar and the film had dialogue written by writer Sujatha 38 39 Shankar retained Sabu Cyril his production designer from Boys to handle the set design 40 41 the scenes were edited by V T Vijayan 15 While the action sequences were orchestrated by Peter Hein and assisted by Stunt Silva the dance sequences were choreographed by Raju Sundaram Kalyan and Ahmed Khan 42 43 44 Film institute student Prabhu Raja Chozhan who would later turn director with Karuppampatti 2013 joined Shankar as his protege and worked as his assistant 45 Shankar who grew up admiring the works of cinematographer P C Sreeram in films like Nayakan 1987 Agni Natchathiram 1988 and Idhayathai Thirudathe 1989 desired to collaborate and was in talks with him to handle the photography c While Sreeram was intent on working in Anniyan he could not accept the offer due to prior commitments 46 It was initially reported in the media that Sreeram had been recruited 22 however Shankar chose V Manikandan as the director of photography impressed with his work in Main Hoon Na 2004 Manikandan had earlier collaborated with Shankar when he shot the music video of the song Secret of Success in Boys Manikandan gave six months of bulk dates for the project but when the production was troubled by delays Shankar demanded three more months to complete the film Manikandan walked out in October 2004 citing scheduling conflicts and Shankar replaced him with Ravi Varman 47 48 During the casting stage of Boys the film s cinematographer Ravi K Chandran was temporarily unavailable and his then assistant Ravi Varman handled the camera to film Genelia D Souza s makeup test Subsequently Varman nurtured a desire to work with Shankar Before Shankar commenced work on Anniyan Varman expressed his desire to work in the film and was hopeful of landing the assignment He was disappointed when Shankar recruited Manikandan for the project However when Manikandan abandoned the project after completing almost half the film Shankar asked Varman to shoot the remaining portions of the film Varman had committed to work in Bengali director Buddhadeb Dasgupta s next film work on which was scheduled to begin shortly he dropped out of it to accept Shankar s offer and termed working in Anniyan a dream come true 49 The film credits both Manikandan and Ravi Varman as cinematographers in title credits Preparation and character looks edit I observe a lot in life and it helps perform better Illnesses like MPD have a clinical history and you will have to stick to it to avoid an atypical performance I studied the literature on MPD and was clear about retaining the identity of each character be it the proverbial Ambi the rampaging Anniyan or the cool Remo Vikram on the mental make up and preparation required to portray the role 18 nbsp Vikram as the character Anniyan a psychotic serial killer which won him the Filmfare Award for Best Actor Vikram allotted 18 months and 190 days of his call sheet for the film including 165 days of bulk dates spread across six months 19 22 50 51 Speaking on the extent of his involvement in the filmmaking process Vikram said Before beginning the film I was totally involved in the research and preparation but once on the sets I go by what the director says He further clarified that he discussed every shot with Shankar went for re takes where necessary to make the scenes better and gave suggestions but left the ultimate verdict to the director Disclosing that among the three shades to his character he found playing Ambi to be the toughest he reasoned Because as a hero you are not used to being a wimp on screen It s difficult digesting getting beaten up In contrast being a graduate in English literature he found playing Remo much easier and more in his comfort zone 51 52 53 In an interview with Gulf News Vikram spoke of the challenges in portraying all three characters while wearing the same costumes He said I love such challenges Although the costume defined each of the three characters in Anniyan there were scenes where Ambi would suddenly become Remo and Remo would become Anniyan There I made it dramatic to bring out each character 54 He credited his wife Shailaja Balakrishnan a psychologist for helping him in fleshing out the character of Ambi a person who has multiple personality disorder 53 In a conversation with film critic Baradwaj Rangan Shailaja recalled the times the film was being made and spoke of Vikram saying I felt we should live in two houses It s not easy to live with a man who can get that eccentric an actor who wants to be that difficult on himself I wouldn t say he becomes the character but there s definitely some kind of internalisation 52 Vikram confessed that he had a tough time during the film s making as playing different characters affected him and he found himself going mad He added that he would take a break after a 15 day shoot and watch the pigeons on his terrace as a way of dealing with the pressure 54 Vikram grew a tummy to portray Ramanujam while he sported a macho look for Anniyan 10 He also grew his hair long in preparation for his role and rejected other film offers to maintain the continuity in his looks 50 55 Together with his character looks and those that he sported in the song sequences Vikram appears in the film in 18 different getups 56 Vikram s look in the film was created by make up artiste Banu 57 For those parts that show him as metrosexual Remo he coloured his hair in streaks of copper and blonde 58 Unwilling to reveal his new look until the film was ready Vikram avoided the media despite winning the aforementioned National Award for the year 2003 59 Meanwhile Sadha s make up and hair styling were done by Mumbai based celebrity stylist Ojas M Rajani 60 Filming edit The film was officially launched with a traditional puja and muhurat shot on 4 March 2004 at AVM Studios Chennai The studio was decorated with life sized stills showing Vikram in three distinct looks a voodoo hunter a pious sami and a bubbling youth this led the media to speculate that Vikram would be playing either a triple role or a character with three shades The film s caption was He who comes from hell is not afraid of hot ashes 16 27 61 62 During the launch function Shankar expressed hope of completing the film in six months and releasing the film on 12 November 2004 coinciding with the Diwali festival 63 However the production which began shortly afterwards in May 2004 was marred by several delays and took 14 months to complete 15 The film was shot in Amsterdam Malaysia Mumbai Hyderabad Tenkasi Thanjavur Villupuram and Chennai 59 64 65 The film stars a scene at the Thiruvaiyaru Thyagaraja Utsavam The Utsavam is a week long music festival which commemorates the 18th century saint composer Tyagaraja revered as one of the greatest composers of carnatic music and is held annually at his resting place in Thiruvaiyaru Thanjavur 66 67 With the use of sets the art department recreated the Tyagaraja Aradhana near Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu 68 For filming the scene the crew recreated a performance of the famous kriti Jagadananda karaka the first of the five Pancharatna Kriti compositions of Tyagaraja as performed during Tyagaraja Aradhana 69 70 The aradhana held on the fifth day of the festival witnesses exponents of carnatic music from across the world converging at his samaadhi where they sing his pancharatna kritis in unison as an homage to the saint 71 Shankar approached violin maestro Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan a regular participant at the actual event to conceive and orchestrate the sequence Vaidyanathan was serving as the secretary of Sri Thyagabrahma Mahotsava Sabha the committee which organises the aradhana 72 The scene features him in a cameo and was shot in June 2004 at a studio in Chennai 73 74 Realistic sets were erected to resemble the actual venue and leading carnatic vocalists Sudha Ragunathan Sirkazhi G Sivachidambaram O S Arun P Unni Krishnan and instrumentalists such as violinist A Kanyakumari mridangam exponent Umayalpuram K Sivaraman were recruited to add a touch of authenticity 75 The two minute scene was brought to life in painstaking detail The sequence was much talked about and well appreciated 76 nbsp The camera setup employed for the time slice technique d In a fight sequence Anniyan encounters about a hundred martial artists inside the fictional International Martial Arts School Vodao 77 The stunt scene was shot at the JJ Indoor Stadium in Chennai over a period of 25 days 78 79 Peter Hein the stunt choreographer is a native of Vietnam 127 professionally trained fighters were brought in from Vietnam for the shoot 79 80 During the rehearsals the rope to which the stuntmen were tied and hung upside down gave in 78 About a dozen stuntmen crashed down from the balcony injuring themselves badly 81 The action sequence was shot using 120 cameras for employing the time slice photography technique a visual effect known as bullet time and popularised by the American film The Matrix 1999 to achieve the frozen time effect 15 Shankar had earlier toyed with the idea of time slice and tried it while filming the song Ale Ale in his Boys 82 While the time freeze sequence in Boys was achieved by the linking of 60 62 cameras to attain a 180 rotation Anniyan employed 120 122 cameras for a 270 rotation 83 84 The scene where Anniyan addresses a huge gathering was shot in a stadium in Hyderabad As he speaks to the audience the lights turn on and off in the background Speaking on how the sequence was filmed Ravi Varman said that they decided not to light up the entire stadium as they felt it would have looked flat As the sequence was important to the film he juxtaposed the stadium with light and shadow so that it would look different 49 During the pre climax scene when Ambi is held custody and enquired by Prabhakar Ambi s persona keeps switching between the characters Ambi and Anniyan Dubbed the chameleon act in the media Vikram claims to have completed the sequence in a single take 85 86 An action sequence was filmed in a set erected in Campa Cola grounds Chennai 87 For the scene where Remo courts Nandini a chemical tube brought from Malaysia was used to measure how attractive a person is 88 For filming scenes based on the punishments buffaloes and snakes were transported in hundreds exclusively from Vellore and the sequence was shot for about three days 89 The Anthakoopam punishment sequence featuring the buffaloes was filmed in a set erected in Chennai s Prasad Studios The animals were transported in 15 lorries containing 20 buffaloes each For the scene where Charle s character is killed by Anniyan the studio was filled with snake charmers who were brought in to handle the large number of snakes 56 Song sequences edit The semi classical song Kumari was the first of the scenes to be shot 23 Filmed at the World Flower Show in May 2004 the sequence was picturised in a large tulip garden located in the city of Vijfhuizen near Amsterdam Netherlands 75 The song was shot during the Netherlands International Flower Show called Floriade a decennial event which was held between 10 April and 20 October 2004 17 90 91 While the crew had planned to film another song at a garden in Keukenhof they were denied permission by the authorities as a previous Indian film crew had damaged the habitat a few weeks before 90 e The song features the lead pair singing amidst a flower farm as mridangam and flute players accompany them in the background f 17 It was choreographed by Raju Sundaram who also appears in a cameo playing a harmonium As part of their roles the male supporting actors who appear in the song were required to wear a panjakkacham and angavastram leaving most of their body exposed to the freezing cold The shoot began as early as 5 30 AM and the locals who thought they should be out of their mind to be dressed so came up to them and warned that they might freeze to death 94 Iyengaru Veetu a semi classical song begins with a prelude of the Pancharatna Kriti Jagadananda karaka The actual song which follows later was picturised on a set erected at AVM Studios made to look like an old traditional Iyengar home in Thanjavur The song was shot extravagantly with the lead pair and the dozens of support dancers sporting rich colourful costumes 17 In December 2004 a ten day shoot was held in Mumbai for the item number Kadhal Yaanai featuring Vikram alongside a top model whose identity was initially undisclosed to generate curiosity 95 It was later revealed to be Czech based model Yana Gupta 96 97 Filmed by Ravi Varman and choreographed by Ahmed Khan the song was filmed like a fashion show where Vikram and Yana Gupta wear fashionable clothes and sashay along a ramp 44 The song was filmed in a set erected in a studio to resemble a famous night spot in London 17 The track Kannum Kannum Nokia a peppy and trendy love duet choreographed by Raju Sundaram was picturised on the lead pair and had them wearing costumes made entirely of designer labels The song was picturised in Malaysia at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport and Petronas Towers The song filmed during the night was reportedly the first song to be shot at the airport 17 44 51 98 Ravi Varman revealed in an interview that the song was shot like a commercial 49 The song was also filmed at the Nokia Headquarters in Espoo Finland 99 The folk song Andangkaaka was shot in a village near Sengottai 100 For filming the song a huge set was erected to resemble a village 15 The sets were visualised and created by Sabu Cyril the film s art director Shankar adopted a village near Tenkasi and Sabu Cyril painted all the houses roads rocks and even a bridge in varied colours They then hired hundreds of lorries and old model ambassador cars and painted faces on them The faces of actors were painted on rock mountains 75 The lead pair were joined by hundreds of dancers and the total cost of the song worked out to 10 million 17 41 In all 350 houses were painted 101 Post production edit In the narrative Ambi is referred to the website www anniyan com Shankar envisioned that the website would take visitors through all the punishments that await sinners in hell For designing the website Shankar wanted to recreate hell and approached the Visual Computing Labs VCL of Tata Elxsi a Mumbai based company with which he had collaborated earlier for the song Girlfriend in Boys The team at VCL conceptualised and created a hell in 3d animation with the punishments taken from ancient scriptures They also designed a grim reaper astride his bull who guides visitors through hell Pankaj Khandpur creative director of VCL said We tried to stay true to the scriptures while creating imagery that wasn t too gory an interesting project since we had to visualise it all without any reference point The animation was done in a span of three months 102 VCL also did the CGI for a cosmic zoom scene where the camera zooms from beyond the clouds to the streets of Chennai city which no real camera can achieve Aerial views and paintings of the city were stitched together along with computer generated images CGI of clouds to create the long one piece camera zoom 102 Animator and special effects designer L I Kannan who would later turn director with the long delayed period film Karikalan with Vikram in the lead also worked on the special effects 103 104 Meanwhile the special effects for the time slice sequence were rendered by Big Freeze in London 84 The scene where Anniyan addresses a packed audience in Nehru Stadium was filmed with the space empty The crowd was created through visual effects using crowd multiplication methods The VFX for the sequence was done under the supervision of visual effects consultant Zameer Hussain of Land Marvel Animation Studios Chennai 105 The scene in which hundreds of buffaloes chase down a delinquent car owner into an abandoned sand quarry and trample him to death was accomplished through CGI using just one buffalo The CG work was supplied by Jayakumar and V Srinivas Mohan of the Chennai based firm Indian Artists Computer Graphics Srinivas and his team had earlier worked with Shankar in Boys Speaking of the sequence Srinivas quipped The animals are lethargic and listless in their movements Nothing can make them agile 106 107 Themes and influences editThe storyline in Anniyan is typical of Shankar s yen for showcasing society s ills and targets the inept rules flouting public 38 The film sheds light on the increasing social apathy and public negligence and attempts to address these issues which plague the society and hamper the development of India 108 S Anand of Outlook noted that most of Shankar s films portray the hero as a one man agent of change and cited From the neo Nazi character Kamal Haasan plays in Indian to his last film Anniyan featuring a schizophrenic Brahmin serial killer who butchers wrongdoers Shankar has always offered fascist fantastic solutions to what he perceives as social ills resulting from typical governmental inertia 109 In an interview with The Hindu Shankar elaborated on the message he conveys through the film 15 I have travelled to many parts of the globe especially the developed countries and I am fascinated by the rapid strides that they have made in all fields But back home I am upset to see the neglect poverty and the laid back approach of our youngsters I often think that we are a lazy country My story is about a person who tries to bring about a change within our society The issue that I am trying to solve is inherent weakness within our society and some motivation to move forward like other nations Following the release of the trailer on 7 May 2005 the film was believed to be inspired by the 1886 Robert Louis Stevenson novel Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde 110 111 Upon the film s release The Hindu drew parallels between it and the 1998 novel Tell Me Your Dreams by Sidney Sheldon 112 Shankar denied that the film was inspired by Tell Me Your Dreams claiming that he knew of the novel only after completing the script 113 Sify compared the character of Ambi to the protagonist of The Mask 1994 a film about a mild mannered guy changing into a one man army craving to see natural justice realised 44 The methods of punishment meted out to the sinners by Anniyan in the film is based on Garuda Purana a Vaishnavite purana which speaks of life after death and punishments for wrongdoers Shankar pointed out that he worked tirelessly day and night and intense research was done with the help of a professor in department of Vaishnavism in Madras University 114 Music editMain article Anniyan soundtrack The album marked Shankar s first collaboration with Harris Jayaraj all his previous directorial ventures had A R Rahman composing the music 15 As Rahman was busy with his debut Broadway musical Bombay Dreams and had also signed up for another musical Lord of the Rings Rahman and Shankar decided to part ways 14 In early 2004 Harris Jayaraj went on a trip to Phuket Islands in Thailand for some inspiration for the album he was accompanied by Shankar and Vairamuthu Eventually the three songs penned by the lyricist were composed in the island The visit took place much before the tragic 2004 tsunami struck the countries bordering the Indian Ocean and wreaked havoc 115 In a chat with Shankar Harris Jayaraj said the music was a challenge because the film was a mix of genres action comedy thriller In essence it was a cock mocktail 12 Harris Jayaraj commenced the film s re recording in April 2005 and took more than a month to complete delaying the film s release 116 The soundtrack album features six tracks including a theme music the lyrics for the songs were written by Vairamuthu Na Muthukumar and Kabilan The album was released as a soft launch on 13 May 2005 117 118 ReleaseThe film cleared the censors without any cuts and was rated U Universal by the Central Board of Film Certification 119 While Shankar had hoped to release the film on Diwali 2004 there were numerous production delays which postponed the release date through early 2005 61 While production was completed in March 2005 the re recording which began in April took more time than anticipated lasting nearly 45 days with Harris Jayaraj being blamed for further delays 120 After the film was postponed from 20 May 2005 and later from 27 May 2005 110 121 the film was finally scheduled for 10 June 2005 122 But Shankar released it a week later on 17 June 2005 as he considered 8 as his lucky number 1 7 yielding 8 123 The film was dubbed into other South Indian languages and was released simultaneously in Tamil Nadu Andhra Pradesh Karnataka and Kerala 86 The film was also released in key overseas countries like the United States the United Kingdom Australia Germany Malaysia and Singapore The film was released with 404 prints in Tamil and Telugu alone 37 Later the film was dubbed into French by Paramount Pictures 124 Reportedly Anniyan is the first Indian film to be dubbed into French and released in French speaking countries worldwide by Columbia Tristar 108 125 The film was further dubbed and released in Hindi as Aparichit The Stranger on 19 May 2006 126 It is the first film featuring Vikram in the lead to have a theatrical release in Hindi 127 At a private screening held a day before its Hindi theatrical release the film received a warm reception 53 Reception editMalathi Rangarajan of The Hindu said that the film works as it melds an interesting screen line with racy action She also noted that the story resembled Shankar s Indian 1996 a lot while also bearing semblance to his Gentleman 1993 She remarked that the story and screenplay deserved to be lauded for its ingenious sparks in narration but problems arose with respect to its plausibility She then declared some of the best camera shots stunts and locations on a mind boggling scale have been showcased If you enjoy magnificence in cinema you will like this Anniyan 38 Krishnakumar wrote for Rediff com that learning from the debacle of Boys the director went back to his strength by taking a social theme spicing it up and serving the perfect commercial fare He added that in trying to explain multiple personality disorder in the simplest of terms the director has only succeeded to a certain extent as a majority of viewers who are not that well informed might not even comprehend what is being said 128 Visual Dasan of Kalki wrote that both the art director Sabu Cyril and composer Harris Jayaraj lent their hand to Shankar s grand visions adding that everyone could bow down to Shankar s social responsibility of exaggerating colorful entertainment and sensitising the fan by watching Anniyan once while appreciating Vikram for his performance in three different characters and that Anniyan s transformation reminded him of Jim Carrey from The Mask Dasan also appreciated Shankar for perfectly using other actors wherever necessary 129 Labelling the film as a must see a reviewer at Sify acclaimed that the film holds the viewers riveted with its racy narration a relevant message backed with technical wizardry never seen before colourful song picturisation and particularly the performance of Vikram Yet the reviewer criticised that the film was too lengthy and the story too thin on logic 44 Reviewing Aparichithudu the Telugu version of the film The Hindu said that it was watchable 130 Regarding the Hindi version of the film Raja Sen of Rediff com derided the pathetic dubbing though saying that it was refreshing and watchable despite boasting of enough masala to make the viewers sneeze He concluded his review by saying Overall Aparichit is a slickly made well paced actioner that works quite well despite the dub The film is engaging and crisply scripted and the action is never too excessive lightened by jokes and general tomfoolery that never offensively interrupts the actual plot 131 Awards editFollowing the commercial success of the Telugu version Aparichitudu which was a runaway hit in Andhra Pradesh Shankar was felicitated by Sri Venkateswara Social and Cultural Organisation SVESCO of Tirupati and was conferred the title Darsaka Brahma 132 In a conversation with athlete Shiny Wilson actor Jayaram remarked Anniyan was a runaway hit in Kerala But if a Malayalam star had tried out an Anniyan kind of role with a weird hairdo it would have been a disaster 133 The film received numerous awards and nominations The film won National Award in the Special Effects category 102 134 Anniyan became the fourth film directed by Shankar to receive that award the other three are Kadhalan 1994 Indian 1996 and Jeans 1998 135 It also won eight out of the total 15 awards awarded by Filmfare for the best of Tamil cinema Award Ceremony Category Recipients Result Ref National Film Awards 53rd National Film Awards Best Special Effects Tata Elxsi Won 136 Filmfare Awards South 53rd Filmfare Awards South Best Film Anniyan Won 137 Best Actor Vikram Won Best Director Shankar Won Best Lyricist Vairamuthu Won Best Art Director Sabu Cyril Won Best Music Director Harris Jayaraj Won Best Action Director Peter Hein Won Best Cinematographer Ravi Varman V Manikandan Won Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Award 2005 Best Film Anniyan Won Second Best 138 Best Villain Prakash Raj Won Best Director Shankar Won Best Comedian Vivek Won Best Music Director Harris Jayaraj Won also for Ghajini Best Male Dubbing Artist S N Surendar WonEconomics editPre release edit By the time the production was nearing completion the trade sources had estimated the film to cost around 120 150 million but as often happens with films directed by Shankar the budget was overshot 15 Made at a cost of 263 8 million worth 1 414 3 million in 2021 prices Anniyan was touted as the most expensive South Indian film to be ever made during the time of its release 37 IndiaGlitz estimates that the total production cost excluding the remuneration cost of the cast and technicians is 90 million 56 It was the first Tamil film and the first in South India to get institutional finance For its institutional finance it procured a sum of 95 million from IDBI Bank 15 37 Anniyan was insured by United India Insurance for 150 million thereby making it the first south Indian film to be insured and also the largest insurance cover extended to a south Indian film at that time 51 Distribution edit With the amount of hype the film generated in the media theatre owners eagerly came forward and offered hefty prices as Minimum Guarantee MG g 63 In Tamil Nadu funds amounting to 120 million were gathered as MG and advance 37 The MG raised through audio rights and movie distribution to theatres in Andhra Pradesh Kerala Karnataka and overseas fetched a combined sum of 224 million 140 The film was distributed and released throughout Tamil Nadu by Aascar Films 140 The rights for Aparichithudu the Telugu dubbed version was bought by a producer for an all time record price 15 64 Meanwhile the film was sold in Kerala for 13 million which was again a record for a Tamil film there 63 The US rights was bought by the distribution house Bharat Creations 141 With the theatrical rights and pre release booking the trade circuit predicted that the film would recover its cost within ten days of its release 37 Box office edit The advance booking for the film began on 14 June 2005 across Tamil Nadu and received overwhelming response from the audience which the trade circuit felt was phenomenal 142 The film took a historic opening worldwide and set multiple records at the box office A day after release the film was touted as a hit In its opening weekend 17 19 June Anniyan grossed 5 024 million from only six multiplexes in Chennai and reached 1 position at the Chennai box office In Sathyam Cinemas alone the film grossed 1 4 million the highest ever three day opening from a single multiplex in South India 143 144 145 A week after release the film grossed more than 10 million in Chennai 2 7 million in Sathyam Cinemas 7 1 million from 10 prints in Salem and netted 4 1 million in Coimbatore which were all box office records And beyond Tamil Nadu the film earned the distributors 12 7 million from Nizam in Andhra 5 million in Karnataka and 1 million from 3 screens in Mumbai 146 The film got a hundred percent opening and surpassed Chandramukhi as the top grossing Tamil film of the week a position occupied by the latter since its release on 14 April 2005 IndiaGlitz likened the Vikram Shankar combo to that of Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara batting together 147 The trade pundits estimated that V Ravichandran would get a distributor s share of 80 100 million in its first week from cinemas across Tamil Nadu A week after its release the Telugu dubbed version Aparichithudu was declared a hit in Andhra Pradesh Distributor Karunakara Reddy of Megha Films in Hyderabad quipped Aparichitudu has taken an opening just like a Telugu superstar film and should collect a distributor s share of Rs 5 7 crores for the Nizam area alone 143 In Kerala Anniyan released in 35 screens across the state receiving a record opening for a Tamil film and became the first Tamil film to get a distributors share of 6 2 million in its first week 148 A fortnight after its release the film was labelled a super hit in Tamil cinema s half yearly report compiled by film trade analyst for The Hindu Sreedhar Pillai 149 In exactly a six week theatrical run Anniyan netted 10 5 million with a distributor s share of around 5 2 million It was an all India record for collections the highest share in least number of days from any theatre in India However in Tamil Nadu collections began dropping five weeks after its release and it was estimated that the film would earn a share of 160 million 150 In September 2005 the film s gross earnings surpassed the US 2 million milestone 151 At the completion of a 50 day run at Sathyam Cinemas Anniyan recorded the highest 50 days collection for a Tamil film from a single screen in the world earning 11 29 million 152 Anniyan was declared a blockbuster at the close of the year and together with Chandramukhi earned an estimated gross of 1 1 billion worldwide 153 The film also collected a distributor s share of 20 million 154 In Andhra Pradesh Aparichitudu was named the biggest hit of 2005 155 156 The film did better business than straight Telugu films 157 158 It was the highest grosser among all Telugu films released that year 159 The film s success earned Vikram a big fan following in Andhra 160 It also prompted producers in the Telugu film industry which had hit a rough patch following a spate of box office failures to acquire the dubbing rights to Vikram s previous Tamil films and release them in Telugu 161 162 In Kerala the film ran for more than 150 days and grossed over 60 million it became the highest grossing Tamil film in Kerala at that time 163 164 In Karnataka too the film was a big success although the exact box office figures are not known 165 However the film s Hindi version Aparichit opened to poor reception earning only 21 million across 150 screens and was declared a flop by Box Office India 166 167 While acknowledging that the film underperformed at the box office Vikram stated that it nevertheless made an impact He further added that the film got him recognition from people in the remote corners of India as the drama and the action sequences greatly appealed to them 168 By the end of its theatrical run the film had grossed 570 million in its lifetime 2 169 Legacy editIn an August 2005 seminar titled Revisiting psychiatric disorders in Tamil films where the discussion revolved around the films Chandramukhi and Anniyan psychiatrist Asokan found many logical faults in both films While acknowledging that Anniyan was a technically better film he stated that it did not explain some of the medical theories 170 In another August 2005 seminar conducted to mark the anniversary of the Quit India Movement where participants were urged to actively fight corruption the convener T Hema Kumari referred to the films Bhaarateeyudu the Telugu dubbed version of Indian and Aparichitudu She noted that while such films which depict a fight against corruption were appreciated people were reluctant to join movements against such issues 171 Remake plans editIn April 2021 it was announced that Shankar would direct a Hindi remake with Ranveer Singh reprising Vikram s role 172 However in August 2021 it was reported that the remake is stalled due to the differences with producer V Ravichandran 173 174 175 Ravichandran alleged that the film was getting a remake without his consent and he challenged it 176 Impact editDuring the 20th Vijayawada Book Festival held at Vijayawada in January 2009 Garuda Puranam one of the 18 puranas of Hinduism was a best seller Writing for The Hindu G V Ramana Rao said that the book was made popular following several mentions in the film and sold like hot cakes 177 Following the stupendous success of Aparichitudu in Andhra Pradesh the State Transport Corporation of Warangal named a bus Remo after the character played by Vikram in the film 156 When stand up comedian and television anchor Bosskey launched a quirky play titled Dada Don in October 2005 he named the cast after famous characters in Tamil films Accordingly Anniyan one of Vikram s character in the film Badshah Rajinikanth in Baashha and Velu Nayakkar Kamal Haasan s role in Nayakan play the central characters of a family of brothers 178 Similarly in the 2013 comedy film Onbadhule Guru in which the characters were named after popular protagonists of Tamil cinema a member of the supporting cast was christened Anniyan 179 The characters played by Vikram were spoofed by Vadivelu in the Tamil film Aaru 2005 the comedy sequence also features four songs from the film s soundtrack album 180 181 Aparichitudu the film s Telugu version was parodied by comedian Venu Madhav in the Telugu films Chatrapati 2005 and Seenugadu Chiranjeevi Fan 2005 182 183 It was also parodied along with Chandramukhi in the film Rajababu 2006 184 In the 2010 film Thamizh Padam a full length parody on stereotypical characters and cliched sequences in Tamil cinema the lead actor Shiva recreates the Anthakoopam punishment sequence to comic effect where he tries to force a herd of buffaloes into stampeding a villain but fails in his attempt 185 186 Later the comedy sequence was re enacted by Allari Naresh in Sudigadu 2012 an official remake of Thamizh Padam 187 188 In the 2012 Kannada film Yaare Koogadali a remake of the Tamil film Poraali 2011 the long and unkempt hair sported by Puneeth Rajkumar was reportedly inspired by the look of Anniyan 189 The character Remo inspired Sivakarthikeyan s film to have a title of the same name 190 191 See also editMental disorders in fiction List of mental disorders in film Dissociative identity disorder Corruption in IndiaNotes edit According to a 2004 report by The Hindu the film was supposedly set in 2200 A D whereas a 2008 report by Sify claims that according to the director s original one line script the film was set in 3000 A D 3 4 He would later renew Robot as Enthiran 2010 with Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai featuring in the lead 9 Earlier Sreeram had turned down Shankar s offer to work in Indian 1996 as he did not want to affect the career chances of his former assistant Jeeva who was the cinematographer in Shankar s directorials until that point 46 According to Shankar time slicing is about numerous stills on a camera system consisting of 120 cameras a special ring and precise control in post production to achieve a frozen time effect 15 However according to Aparna Karthikeyan of The Hindu and a 2011 report by Sify the song was shot in the tulip gardens of Keukenhof 92 93 Written as per sources In the song however the accompanying instruments include one each of a mridangam harmonium shruti box and kanjira The Economic Times defines Minimum Guarantee as an initial sum that is paid to the producer by the distributor irrespective of how the film performs A revenue sharing arrangement is worked out whereby the producer will get a portion of the profits that the distributor makes 139 References edit Anniyan British Board of Film Classification Archived from the original on 1 February 2022 Retrieved 1 February 2022 a b Roy Amit 9 June 2006 India booming The Telegraph Archived from the original on 2 December 2020 Retrieved 22 November 2014 Man vs machine The Hindu 16 August 2004 Archived from the original on 18 January 2015 Retrieved 30 November 2014 Nirav and Sabu sign up for Robot Sify 9 January 2008 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Directors Shankar Dispatches from the Wall Corner A Journey through Indian Cinema Tranquebar Press Westland Ltd ISBN 978 93 84030 56 8 permanent dead link External links editAnniyan official website at the Wayback Machine archived 17 July 2005 Anniyan 2005 at IMDb nbsp Anniyan 2005 at Rotten Tomatoes nbsp Aparichit 2006 at Bollywood Hungama Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Anniyan amp oldid 1221816717, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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