Polladhavan completed 10 years yesterday. The film, which is about a man who fearlessly fights for his lost bike, had Dhanush in the lead role and Kishore as the villain. Dhanush shared an emotional tweet:
10 years ago dis day polladhavan released.Our journey continues as a team 2 explore nd learn together. From d sets of vadachennai right now. pic.twitter.com/lBUlOb4z2X
— Dhanush (@dhanushkraja) November 8, 2017
Kishore is working with director Vetri Maaran and Dhanush again in Vada Chennai. Reminiscing about the film, he says, “Polladhavan was a breaking point in my career. Whoever approaches me with a script now always refers to my performance in the film.”
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“We shared a lot of fond memories of the film yesterday on the sets. Ten years went by so quickly. The best part of Polladhavan was Dhanush and Vetri Maaran. Dhanush, who was popular at the time, was secure enough to give me enough room to perform the villain’s role. And Vetri Maaran is the role model for all debutant directors.”
Kishore, who played the righteous gangster Selvam, takes Silverscreen down memory lane and shares some of the stories associated with the film.
‘Nana Patekar was first considered for my role’
Director Vetri Maaran initially wanted to cast Nana Patekar as Selvam. But the producer did not have the budget to get him on-board. That’s when Vetri Maaran came to me. It would have been a mistake to turn down that role. It was a path-breaking Tamil gangster film.
‘Vetri Maaran bought the bike’
Vetri Maaran had written the script keeping a Bajaj Pulsar in mind. But for shooting, we were offered a different bike as the production house got some sponsors for that bike. But Vetri Maaran was determined to use only Pulsar, according to him, even the bike was an important character in the film. So, he bought a new Pulsar with his own money and brought it to the sets.
Sudden pack-up
I was shooting with Vetri Maaran and his team in a very small house. The producer, who visited the shooting spot, was surprised to find that the villain had such a tiny house. He was imagining a bungalow with many dogs and girls around. As the producer was not convinced, we stopped shooting and packed up. Later, the director convinced the producer and we went ahead with the shoot. Polladhavan was a trend setter and showed that a villain’s character need not be flamboyant or over the top. My favourite scene in the film is when Dhanush comes to talk to Selvam in the hospital and the fight following it.
‘Polladhavan was not the first film discussed’
Vetri Maaran had approached me for Dhesiya Nedunchalai starring Dhanush. That was supposed to be Vetri Maaran’s debut film. He offered me a cop’s role. The film reached only the discussion stage and was later shelved. A year later, he offered me Polladhavan.