Puli (English: Tiger) is an upcoming Indian Tamil action-adventure fantasy film written and directed by Chimbu Deven.[2] The film features Vijay in a dual role alongside an ensemble cast including Sudeep, Prabhu, Sridevi, Shruti Haasan, Hansika Motwani and Nandita.Produced by Vijay's public relations officer Selvakumar, the project has music composed by Devi Sri Prasad, Natarajan Subramaniam as cinematographer and has T.Muthuraj as Production Designer. After beginning pre-production works in early 2013, the film began its shoot in November 2014. The official teaser has been released on 22 June 2015.[3] The film is set to be released in September 2015.[4]
Production
Development
Chimbu Deven was reported to be working on a "fantasy film set in contemporary times" in January 2011 for UTV Motion Pictures and Dhanush was subsequently signed on to play the leading role.[5] The film was titled as Maareesan, with G. V. Prakash Kumar and Kathir signed on as composer and cinematographer respectively, while the team revealed filming would start in late 2011. Genelia D'Souza and Hansika Motwani were confirmed to play the leading female roles in the film, while Vadivelu was also reported to be a part of the cast.[6][7] However, in October 2011, UTV Motion Pictures left the project citing the escalating budget and Aascar Films replaced them as producers.[8][9] The project later failed to take off, and the actor and director moved on to work on other ventures. During the production of his Oru Kanniyum Moonu Kalavaanikalum (2014) in late 2013, Chimbu Deven restarted preliminary work on the fantasy film and narrated the script to Vijay, who expressed interest in being a part of the project. Subsequently, the project found producers in PT Selvakumar, Vijay's press relations officer, and Shibu of Thameen Films, who have previously distributed several of Vijay's films across Kerala. The two producers came together to form a new production house SKT Films and announced that production would begin after the completion of Vijay's work in AR Murugadoss's Kaththi (2014).[10][11]
Although early reports suggested that A. R. Rahman would be the film's music composer, the team later confirmed Devi Sri Prasad had been signed.[12][13] Natarajan Subramaniam chose to continue his work as a cinematographer with the film, despite his acting success in Sathuranga Vettai (2014), revealing he was excited to work alongside such an ensemble cast.[14] T. Muthuraj was announced as the film's art director and began work alongside his commitments in Shankar's I (2014), while lyricist Vairamuthu also joined the crew.[15][16] The team also picked five costume designers to take care of clothing for the actors, with Manish Malhotra, Deepali Noor, Chaitanya Rao, Siva and Sai all brought on board. Furthermore, four stunt choreographers were selected to take care of action scenes with international technicians Sang Lin and Pradit Seeluem, brought in to work alongside Sunil Rodrigues and Dilip Subbarayan.[17][18] Makuta VFX were signed on to be in charge of the film's animations and special effects.[19] Chimbu Deven subsequently worked on finalising the script of the film between January and August 2014. Chimbu Deven and cinematographer Natarajan Subramaniam scouted locations in Kerala in August 2014, finalising schedules in Chalakudi and Nelliyampathy.[20]
Casting
In April 2014, reports suggested Kannada actor Sudeep was approached to play a parallel leading role in the film, while contrasting reports noted he would play the lead antagonist.[21] Sudeep later confirmed his participation in the film, adding it would see him in a "first of its kind" role.[22] The team then successfully signed on actress Sridevi to portray a supporting role of a princess in the film, with the actress appearing in a Tamil film for the first time in 29 years.[23] Another senior actor, Prabhu, also signed on after being approached by the director to portray a character role.[24]
Chimbu Deven revealed that the film would feature two leading female roles to appear alongside Vijay.[25] Initial reports had linked Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone to the roles, but high remuneration subsequently meant neither were signed.[26] Shruti Haasan confirmed that she had signed the film in July 2014, making a comeback to Tamil films after a two-year hiatus following 3 (2012).[27] Hansika Motwani was also added to the cast thereafter to portray a princess, the daughter of Sridevi's character[28][29] Thambi Ramaiah and Vidyullekha Raman were also selected to portray roles in the film, while comedians Sathyan, Robo Shankar and Imman Annachi joined the team in the first schedule.[30] A press release in early January 2015 added actors Naren, Vijaykumar, Ali, Karunas and Joe Malloori to the film's cast. In April 2015, Nandita joined the cast to play a small and pivotal role, after Bhavana had turned down the offer.[31]
Filming
The team began filming on 10 November 2014 at the Adityaram Studios on the East Coast Road, Chennai, where a song featuring Vijay and Hansika Motwani was shot in a set replicating a castle put up by art director, Muthuraj.T.[32] The team then set up base in Pannaiyapuram for a forty five day stint, with hundreds of extras and technicians gathered from neighbouring states.[33][34] A second schedule continued throughout December after which it was reported that the film was twenty percent complete. After a Christmas break, production restarted in early January 2015, and carried on in the outskirts of the city until mid-January.[35] Reports which suggested that the team had secured permission to film at the Mysore Palace was dismissed by the makers as speculation.[36]
The film had begun shoot without a title and had been widely referred to in the media as Vijay 58. Other titles such as Garuda, the script's original name Maareesan, Maru Dheeran and Por Vaal were also registered by the producers, while finalising on a title.[37] The team consequently confirmed the title as Puli in early January 2015, after having bought the rights from director S. J. Surya
The North and South Arcot Area distribution rights were bought by Sri Thenandal films.[39] Ayngaran International purchased the overseas rights while Thameens purchased the Kerala distribution rights. The Karnataka distribution rights were purchased by Producer and director S. Narayan.[40] The audio rights were bought by Sony Music India.[41]
The satellite rights of the film were sold to Sun TV for a record price of ₹22 crore (US$3.4 million)
