# Theri (film)

Theri (transl. Spark) is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Atlee and produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu under the banner V Creations. Loosely inspired from the 1990 Tamil film Chatriyan and 2013 Hollywood film Homefront, the film stars Vijay, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Amy Jackson, Nainika. The music was composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar, with cinematography handled by George C. Williams and editing by Ruben. In the film, a former cop is on a mission to protect his daughter from his past enemies.
The film marked Kumar's second directorial after Raja Rani (2013), whose success impressed Vijay enough to work with the director. Atlee came up with the script, which was an "emotional action thriller film," and a formal announcement was made in September 2014. After post-production work and a formal launch ceremony in June 2015, the film began production in Chennai in early July. The film was halted twice due to the Film Employees Federation of South India's strike and the heavy flooding in Chennai. In addition, poor climatic conditions in China meant that the team had to abandon their idea of filming sequences there and instead opt to shoot in Bangkok. Despite the difficulties, the film was completed in January 2016.
Theri was released on 14 April 2016 to positive reviews from critics and grossed ₹150 crore (US$17 million) against a budget of ₹75 crore (US$8.7 million). The film emerged as the second highest-grossing Tamil film of 2016. It further won three SIIMA Awards, three IIFA Utsavam Awards, two Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards and nine nominations at the 64th Filmfare Awards South. The film was adapted into Sinhala as Goree (2019) and Assamese as Ratnakar (2019). The film was remade in Hindi as Baby John and is currently being remade in Telugu as Ustaad Bhagat Singh. It is currently considered one of the most popular films in Vijay's career, and its multiple re-runs on television channels have contributed to its popularity.

## Plot

Joseph Kuruvilla is a non-violent person who runs a bakery and leads a peaceful life with his five-year-old daughter, Niveditha Nivi, in Kerala. Joseph soon befriends Nivi's teacher, Annie, who starts developing a crush on him. Joseph gets into a scuffle with some goons as they try to kill Nivi. Annie learns that Joseph is actually DCP Vijay Kumar. Joseph later narrates his past to Annie.
Past: In Chennai, Vijay meets an old man who comes up with a complaint to find his missing daughter, Raji, an IT worker. Vijay finds that she was sexually assaulted to death, and further investigation leads him to Ashwin, the son of Labour Minister Vanamaamalai. Vijay heads to Vanamaamalai's house to arrest Ashwin, but Vanamaamalai and commissioner Sibi Chakravarthy inform him that Ashwin has been missing for three days. Vijay is tasked with finding Ashwin, and he finds and kills Ashwin. Vijay reveals this to Vanamaamalai, who swears to exact vengeance on Vijay for Ashwin's death.
Meanwhile, Vijay meets a medical student named Mithra, and the two fall in love with each other. While Vijay meets Mithra's family, Vanamaamalai's brother Ratnam sends goons. The incident scares Mithra, and she asks Vijay to leave his police job. However, Vijay manages to convince her, so they get married and lead a happy life with their newborn daughter, Nivi. On the night of Deepavali, Vanamaamalai, Ratnam, and their henchman Inspector Karikalan barge into Vijay's house and kill Vijay's mother, Pappu, Mithra and attempt to drown Nivi. A dying Mithra manages to save Nivi and makes Vijay vow that he will quit the police force. Vijay accepts Mithra's vow. Before he leaves, he gives Mithra an emotional goodbye. He escapes and fakes his death to protect Nivi.
Present: When Nivi takes off for a school excursion, Vanamaamalai (who learnt that Vijay and Nivi are alive) orchestrates an accident on the school bus. With the help of Annie and the local people, Vijay rescues Nivi and the other children. On learning that Vanamaamalai is behind the accident, Vijay seeks vengeance. Vijay returns to Chennai, kills Karikalan, and hangs his body from the station fan. A constable named Ganesan witnesses this and spreads the word that Vijay has re-appeared as a ghost.
Vanamaamalai tries to warn Ratnam about the truth, but Ratnam, who severed ties with his brother, refuses the warning and assumes Vanamaamalai is behind Karikalan's death. At night, Vijay kills Ratnam by kicking him from his under-construction building. Vijay gets himself captured by Vanamaamalai's henchmen as they reach him. Vijay kills Vanamaamalai and his henchmen and hangs Vanamaamalai's body from the ceiling. The killings continue to be a mystery to the public, but Sibi Chakravarthy, who is revealed to be secretly aware that Vijay is alive, re-employs him in the police force.
A few years later, Vijay, an older Nivi, and Annie are in Ladakh. Vijay, who has changed his identity to Dharmeshwar, secretly assists the CBI in solving various cases.

## Cast

* Vijay as DCP A. Vijay Kumar IPS/ Joseph Kuruvilla/ Dharmeshwar
* Samantha Ruth Prabhu as Mithra, Vijay's wife and Nivi's mother (extended cameo appearance)
* Amy Jackson as Annie, Nivi's teacher (Voice dubbed by Raveena Ravi)
* Nainika as Niveditha alias Nivi, Vijay and Mithra's daughter
** Divya Vijay as teenage Niveditha (cameo appearance)
* Radhika Sarathkumar as Pappu, Vijay's mother (cameo appearance)
* Mahendran as Vanamaamalai
* Prabhu as Commissioner G. Cibi Chakravarthi
* Rajendran as P. Rajender
* Azhagam Perumal as Ratnam, Vanamaamalai's younger brother
* Kaali Venkat as Ganesan, a police constable
* Shreekumar as ACP
* Manobala as a school principal
* Stun Siva as ACP Karikalan
* Kumar Natarajan as Ramakrishnan, Mithra's father
* Ayra as Pallavi, Mithra's sister
* Niharika as Mithra's and Pallavi's aunt
* Kalyani Natarajan as a forensic examiner
* Swaminathan as Vijay's prospective bride's father
* Amritha Aiyer as Mithra's friend
* Sugunthan as Isaac
* Prinz Nithik as Chetan's henchman
* Soundararaja as Karthik
* Sai Dheena as Pulippu, a child trafficker
* Bineesh Bastin as Chetan's henchman
* R.K. Abinav as Pandy Kutti
* Aathma Patrick as Vanamaamalai's henchman
* R. S. G. Chelladurai as Raji's father
* T. Muthuraj as Chetan

### Cameo appearance

* Sunaina as Vijay's prospective bride

## Production
### Development

In January 2014, Vijay expressed his interest to work with a project directed by Atlee, after being impressed by his debut directorial film Raja Rani (2013); the latter also expected to work in the film, since he had been a fan of the actor, and also admired his recent projects. Kalaipuli S. Thanu was reported to finance the project and was officially announced in September 2014. The producers further announced that the team would start filming only after the completion of Vijay's other film Puli (2015), while Atlee continued to script the film through late-2014. In November 2014, G. V. Prakash Kumar was announced as the music composer collaborating with Vijay and Atlee again, after Thalaivaa and Raja Rani. Several of the technical crew involved in Atlee's previous film, Raja Rani, were also added to the team including cinematographer George C. Williams, editor Ruben and art director T. Muthuraj. The film is touted to be an emotional-action thriller where Vijay would essay the role of a police officer and a father in the film, and was reported to be inspired from Chatriyan (1990). Several titles for the film including Moondru Mugam, Vetri, Thuppaki 2, Khakee and Thaarumaaru were considered, before the makers finalised Theri in late November 2015. The first look of the film was also released on that date.

### Casting

Nayanthara, in January 2015, the actress refuted claims of being part in the film. Later, Samantha Ruth Prabhu was announced as the female lead. Amy Jackson was reportedly essayed the role of a Malayalam-speaking school teacher in the film. Initially, the team approached few Hindi actresses for Jackson's role, whom had turned down the offer. In March 2015, veteran actress and film producer Radhika Sarathkumar was essayed the role of Vijay's mother in the film, collaborating with Vijay for the second time after 27 years. Bharathiraja refused on being a part of the film and led Atlee choose veteran director Mahendran as the antagonist. Prabhu also to play a role. Sunaina was also roped in to play an extended cameo in the film. Actress Amritha Aiyer, appeared in an uncredited role playing Samantha's friend.

### Filming

An official launch event was held at the Kerala Club House on the East Coast Road in Chennai, with several members of the cast and crew in attendance on 26 June 2015. The film began production in Chennai during early-July 2015 and an introductory song for Vijay was shot in the city, followed by scenes featuring Vijay and Samantha on the East Coast Road. Further scenes in Chennai were shot at Adityaram Studios and at Binny Mills, where art director T. Muthuraj had erected a huge set. Radhika was also a part of the shoot, while actress Sunaina shot for one day in the schedule which ended in mid-July. The second schedule was reported to begin during the end of the month, was briefly delayed owing to a strike held by the Tamil Film Producers Council against Film Employees Federation of South India.
The second schedule for the film restarted in Chennai on 3 August 2015, with Vijay and Samantha joining the shoot and went for 25 days. Few sequences were also shot at MGM Dizzee World on the East Coast Road. In mid-September, the team shot few sequences at veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan's ancestral house Annai Illam and the shoot went for 2–3 days. In November 2015, it was revealed that the film was "seventy percent complete" and portions involving Samantha Prabhu had finished being shot. Thereafter, Amy Jackson subsequently joined the team in Chennai to shoot for her part during a new schedule. Action scenes, choreographed by Dhilip Subbarayan were filmed throughout the month, with the shoot disrupted by the heavy flooding in Chennai.
Hollywood stunt choreographer Kaloyan Vodenicharov worked with the team in early December 2015 to help shoot the climax portions for the film. Poor climatic conditions in China meant that the team had to abandon their idea of filming sequences there and instead opted to shoot in Bangkok. Sets were erected in a factory in Chennai to shoot the climax scenes, with Kaloyan recruited to help train artistes and film the sequences during December 2015. In mid-January 2016, an under water stunt sequence was filmed under the guidance of Subbrarayan. The team started filming a song featuring Vijay and Jackson, and with the completion of the song, the principal photography was wrapped.

## Music

Soon after his inclusion in the project, Prakash started composing the songs during November 2014 and completed work within January 2016. In his micro-blogging page, the composer said that all the tracks in the film are "trend-setting", and featured songs recorded by veteran composer Deva, actor-director T. Rajendar, Uthara Unnikrishnan and the actor Vijay himself. It was released on 20 March 2016 by Think Music. The release coincided with a promotional event held at Sathyam Cinemas in Chennai, with the presence of the cast and crew. Irrespective of the full songs, a bonus track titled "Hey Aasmaan" was released on 10 April 2016.

## Marketing

Promotional stills from the film released on 15 January 2016, coinciding with Pongal. The teaser which was initially uploaded on the midnight of 5 February, was removed after copyright claims from an anonymous channel, but was later restored by the technical team. The teaser received praise from fans and celebrities, and garnered 1.5 million views within 24 hours of its release.
The promotions of the film began during 14 March 2016, with the team releasing special posters ahead of the audio launch on 20 March. A month before its release, SPI Cinemas, which acquired the distribution rights of the film, started pre-bookings of the film in theatres, months before its release. The pre-booking facilities were affiliated to theatres owned by SPI Cinemas – which include Sathyam, Escape and S2 Theatres. It has reported that, the active campaigning by the fans of Vijay through social media, with the extensive promotions had attributed to the hype, with Abirami Ramanathan, managing director of Abirami Multiplex, said that more than 6,000 tickets have been sold for the first five days of its release.

## Release
### Theatrical
#### Screening and statics

Film released with 144 screens across United States. CineGalaxy Inc, which had distributed the film in United States, stated that it is the "biggest release for a Vijay-film in recent years".

### Distribution

Karnataka theatrical rights were purchased by Goldie Films, with Kerala rights were purchased by Friday Film House and Carnival Motion Pictures at ₹5.6 crore, highest for a non-Malayalam film. Dil Raju's Sri Venkateswara Creations procured the theatrical rights in the Andhra and Telangana regions. CineGalaxy Inc, a Texas-based distribution company acquired the theatrical rights in the United States for ₹3 crore.

### Legal issues

The film was not screened in many theatres across Chengalpet, owing to the issues between the producers and distributors over profit-sharing. Eventually, the distributors were reluctant to buy the film under Minimum-guarantee (MG) basis, due to the losses of big-budget Tamil films in the recent years, with Lingaa (2014) in particular, where the film had incurred huge losses to the film's distributors.
Another sources claimed that there held a raid in Chengalpet theatres, following complaints of overpricing of ticket rates. It has been stated that the film's release had coincided with the period of Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election, where the moral code of conduct was in force and huge complaints from audiences, a huge crackdown was imitated by the authorities against the theatre owners selling tickets above the government-stipulated rates. Many of them feared selling tickets at higher rates as it may lead to suspension of the theatre licence. As a result, the theatre owners were reluctant to pay high MG rates as it cannot be recovered on normal ticket rates.
Producer K. E. Gnanavel Raja supported Thanu's decision, and said that the films he had distributed – Suriya's 24 and Singam 3 – will face boycott in the Chengalpet region, if the issue had not cleared. Thanu also blamed the "theatre mafia" saying that "the middlemen and brokers is trying to take over the business with this issue". On 29 April 2016, the film was screened in Chengalpet, two weeks after the original release, as the talks with the producers and stakeholders became fruitful, leading to resolve the issue.

### Piracy

On 15 April 2016, a group of actor Vijay's fans caught a videographer for recording the film at a theatre in Coimbatore for piracy purposes. It was revealed that he along with two of other members, were working at a Tamil-language television channel, Polimer TV and the pirated footage of one-and-a-half hour was handed by the videographer to the television staff. Reacting to the issue, the Tamil Film Producers Council and the sister associations of Tamil film fraternity sued the channel for the illegitimate piracy. However, the channel refuted and claimed that they had never indulged in video piracy. A bus driver, named Shankar was booked by the police, for buying pirated versions of the film (along with Suriya's 24) stored in DVDs and screened at a private luxury bus. Apparently Shankar stated that the bus owner had nothing to do with the pirated DVDs.

### Home media

The satellite rights of this film, along with Thanu's other production Kabali, were remained unsold. In March 2016, it has been reported that Star Vijay and Jaya TV were considered for acquiring the television rights of the film, which did not happen. In November 2016, following its launch in India, Amazon Prime Video had acquired the digital rights of the two films and streamed them exclusively through the platform. The film premiered exclusively on 18 October 2017, on Sun TV coinciding with Diwali.

## Reception
### Box office

In the opening day of its release, the film had collected ₹18.1 crore at the domestic box office and ₹39.96 crore worldwide.
At-the end of June 2016, the film crossed ₹150 crore (US$17 million) at the box-office, becoming Vijay's first film in his career to enter the 150-crore club At the Chennai city, Theri was the highest grossing Tamil film with a revenue of ₹11.5 crore, which was later broken by Master (2021), another Vijay-starrer film that had earned ₹11.56 crore.

### Critical response

M. Suganth of The Times of India gave 3/5 stars and wrote "A cop story that is entertaining despite being predictable and [a formulaic film] can be best described only with another cliché — old wine in a fancy, extra-large bottle." Kirubhakar Purushothaman of India Today gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Theri is a film you go to with battalions of friends or family on a weekend, and come back without giving it a second thought". Sify gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Theri is strictly escapist fun...a satisfying Vijay masala entertainer."
Gautaman Bhaskaran of Hindustan Times gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Theri has all the essentials one expects in a Vijay starrer, but central to the film is the father-daughter relationship and that’s where the film scores big." Anupama Subramanian of Deccan Chronicle gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "The mass movie will be well savored by Ilayathalapathy’s ardent fans."
Latha Srinivasan of DNA gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Vijay fans will find the movie delightful, others may not". Goutham VS of The Indian Express gave 2/5 stars and wrote "The movie, possibly the millionth remake of Rajnikanth’s revenge film Baashha, where the hero is a daredevil with a larger-than-life persona, is yawn-inducing". Baradwaj Rangan of The Hindu wrote "Atlee's screenplay checks all boxes and we're checking these boxes 10 minutes ahead of him."

### Accolades

| Award | Date of ceremony | Category | Recipient(s) | Result | Ref. |
| Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards | 13 January 2017 | Best Child Actor | Nainika | Won | [91] [92] |
| Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards | 13 January 2017 | Best Stunt Choreography | Dhilip Subbarayan, Kaloyan Vodenicharov | Won | [91] [92] |
| Behindwoods Gold Medal | 12 June 2017 | People's Choice Actor – Female | Samantha Ruth Prabhu | Won |
| Behindwoods Gold Medal | 12 June 2017 | People's Choice Director | Atlee | Won |
| Behindwoods Gold Medal | 12 June 2017 | Best PRO | Diamond Babu, Riaz K. Ahmed (also for Kabali) | Won |
| Filmfare Awards South | 17 June 2017 | Best Film – Tamil | Kalaipuli S. Thanu | Nominated | [93] [94] |
| Filmfare Awards South | 17 June 2017 | Best Director – Tamil | Atlee | Nominated | [93] [94] |
| Filmfare Awards South | 17 June 2017 | Best Actor – Tamil | Vijay | Nominated | [93] [94] |
| Filmfare Awards South | 17 June 2017 | Best Actress – Tamil | Samantha Ruth Prabhu | Nominated | [93] [94] |
| Filmfare Awards South | 17 June 2017 | Best Supporting Actor – Tamil | J. Mahendran | Nominated | [93] [94] |
| Filmfare Awards South | 17 June 2017 | Best Supporting Actor – Tamil | Rajendran | Nominated | [93] [94] |
| Filmfare Awards South | 17 June 2017 | Best Supporting Actress – Tamil | Radhika Sarathkumar | Nominated | [93] [94] |
| Filmfare Awards South | 17 June 2017 | Best Music Director – Tamil | G. V. Prakash Kumar | Nominated | [93] [94] |
| Filmfare Awards South | 17 June 2017 | Best Female Playback Singer – Tamil | Neeti Mohan – (for "Chella Kutti") | Nominated | [93] [94] |
| Filmfare Awards South | 17 June 2017 | Best Supporting Actress – Tamil | Nainika | Won |
| Filmfare Awards South | 17 June 2017 | Best Actor in a Negative Role – Tamil | J. Mahendran | Won |
| South Indian International Movie Awards | 30 June–1 July 2017 | Best Film – Tamil | Kalaipuli S. Thanu | Nominated | |
| South Indian International Movie Awards | 30 June–1 July 2017 | Best Director – Tamil | Atlee | Won | |
| South Indian International Movie Awards | 30 June–1 July 2017 | Best Actor – Tamil | Vijay | Nominated | |
| South Indian International Movie Awards | 30 June–1 July 2017 | Best Actress – Tamil | Samantha Ruth Prabhu | Nominated | |
| South Indian International Movie Awards | 30 June–1 July 2017 | Best Actress in a Supporting Role – Tamil | Radhika Sarathkumar | Nominated | |
| South Indian International Movie Awards | 30 June–1 July 2017 | Best Actor in a Negative Role – Tamil | J. Mahendran | Nominated | |

## Impact

Theri has been considered as one of the popular films of Vijay in the recent times. It also led to the repeated collaborations between Atlee and Vijay, where they went to work on Mersal (2017) and Bigil (2019). However, Atlee still stated it as "one of his favourite films in his career". On 14 April 2021, during the film's fifth anniversary, Atlee tweeted a thread of stills from the films, praising the actor, actress, crew and producer for the film, while also referring it as "close to his heart". The film emerged popularity over multiple re-runs on television channels and had garnered record impressions; apart from the original, the Hindi-dubbed version of the film gained popularity in televisions and the Bengali-dubbed version has received a great response on the Bongo OTT platform. It was re-released in Tamil Nadu theatres on 21 June 2019, ahead of the actor's 45th birthday. Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja, stated Theri as his favourite film at an interview to his fans. During the COVID-19 lockdown in India, a group of Tamil Nadu Police members performed a parody version of the song "Jithu Jilladi" to create awareness to control the pandemic.

## Remakes

The 2016 Tamil film Theri has inspired several adaptations across different languages. It was partially remade in Sinhala as Goree (2019), directed by Harsha Udakanda, and in Assamese as Ratnakar (2019), directed by Jatin Bora. Both films retained the action-thriller essence of the original while adapting it to their cultural contexts.
In Hindi, Theri was remade as Baby John (2024) directed by Kalees starring Varun Dhawan and marking the Hindi debut of Keerthy Suresh. Additionally, a Telugu adaptation titled Ustaad Bhagat Singh, directed by Harish Shankar and featuring Pawan Kalyan in the titular role, is currently in production.