Theri (film)
Theri ( "Spark") is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Atlee and produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu under the banner V Creations. The film stars Vijay and Samantha Ruth Prabhu. The film's music is composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar, with cinematography handled by George C. Williams and editing done by Ruben. The story revolves around a former police officer who is on a mission to protect his daughter from gangsters and also seek revenge for the death of his wife. The film marked Atlee's second directorial after "Raja Rani" (2013 ), whose success impressed Vijay to work with the director. Atlee came up with the script, which was an "emotional action thriller film" and a formal announcement was made during September 2014. After post-production works and a formal launch ceremony in June 2015, the film began production in Chennai during 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 opted to shoot in  Bangkok. Despite the difficulties, the film was completed within January 2016. The film had a worldwide release on 14 April 2016. The film received generally positive response from critics and audience who praised the cast's performances, action sequences and direction but critisiced the clichéd story. Grossing against a budget of , it emerged as a commercial success and became the second highest grossing Tamil and South Indian 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 Assamese  as "Ratnakar" (2019). It is currently considered as one among the most-popular films in Vijay's career, due to the commercial elements in the film and its multiple re-runs in television channels had attributed to more popularity. Plot. Joseph Kuruvilla is a baker who runs a bakery. He is a non-violent and polite person. He lives with his daughter Niveditha alias Nivi and they lead happy life. He soon befriends Nivi's teacher Annie and she starts developing a crush on him. One day near a church Annie slaps Chetan a member of a local gang for  misbehaving with her and Nivi. However, the next day to avenge his humiliation Chetan causes an accident for the two, and Annie files a complaint against him. But Joseph decides to withdraw the case to avoid problems. There a police officer watches him carefully and realizes that his face is quite similar. He suddenly calls him Vijay Kumar and he turns back thus causing Annie to suspect Joseph. That night Chetan's henchmen arrive at Joseph's house and beat him up and decide to kill Nivi. Suddenly Joseph transforms and surprises everyone by fighting off the goons single-handedly . Annie watches everything standing near his house. Then Joseph starts to narrate his sad and dark story. Joseph's real name is Vijay Kumar who is a police officer. He was an honest and sincere DCP of Chennai. He beats up people who have wronged the good ones. In one such encounter, he beats up a local goon who disables the children and forces them to beg for money. Later the goon is admitted to a hospital and Mithra a medical student gives treatment for him. She later questions Vijay for being violent. He then justifies his actions by telling  her the reason behind them. With this, she starts respecting him, and love blossoms between the two. One day an old man comes up with a complaint to find his missing daughter Raji an IT worker to Vijay. He investigates the case and within ten hours he finds the body and is shocked to see her condition, where she was assaulted to death. Vijay's further investigation leads him to Ashwin the son of Vanamaamalai a labour minister. He vows to punish Ashwin. After three days of Raji's death, Vijay goes to Vanamaamalai's house to arrest Ashwin. But  Vanamaamalai and commissioner Sibi Chakravarthy inform him that Ashwin was lost for three days and Vijay is tasked with finding him. Little did they know that Ashwin has been murdered and Vijay himself had tortured and murdered him. Vanamaamalai is shocked and asks Vijay to find Ashwin's murderer. He reveals himself to be the murderer and Vanamaamalai swears to take revenge on him for killing his son. Meanwhile, Mithra and Vijay decide to marry but later she refuses since she is worried about his safety from Vanamaamalai. He convinces her and both of them marry. They also give birth  to Nivi and they lead a peaceful life. However, everything comes to a halt when Vanamaamalai and his gang barge into Vijay's house. They kill Mithra and a badly injured Vijay could only witness her death. They also attempt to drown Nivi. But somehow Vijay and Nivi escape. Henceforth Vijay tries to fulfill Mithra's wishes she listed before she was killed and he quits his job as a police officer. He also fakes his death in order to protect Nivi. Back to the present Vijay as Joseph goes to Chetan's gang and apologizes for what he had  done to them. They let him go but they click his photo. One day during Nivi's excursion the brakes of her school bus are damaged and the bus falls down from the bridge into the river. Joseph with the help of Annie and some local people manages to rescue Nivi and the other children. Joseph gets to know that Vanamaamalai is behind it and he returns to his old self to rescue his daughter from him and also to take revenge against him. Vijay first kills inspector Karikalan a corrupt police officer and one of Vanamaamalai's henchmen who  were present on the night when Mithra was killed. The police are baffled at the murder as it was done within the police station. At this point in time, Vanamaamalai and his brother have a fallout. The next day he kills Vanamaamalai's brother even though he was a part of the gang. Finally, Vijay allows himself to be captured by Vanamaamalai's henchmen. He kills everyone one by one. He then blames Vanamaamalai saying that he lost as a father and also as a person. He then kills him. When the police arrive at Vanamaamalai's hideout they only  find his dead body hanging from the ceiling. The killings continue to be a mystery but Sibi Chakravarthy is aware of everything and he secretly re-employs Vijay. Later, Vijay, an older Nivi, and Annie are in Ladakh. Vijay this time changed his name to Dharmeshwar but he punishes the wrong ones and reduces crime rates and he continued his life by fulfilling Mithra's wishes. 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 may 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, 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. Soon after the announcement, many reports been surfaced that  Nayanthara will play the female lead. However, in January 2015, the actress refuted her claims of being part in the film. Later, Samantha Ruth Prabhu was announced as the female lead. Amy Jackson also joined the film as the second female lead; she 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 Raadhika Sarathkumar was essayed the role of Vijay's mother in the film, collaborating with Vijay for the  second time after 27 years. Bharathiraja was approached by the team, for playing the antagonist role in the film, but his refusal on being a part of the film, led Atlee choose veteran director Mahendran as the antagonist. Similarly, Sathyaraj too approached for another pivotal role, which he denied due to his priorities in "", led Prabhu to play the role. During the start of the project, actress Meena's daughter Nainika officially confirmed to be a part of the film, thereby making her acting debut. She would play Vijay's reel-life daughter in the film. Sunainaa was also roped  in to play an extended cameo in the film. Actress Amritha Aiyer, appeared in an uncredited role playing Samantha's cousin. 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. Raadhika 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. A further schedule began again for a month long shoot in September 2015 in Chennai. 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. The film's soundtrack and score is composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar. In addition to being his second collaboration with Vijay and Atlee, the film also marked Prakash's 50th project as a composer. 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. The album featured seven tracks, with lyrics written by Pulamaipithan, Na. Muthukumar, Pa. Vijay, Kabilan, Rokesh, R. Thiyagarajan and Arunraja Kamaraj. 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. Release. "Theri" was released on 14 April 2016. Earlier in July 2015, the team had fixed two release  dates tentatively – one being scheduled on the occasion of Pongal (15 January 2016) and the other being fixed for the Republic Day weekend (22 January 2016). The team had planned the release date depending on the film's early completion. However, the production delays had forced the team to push the release date to Tamil New Year (14 April 2016). Intentionally, Rajinikanth-starrer "Kabali", Thanu's another film he had produced, also scheduled for the release on the same day, and as no two Tamil films, produced by the same company or producer will clash on the same date, the  team planned to postpone the release further to 1 May 2016. Eventually, in December 2015, Thanu announced for an interchange of release dates between the two films, with "Theri" being scheduled to release on 14 April. The film opened in more than 1000 screens worldwide, with 350 screens in Tamil Nadu, 200 screens in Kerala, 150 screens in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, and 70 screens in Karnataka. In addition, the film was screened in 400 theatres across overseas centers, 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. The Tamil Nadu theatrical rights of the film were sold to ₹49.40 crore, with SPI Cinemas acquiring the Chennai city distribution rights to ₹4.5 crore, and also selling the theatrical rights in the Chengalpet region, with Impossible Films buying them for ₹9.5 crore. Coimbatore rights have been sold to ₹8.5 crore. The distribution rights for Madurai have been sold to Impala Theatres for ₹6.9 crore, followed by the Trichy-Thanjavur region, where Green Screen Narayanaswamy acquired the theatrical rights to a sum of ₹5.6  crore. 7G Films has bagged the rights of the Salem region for ₹4.6 crore. Dr Albert has acquired the South Arcot rights for ₹3.40 crore, and Devraj of Alankar Theatres purchased the North Arcot rights for ₹3.15 crore. Mannan Films has acquired the Tirunelveli & Kanyakumari rights for ₹3.25 crore. 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. The respective overseas distributors are: Ayngaran International (Europe and Sri Lanka), AP International (Singapore and UAE), Malik Stream Corporation (Malaysia), Celluloid Studios (Japan) and MKS Retails (Australia and New Zealand). Marketing. Promotional stills from the film released on 15 January 2016, coinciding with Pongal. The official teaser was unveiled on 5 February 2016. 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. Screening 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. Panneer Selvam, the sectretary of Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association (TNTOA) blamed Thanu saying that "he had asked unreasonable MG rates for the film, especially in a risky situation, where if that film fails, it may incur huge losses to the producers and 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. The issue became serious as Thanu had announced that Rajinikanth's "Kabali", which he had produced, will not be screened in the said theatres across Chengalpet, which refused to screen the film. Producer K. E.  Gnanavel Raja also 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-an-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. After multiple deliberations, Sun TV acquired the television rights in September 2017, and premiered the film exclusively on 18 October 2017, 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. According to Behindwoods, the film took a "gargantuan opening" ₹3.07 crore within the first four days at the Chennai city box office. At the second day, the film had collected ₹7.12 crore in Tamil Nadu, with  a 50% drop compared to the first day collections. The film grossed worldwide in first weekend; By the end of its first 6 days in theaters, the film had grossed worldwide, becoming Vijay's third film to do so, following "Thuppakki" (2012), "Kaththi" (2014) and "Puli" (2015). At-the end of June 2016, the film crossed at the box-office, becoming Vijay's first film in his career to enter the 150-crore club. As of July 2016, the film had collected more than at the box-office, becoming the second highest-grossing Tamil film of the year. 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. In the first four days of its release, the film collected in USA and combining the gross in Canada, the film collected over as of 17 April. In the United Kingdom, the film broke "Enthiran"'s box office collection for the first weekend, by collecting , while "Enthiran" had collected . As of May 2016, the film had collected ₹44.37 crore from overseas centres; the film collected $ 728,317 in United States, $399,079 in Canada, MYR 5,644,489 in Malaysia, where it contributed the major collections. Critical response. M. Suganth of "The Times of India" rated 3 stars (out of 5) and said that "With the right material, Vijay can elevate even an ordinary scene with his amazing screen presence and he can effortlessly play to the gallery. This is a formulaic film and can be best described only with another cliche — Old wine in a fancy extra-large bottle". Gautaman Bhaskaran of "Hindustan Times" rated the film 2.5 stars (out of 5) saying, "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". Bardwaj Rangan of "The Hindu" stated that Atlee's screenplay checks all boxes and we're checking these boxes 10 minutes ahead of him. But we let all of this pass because what we look for are the mass moments, the moments that creep past the logic centres in the brain and affect us almost atavistically." Kirubhakar Purushothaman of "India Today" rated 3 (out of 5) saying ""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" also rated the film 3 out of 5 stars saying that "Vijay's scorching screen presence and his infectious energy is the highlight." "Behindwoods" also rated the film 2.75 stars out of 5, stating that "Theri is a little predictable emotional ride with some great performances, superlative technical work with a mix of commercial elements." Anupama Subramanian of "Deccan Chronicle" rated two-and-a-half out of five stars saying "The film highly relies on Vijay's strength and charisma to carry  it through, thus living up to the expectations and the huge pre hype created to some extent." Latha Srinivasan of "Daily News and Analysis" gave 2.5 (out of 5) saying "Vijay fans will find the movie delightful, others may not". Writing for "The Indian Express", Goutham VS gave two stars out of five and said that "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". "Ananda Vikatan" rated the film 43 out of 100. "Indiaglitz" rated the film 3 out of 5  and called it as "an entertaining revenge drama from Atlee and Vijay". 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 also gained popularity in televisions. 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. Remake . In June 2016, a Hindi remake of the film was planned by Rohit Shetty, with Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar as the frontrunners to play the leads. However, Shetty denied the plans of remaking the film. Later, in April 2020, Varun Dhawan was rumoured to play the lead in the adaptation.The film was partially remade into Assamese as "Ratnakar" (2019) by Jatin Bora. Cancelled sequel. Following the success of the film, Atlee had planned for a sequel in May 2016, which, however did not materialise as planned.