In February 2010, following the release of Aasal, Ajith was signed by Dhayanidhi Alagiri's Cloud Nine Movies for a project, which eventually became Mankatha. How? Here's the story
The project was supposed to be directed by Gautham Menon.As Ajith was busy in the 2010 season of the FIA Formula Two Championship, Gautham Menon, unwilling to wait, decided to shelve the film and opted to focus on another project.Venkat Prabhu, who was keen on making a multi-starrer film featuring top stars, wanted to sign the actor in his next film after the successful Goa.Venkat Prabhu narrated three scripts, out of which the actor chose Mankatha, as he wanted to experiment with a character 'with grey shades.'Ajith, apparently, was never considered for Vinayak's role when he wrote the first draft of Mankatha.Venkat Prabhu revealed that he had his 'usual gang of boys in mind' while writing the characters for Mankatha.It was actor Vaibhav, who first suggested that a 'big hero' as the protagonist will work well for the film and will get the project many eyeballs.Bollywood actor Vivek Oberoi and Sathyaraj were first approached for the role of Vinayak MahadevAround 2011, Ajith had called Venkat Prabhu and expressed interest in performing a role similar to The Joker character played by Heath Ledger in the The Dark Knight.With the protagonist role in Mankatha incidentally being such a character, Ajith immediately accepted the role, turning the film into a high-profile production.Venkat Prabhu later said that Mankatha's script had been altered after Ajith's entry into the project, and that he had incorporated 'certain elements' that Ajith's fans would expect in his film.'I approached Mankatha as a fan and asked myself how I would want to see Ajith sir on screen and then set out,' Venkat Prabhu had said in an interview.Mankatha went on floors on August 2, 2010, coinciding with Ajith Kumar's 18th anniversary of his entry into the film industry.The film, which was initially being Mangaatha - a popular Indian traditional card game - underwent a minor change in its spelling, Mankatha, due to numerological reasonsDuring the pre-production stage, when Prabhu was still working on the script, sources claimed the film to be on the lines of Steven Soderbergh's heist film Ocean Eleven (2001).Also, the film was reported to be based on a real-life gambling episode during the Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket season.Reports also emerged during the was a remake of the 2008 Hindi film Jannat that was based on match fixingDhayanidhi and Venkat Prabhu, however, denied all the reports and claimed that Mankatha's script was original.Upon completion of filming, Venkat Prabhu named Mankatha 'his favourite film yet' and 'the one most close to my heart'.When Mankatha was in shoot, the film was to be a 'multi-starrer', with several leading actors expected to appear in it, making it the first of its kind in Tamil cinema.Telugu actor Nagarjuna was first approached to essay a powerful character as a CBI officer, which was confirmed by Venkat Prabhu during the film's launch event.Nagarjuna had conveyed interest in remaking the film into Telugu and playing Ajith role in return, but since he could not adjust his call sheet, he was forced to pull out of Mankatha.Arjun replaced Nagarjuna as the cop in November 2010.Arjun was apparently hesitant to play the second lead, but however agreed to do it, on Ajith's insistence.Mohan Babu's son, Manoj Manchu, was supposed to debut through Mankatha, but he couldn't accept the offer due to a shoulder injury and was eventually replaced by Vaibhav.ReddyMankatha was Vaibhav's third consecutive association with Venkat Prabhu.Ganesh Venkatraman was roped in to play a cop, who was later replaced by another newcomer Ashwin Kakumanu. Ashwin was earlier seen in GVM's Nadunisi NaaygalActor Nandha later stated that he was offered a key role in Mankatha, but had to reject it since he was busy shooting for Vellore Maavattam.Prasanna was, apparently, also was approached for a role in Mankatha, but he couldn't accept the offer because of scheduling conflicts.Jai in 2013 revealed that he was initially roped in to play the police officer role, but that Venkat Prabhu replaced him with Arjun after Ajith Kumar became part of the project.Venkat Prabhu, in an interview, termed the film as 'male-oriented', attaching less importance and significance to the female characters in the filmAccording to reports, Samantha Akkineni, Kajal Aggarwal and Anushka Shetty were initially approached for the lead female role.Shriya Saran, Neetu Chandra and Lakshmi Rai were supposedly signed for the three heroine roles in MankathaNeetu Chandra later opted out of the film due to unavailability of dates.Trisha Krishnan was subsequently signed to portray Sanjana, Ajith Kumar's love interest. It was Trisha's third outing with Ajith.Venkat Prabhu had later revealed that the changes in the script had resulted in big changes in the contribution of the female characters to MankathaVenkat Prabhu had also clarified that Trisha was not the replacement for Neetu Chandra, and Neetu's character has been omitted from the final draft.Venkat Prabhu has also said that Trisha's role was specifically written for her in a final rewrite.Raai Laxmi had claimed before Mankatha's release that she was given a choice to select between the roles of Sanjana and Sona in the film.Venkat Prabhu however clarified that Raai Laxmi was first chosen to play Ashwin's pair, whose character got axed when the screenplay was altered, and that she was eventually offered the role of Sona.Reports had claimed during the film's shoot that Sri Lankan model and actor Jacqueline Fernandez was roped in for a guest role in the film, which didn't happen eventually.Sneha was reportedly first approached to play Arjun's pair in the film, who was later replaced by Andrea, for unknown reasons.Anjali was signed few weeks into the shoot for an extended cameo. She plays Vaibhav's pair in the film.Vasuki Bhaskar was highly acclaimed for designing the costumes for the film.The film's 'introduction' song was shot for five days in Bangkok, Thailand, with Ajith Kumar and Lakshmi Rai participating in the shootA part of Mankatha's shoot also happened at Ajith Kumar's house.A grand set, resembling the Dharavi slum in Mumbai was erected for the film's shoot in a Chennai studio.All the stunt sequences in the film were shot at Binny Mills in PeramburAjith performed one of the action choreographies with the use of a body mounted camera, weighing around 30 kg.The Open The Bottle song features Bollywood actors Debi Dutta and Kainaat Arora dancing to the tune.The scenes involving a theatre were shot at the Padmanabha Theatre in North Chennai.After the announcement that Ajith had finished his portions for Mankatha, a 'special scene' featuring Ajith in a different look was filmed on one day, which eventually became the epilogue scene.The 'Balle Lakka' song, involving Raai Laxmi and Venkat Prabhu, was also shot in BangkokTrisha dubbed for herself in Mankatha, on Venkat Prabhu's insistence. Mankatha eventually became only the third film to feature her original voice.A short teaser trailer, which was shot on the day of the launch itself, was screened during the intermission of Naan Mahaan Alla, another Cloud Nine Movies distribution.Premji assisted Yuvan Shankar Raja in the film's bankground score.The lyrics for the film were penned by Vaali, Gangai Amaran, and Subramanya Bharathi's great great grandson, Niranjan Bharathi.As earlier done in Saroja and Goa, a promotional track featuring a top musical artist was planned, which however did not materialise in the last minute.Mankatha was the first Ajith film to be released under Sun Pictures banner, as well as the production house's first release after the assembly election.Actress Raadhika's Radaan Mediaworks distributed the film to Tamil Nadu theatres.The film's dubbed Telugu version, titled Gambler, which was released 10 days after the Tamil version performed well at the box-office.Google Zeitgeist 2011, a compilation of the year's most frequent search queries, placed Mankatha at 7th rank, becoming the only Tamil film to secure a place in the list.The movie was released on 31-08-11 which adds up to 50,thus denoting Ajith's 50th film.The bike wheelie stunts in the chase scenes were performed by Ajith himself, without using a body double.Mankatha released in 950 screens worldwide, which was a sort of a record at that time.A Hindi remake of the film WAS confirmed by Gnanavel Raja of Studio Green. The cast and crew are, however, yet to be finalized.The music rights for Mankatha were reportedly sold to Sony Music Entertainment for a record price of one crore.Vivek Oberoi apparently mentioned about the offer to play Mankatha's Vinayak character to Ajith during the shoot of Siva's Vivegam.Mankatha was Yuvan's fourth collaboration with Venkat Prabhu and also his 4th collaboration with Ajith Kumar as well.The scene where Vinayak gets excited by the collection of money was parodied in Tamizh Padam 2 (2018).Mankatha grossed the second biggest opening of all time after Enthiran at the time of release.Mankatha was initially planned with not just two main leads (Ajith and Arjun) but with 3 other leading stars (one each from Andhra, Karnataka and Kerala), which ultimately didn't work out.Going by the director's practice to name every movie after its central conflict, Mankatha was marketed as 'A Venkat Prabhu Game'.The end credits of Mankatha featured a bloopers segment for the first time in a Ajith film.The dynamic animation in the Vaada BinLada, lasting about 4 minutes, was the first to be featured in Tamil cinema, and was done over 2 months.The British Board of Film Classification issued a 15 certificate for the screening of Mankatha with an advice that it 'contains strong threat and violence'Mankatha reportedly faced 'political pressure' following the change in government after the TN elections. The film apparently did not find any buyers at first, as it was produced by Dhayanidhi AlagiriUltimately, Studio Green acquired the theatre rights after negotiations with UTV Motion Pictures and Gemini Film Circuit failed.Shortly after the film's release and its high commercial success, Venkat Prabhu confirmed the possibility of a sequel, provided that Ajith accepted to reprise his role.Shortly after the film's release and its high commercial success, Venkat Prabhu confirmed the possibility of a sequel, provided that Ajith accepted to reprise his role.