As the Hollywood-styled thriller completes three decades, we give you some interesting facts, unseen shooting-spot stills and rare promotional materials of the film. Read on...

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Revisiting Kamal Haasan's Vetri Vizha: A whiff of nostalgic trivia, unseen working stills, and rare posters & paper-ads

The film, also starring Prabhu, Amala and Khusboo, was released on the occasion of Diwali, 1989.

Team CE

Updated:3rd Jan, 2021 at 5:25 PM

Vetri Vizha was Prathap Pothen's adaptation of Robert Ludlum's novel, Bourne Identity with some additional elements included. The novel was later adopted into the Hollywood movie, Bourne Identity.

The film's story was credited to Prathaps's usual collaborator, K Rajeshwar (who had directed films like Amaran and Idhaya Thamarai), and Shanmugapriyan.

It just so happened that I was reading [The Bourne Identity] at that time and it seemed terrific. It was basically Kalidasa’s Shakuntala on steroids,' Pratap Pothen, on how Vetri Vizha happened.

Vetri Vizha was Pratap Pothen's fifth directorial and third in Kollywood after Meendum Oru Kaathal Kathai and Jeeva. The other two were in Malayalam.

Bollywood actor Salim Ghouse made his Tamil debut with this film, portraying the antagonist.

Prabhu's character was not present in the novel, and was created for the film

Prabhu Deva, who was hitherto working as dance assistant to his father Sundaram Master, choreographed a song independently for Vetri Vizha. The track was 'Thathom Talangu', ft. Kamal and Disco Shanti.

Ilayaraaja's 'Thathom Talangu Tathom' incidentally had elements of Michael Jackson's 'Smooth Criminal' video.

Renowned action-choreographer Vikram Dharma played a cameo in the film as the unknown assailant in the lift.

Amala and Khusboo were Prathap's first choices for the heroines. The Prabhu- Khusboo pairing was considered to be a lucky charm at that time.

Telugu and Kannada actress Rajani Praveen, who acted in Tamil cinema, under the name Sasikala, played the Goan girl, Shirley, who rescues Kamal.

In addition, several character artistes like VK Ramasamy, Thyagu, SS Chandran, Janagaraj, Chinni Jayanth, Mayilsamy and Ponnambalam, played cameos in the film.

The film's cinematography was handled by renowned cameraman, Ashok Kumar, who later went on to shoot films like Suryan and Jeans.

The film's open ending, with the two heroes shaking hands, was suggested by Kamal Haasan.

The film was produced by Sivaji Productions.

The film was a blockbuster and completed 175-day run at the box office.

Vetri Vizha was dubbed in Telugu as Vijethalu and released in 1989. Kamal dubbed in his own voice for the Telugu version.

A digitally restored version of the film was released in August 4, 2017, and ran successfully for 50 days.

Here are some rare posters and unseen paper-ads from the film's promotional campaign. Read on...

Here are some posters of the Telugu-dubbed version, Vijethalu.

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