As Vishnuvarshan's second collaboration with Ajith completes 8 years, we give you some interesting trivia and stills from its making. Read on...

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Revisiting Arrambam: 50 lesser-known facts and unseen working stills from Thala Ajith's action-drama

Team CE

Updated:19th Jan, 2021 at 4:21 PM

In September 2011, producer A. M. Rathnam stated that he would produce Ajith's next film after Billa II, which was touted to begin by December 2011.

Vishnuvardhan, whom Ajith had worked with in Billa, was the front-runner to direct the film, although media also suggested that Rathnam may recruit director Shankar to make a sequel to Indian.

In January 2012, Rathnam informed that he had signed Ajith and director Vishnuvardhan for his next film, while the director himself confirmed later that he was 'undoubtedly directing Ajith’s next'

Subsequently, speculation arose that Vishnuvardhan may remake his own 2011 Telugu action thriller Panjaa, or the Bollywood action flick Race.

According to reports, a remake of Race was planned initially, as there was not much time to write a fresh script, but after writers Subha's entry into the team, the idea was scrapped.

Subha later revealed that they took 'nearly three months to come out with the film's first draft.'

In an early interview during the scripting phase, Vishnuvardhan opened up about the film that he was planning to work 'on a drama, more on family action drama'.

Vishnuvardhan also also said that work on this story began only after he was signed on to direct a new film with Ajith.

Ajith continued the 'salt and pepper look' from Mankatha and underwent supervised weight-training, working out at the gym for six hours a day for the character of AK.

Ajith later disclosed that his character in the film was a 'mean guy' and he loved playing 'such politically-incorrect characters.'

Closer to the film's release, the director Vishnuvardhan revealed that Ajith would have 'two faces in the film.'

Arrambam was one of the earliest films to have started without a title in place.

The film remained untitled for over 15 months, during which it was widely referred to as Thala 53 in the media, denoting Ajith's 53rd film.

A short teaser without the movie's title of this film was released on Ajith Kumar's birthday, and the video gained 1.5 million views in just 2 days.

The makers had apparently considered naming the film Thala, after Ajith's nickname, which was refused by the actor.

Several false titles for the film including Surangani and Paravai made their rounds in mid-2013.

'A source in the know' stated that the title was Valai, after one of the writers, Suresh, had tweeted that the title begins with a 'V'. The film was henceforth referred to as Valai by the media.

At Anna University's Gateway 2013 Short Film Festival in April 2013, Vishnuvardhan revealed that the film was not titled Valai, adding that two titles were under consideration.

On 24 July 2013, Arrambam was unveiled as the film's official title. The dubbed Telugu version was titled Aata Arambham.

Vishnuvardhan told that he was looking for an actress who could speak Tamil properly to be cast for the lead female role, with Anushka Shetty and Amala Paul being among the considered candidates.

Kajal Aggarwal was also reportedly approached for the role.

The director eventually selected Nayantara, who had earlier worked with both Ajith and Vishnuvardhan in Billa.

While early reports suggested that Vishnuvardhan's brother Kreshna would be signed for a parallel role in the film, but the role went to Arya, who had been part of four Vishnuvardhan directorials.

Richa Gangopadhyay was supposed to play the second female lead, but was replaced with Taapsee Pannu.

Taapsee had stated that he played a journalist in the film, a 'very lively character, who is always on the go.'

It was then reported that Arvind Swamy and Prithviraj would play pivotal roles, and that Telugu actors Nagarjuna, Ravi Teja and Jagapathi Babu would do cameo appearances, which turned out to be false

By late May, Hindi actor Mahesh Manjrekar was finalised for the role of a villain in the film, stating that he would be shooting for it from August onwards.

Suman Ranganathan was cast for the role of Ramya, a 'hard-nosed reporter', making a comeback to Tamil cinema after 17 years.

Telugu actor Rana Daggubati was signed to do a 'special appearance' in the film, and took part in the shooting in Mumbai.

It was widely reported that the 2008 Mumbai attacks would be part of the storyline, but that also turned out to be false.

Stephen Richter who was one of the stunt coordinators in Ajith's Billa II, was hired to choreograph stunts in this film.

Besides Richter, Lee Whittaker, who has worked in Hollywood films, and Kecha designed several stunts sequences in Arrambam.

Sunil Babu was initially called in as the art director but opted out later, with Ilaiyaraja taking his place.

Vishnuvardhan's wife Anu Vardhan, who had worked on all of her husband's film, was in charge of costume designing in this film as well.

Nirav Shah was approached to work as the cinematographer, but as he was busy with other commitments, P. S. Vinod, who had filmed the director's previous film Panjaa, was recruited.

Vinod was later replaced by Om Prakash as the cinematographer.

For a fight scene, which was shot between 8 pm and 8 am the next day, Ajith spent several hours hanging upside down.

While shooting an action sequence, Ajith injured his leg while jumping from one car to another, suffering a ligament tear.

Vishnuvardhan later revealed that it was Arya who drove the car when Ajith hurted his legs during the stunt scene.

The boat sequence in the film was choreographed by Hollywood stuntman Lee Whittaker.

Stills of Ajith riding a Ducati Diavel in Dubai also circulated in the Internet, during production.

Majority of the filming happened in Mumbai. Other locations included Chennai, Bangalore, Dubai, Hyderabad, Mahabaleshwar, Jaisalmer, Leh and Ladakh.

Ajith, Arya and Nayantara shot a holi song featuring both Tamil and Hindi lyrics at a studio in Mumbai, which was choreographed by Dinesh.

The climax scenes were filmed by mid-May in Kullu Manali in Himachal Pradesh.

Cinematographer Om Prakash stated that he wanted to give the visuals a 'green tint because the colour 'green' is commonly associated with prosperity and knowledge'

He also added that scenes featuring Ajith were intendedly shot so that the audience would see both him and his reflection and that hand-held cameras were used to shoot those scenes.

Om Prakash also described the speed boat stunt where Ajith performed a 180-degree turn at high speed as risky and 'scary' as he filmed the entire scene seated at the front of the boat

During preproduction, it was rumoured that aarya was the brother of Ajith in the film. But in the film, they were not even friends.

The British Board of Film Classification issued an uncut 15 certificate with an advice that it 'contains strong threat and violence'.[133] At the request of the distributor, cuts of five minutes leng

Arrambam, made at a budget of 60 crores, made 120 crores at the box-office.

This scene from the film went on to become one of the fan-favourites.

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