With the movie in its 22nd year of release, we give you some interesting trivia about its making.

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Revisiting Padayappa: Ahead of Jailer release, looking back at the film that first cemented the iconic combo of Rajinikanth and Ramya Krishnan

Team CE

Updated:1st Aug, 2023 at 6:50 PM

The title Padayappa is a corruption of Aarupadayappa — a sobriquet for Murugan and his six abodes

The story of this film was taken in part from the historical Tamil novel, Ponniyin Selvan, by Kalki Krishnamurthy.

Lalitha Mani was the choreographer for the song sequences.

Jyothi Krishna, son of producer A. M. Rathnam, was involved in the development of the film's scrip

Ramya Krishnan's Neelambari is based on the fictional character of Nandini, a vengeful woman in Ponniyin Selvan.

Meena and Nagma were both seriously considered for the role of Neelambari. But both expressed their hesitation in playing a villain opposite Rajini.

Ramya Krishnan said she accepted the role because 'it was opposite superstar and that too the character was a negative one, no one was ready to do it, but I did it. I didn't have any second thoughts'

Simran was considered for the role of Vasundhara, before the role went to Soundarya, who had earlier worked with Rajinikanth in Arunachalam

Ravikumar revealed that makers could not sign Simran due to her busy schedule and Meena, incidentally, was also considered for Vasundhara's role.

Shalini was reportedly approached to play the role of Padayappa's sister, but the role eventually went to Sithara.

The characterisation of the older Padayappa — bearded, with sunglasses — is based on Rajinikanth's look as the character Manik Baashha in Baashha (1995)

Vijayakumar was the initial choice before Sivaji Ganesan agreed to play Rajini's father, despite his deteriorating health.

Padayappa was Sivaji's penultimate release before Pooparika Varugirom, the same year (1999).

His character's appearance, with a mutton-chop moustache, is based on a similar role he played in Thevar Magan (1992).

The film's climax scene was filmed in one take using two cameras. Around 2,000 extras were used for the scene.

The car that was used in the scene which introduced Neelambari in the film belonged to Ravikumar. Ravikumar used the newly purchased car in the film at Rajini's insistence.

The Vadapalani-based shop, D. V. Nehru wigs, supplied the wigs that were sported by Sivaji Ganesan in the film.

Ravikumar later mentioned that the iconic oonjal scene where Padayappa uses his shawl to pull down a swing from the ceiling was inspired by a sequence in the Indian epic Ramayana.

The sequence features Hanuman making a seat using his tail after Ravana, the demon king of Lanka, does not provide the former a chair to sit.

'Kikku Yerudhey' was the last song sequence to be shot. For the sequence, Rajinikanth required Ravikumar to sport an outfit similar to Rajinikanth's, and enact a small part in the song.

Rajini also selected the part of the song where KSR would make his appearance. After reluctantly agreeing to do the part, the sequence where they both appear together was filmed with several retakes.

Before the film's release, Rahman had requested Ravikumar for some time for the recording, and whether the soundtrack could be released in August 1999.

KSR however informed Rahman that he had informed the press about the completion of the film's making, and that ARR would be blamed if the film had a delayed release.

As a result, Rahman did a live re-recording of both the soundtrack and score to finish them on time

The credits for the song 'Vetri Kodi Kattu', sung by Palakkad Sreeram, initially went to Malaysia Vasudevan, who publicly stated that the credits for the song should have been attributed to Sreeram.

Rahman then requested the company who manufactured the audio cassettes to make the change.

The song 'Minsara Kanna' is based on the Vasantha raga, while 'Vetri Kodi Kattu' is based on the Keeravani raga.

'Minsara Kanna' established Srinivas as a leading singer in the film industry.

'Minsara Poove' had two versions with Hariharan rendering the vocals while the version of Srinivas was recorded as 'track version'. Rajini preferred Srinivas's version as it felt 'more majestic'

All lyrics for the film were written by Vairamuthu.

Padayappa was released on the eve of Tamil New Year's Day, 1999. It was the first Tamil film to be released worldwide with over 200 prints, and 700,000 audio cassettes.

The film's rights in Japan were sold for US$50,000, which was the highest an Indian film fetched for commercial release in 1999.

Co-producer Thenappan registered the film posters as Class 34 trademark in 1998, to be used for trademarking items as beedis, cigarettes, and tobacco, making it the first instance of branding here.

The pre-release business of the film's overseas rights amounted to ₹30 million.

According to later estimates, the value of the theatrical and satellite rights for Padayappa was approximately ₹20 million.

Padayappa was a box office success, estimated to have earned ₹440 million worldwide, out of which ₹380 million from the domestic box office.

It was the highest grossing Tamil film at that point of time before being surpassed by Ghilli (2004), and then again by Chandramukhi (2005),[

Padayappa had a theatrical run of 100 days in 86 theatre centres.

It was dubbed into Telugu under the title Narasimha, which was also a commercially successful venture, and had a theatrical run of 50 days in 49 theatres.

Ramya Krishnan won the Best Actress at the Filmfare Awards.

The film also won five Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.

Padayappa's final cut initially lasted for 19 reels, which was considered too lengthy. Rather than cut the film, Rajinikanth suggested to Ravikumar to allot two intervals.

Rajini screened the uncut film for actor Kamal Haasan, who however told him not to go for two intervals.

Kamal suggested that Padayappa be edited in a way that would not disturb the storyline, so Ravikumar and the editor Thanigachalam managed to bring the film down to 14 reels.

When fans asked Rajini to release the deleted scenes as Padayappa's sequel, Rajinikanth immediately spoke to Ravikumar about the possibility, but was informed that those reels had been destroyed.

With the success of Padayappa, Ramya Krishnan, who up to that point in time had only performed glamorous roles, proved her versatility as an actor.

Neelambari's The character Neelambari reappears in Baba (2002), where she spots Baba, but sees him in her mind's eye in his Padayappa attire; she asks him the time.

Ramya Krishnan's character in the television serial, Kalasam, was also named Neelambari.

In Chetan Bhagat's novel, 2 States(2009), when Krish Malhotra, the novel's protagonist, travels by auto rickshaw, the auto rickshaw driver stops to worship a poster of Padayappa.

One of Rajinikanth's climactic dialogues in the film — 'En Vazhi Thani Vazhi' — was used as the title of a 2015 film directed by Shaji Kailas.

To celebrate the 39th anniversary of Rajinikanth in the film industry, Digitally Inspired Media, a Chennai-based digital agency, made 39 posters of some of his films, in which Padayappa was included.

Here are a few more memorable snapshots from the movie..