As per Director Sunderajan, the core story of Varalaaru was scripted by him for Kamal Haasan to be done for Shivaji Productions.
Kamal, unfortunately, rejected the script as as he felt it would portrait him as a womanizer.
In 1999, KS Ravikumar narrated 2 scripts to Kamal. While the first script was about a feminine hero, which would have him play 3 roles, the 2nd was a full length comedy about a hero with phobias.
Kamal was impressed and wanted to do both. But he couldn't allot dates because he was working in Hey Ram, which required him to have long role.
The comedy script later became Thenali. But, Kamal was unable to do Godfather. At the same time, KS Ravikumar's Jaggubhai was also shelved.
KS Ravikumar apparently narrated the script to many A-list heroes, but many were skeptical because of the feminine nature of the hero.
KSR finally signed up Ajith Kumar, who had just opted out of AR Murugadoss's Mirattal. Later, Godfather shifted hands to NIC Arts (from Sri Surya Movies) due to the high budget involved.
The filming of Godfather began in November 2004, with Ravikumar initially announcing a release date of April 2005
Jyotika, who was first signed to play the heroine, walked out of the project because of date issues. She was later replaced by Asin.
Early reports suggested that one of Ajith's roles in the film would be a eunuch or a transgender, but the role eventually turned out to be that of a classical dancer, who had a feminine demeanour.
Shooting progressed from November 2004 till the end of the year. However, in Jan 2005, it was announced that the film was put on hold due to financial constraints.
The film also faced problems, after the government had banned scenes involving smoking in films, with Godfather featuring several such scenes.[
Furthermore, in mid-2005, Ajith Kumar had also fallen out with the producer, who had made several films with him in the past and stated that the pair would never work together again.
The indefinite delay led to Ajith taking a forced sabbatical, with his market at a low following the failure of his previous film, Ji. Reports also started to suggest that Godfather had been shelved.
Ravi Kumar tried in vain to get in R. B. Choudary and his banner of Super Good Movies to finish the movie, but the film continued to remain in the cans.
The film restarted in April 2005, but PC Sreeram opted out of the film after his dates clashed with his work in Kanda Naal Mudhal and was replaced by Priyan.
Meena, who was supposed to do the father Ajith's wife character, opted out due to date issues, Devayani was next considered for the role, but she refused as she did not want to scold Ajith on-screen.
Simran was then approached for the role, but after talks with the actress also fell through, Kanika was signed up.
Further problems arose in mid-2005, when Asin could not allot dates for the film due to her work in Ghajini, Majaa and Sivakasi.
Subsequently, in June 2005, Ajith was forced to leave the project, with 35 days of shoot still pending, to begin work on Bala's Naan Kadavul as per the signed contract.
After Suresh of Ananda Pictures, a leading Chennai based distributor, intervened and solved the existing problems by providing an interest-free loan, the film went on floors again.
But, the shoot for Godfather went on for one more year as Ajith had to complete his projects like Paramasivan and Thirupathi, which he had signed in the intervening period.
Despite the multiple delays, Rahman had finished composing the 9 songs for the film by December 2004.
Meanwhile, the title Godfather was reverted to Varalaru, after the state government gave an order to grant entertainment tax exemption to movies titled in Tamil
Varalaru finally got a release for Diwali 2006, alongside Simbu's Vallavan, SP Jananathan's E, Saran's Vattaram and Sarath Kumar's Thalaimagan.
The film, which was made at a high budget of 12 crores, opened to positive reviews, and emerged as the blockbuster of the year.
Varalaru opened in over 300 screens worldwide including 25 screens in Chennai district. It also went on to become Ajith Kumar's biggest hit until the release of his 2007 film, Billa.
The film collected 25 crores worldwide at the box-office.
Ravi Teja announced that he was going to remake Godfather in Telugu in 2007, but eventually did not do so.
KS Ravikumar then approached Pawan Kalyan to reprise the three roles of Ajith, but the project failed to materialize.
In 2012, cinematographer Sethu Sriram opted to remake the film in Kannada under the original title, Godfather, featuring Upendra, Soundarya Jayamala and Catherine Tresa in the lead roles.
Here are a few more pictures, posters, paper ads and working stills from the film
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