Muthu is the first collabaration between Rajini, Rahman & Ravikumar - The Big 'R' s.
It is a loose remake of the Malayalam film Thenmavin Kombath (1994).
The film became one of the highest-grossing Tamil films at the time, running for over 175 days in theatres across Tamil Nadu.
Muthu is a loose remake of the 1994 Malayalam-language film Thenmavin Kombath.
Although the film was produced by K. Balachander's company Kavithalayaa Productions, Balachander was not credited as producer for the first time; Rajam Balachander and Pushpa Kandaswamy were.
Jayaram was offered a role but he declined since it involved slapping Rajinikanth; the role went to Sarath Babu.
The film was shot in Kerala. The palace shown in the film is the Lalitha Mahal in Mysore.
Many felt that the dialogue 'Naan eppo varuven, epdi varuvennu yarukkum theriyathu. Aana vara vendiya nerathula correcta vandhuduven' hinted at Rajinikanth's political aspirations.
Muthu is the first Rajinikanth film for which Rahman composed music. The soundtrack for this movie turned out to be a major hit and Rahman gained popularity in Japan when the movie was released there.
The 'Omanathinkal Kidavo' portion of 'Kuluvalilae' was written and tuned by the famous Malayalam poet Irayimman Thampi.
French group Deep Forest had sampled 'Thillana Thillana' in their song 'Night Bird'.
'Thillana Thillana' was later adapted by Nadeem-Shravan as 'Deewana Deewana' for the 1996 film Jung.
The songs from Muthu were later retained in the Kannada remake Sahukara (2004).
The song 'Vidukathaiya' is set in Chakravakam raga.
Muthu was also dubbed in Hindi as Muthu Maharaja and was distributed by Eros Labs. It had lyrics penned by P. K. Mishra.
Muthu was dubbed into Telugu under the same title, and ran successfully in Andhra.
In 1996, Japanese film critic Jun Edoki discovered the film at a video shop in Singapore's Little India. He said, 'Muthu was absolutely fascinating—even without subtitles'
He then approached several Japanese distributors to release the film in Japan, before Xanadeux eventually agreed to release it.
Eventually, a dubbed Japanese version - titled Muthu Odoru Maharaja (The Dancing Maharaja) - released in 1998 and became a major success in Japan.
Muthu initially had a limited release on 13 June 1998 at Cinema Rise in Tokyo's Shibuya district, where it completed a 23-week run, selling 127,000 tickets and grossing ¥208 million.
It was the theatre's highest-grossing film of 1998, with distributor Atsushi Ichikawa describing it as 'the 'Titanic' of the art theaters'
Muthu then received a nationwide release across 100 theatres, drawing nearly 500,000 audiences and grossing ¥400 million.
Prior to Muthu, the previous highest-grossing Indian film in the country was the Shah Rukh Khan starring Bollywood film, Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman (1992), which released in Japan in 1997.
Muthu surpassed it to become the most successful Indian film in Japan, as well as becoming 1998's top film in the category of independent “first-run show” theatres.
The success of Raju Ban Gaya Gentleman and especially Muthu sparked a short-lived boom of Indian films released in Japan, up until 1999.
Muthu was also the second highest-grossing 1995 Indian film overseas, behind only another Shah Rukh Khan starring Bollywood film, Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
Muthu remains the highest-grossing Indian film in Japan, as of roday.
Former Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a special note about the reach of this film among the Japanese in his speech at the National Diet of Japan on 14 December 2006.
A 4K remaster of the film was released in Japan on 23 November 2018.
The soundtrack of Muthu was selected as the most popular foreign soundtrack in Japan in the 2000s.
Rajinikanth won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor in 1995 for Muthu.
Footage from the film has been used in French film Prete Moi Ta Main (Lend Me Your Hand)
Various scenes and songs from the film have been referenced in films such as Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen (1998), Aethiree (2004), and Thiruvannamalai (2008).
The title sequence of (Zoku) Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei features a parody of the dance scene in the song Oruvan Oruvan.
The BGM of Muthu was used in another Rajinikanth-starrer, Sivaji.
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