Romance and horror found equal space in Pizza, set in a haunted house. With a major twist no one saw coming, experiencing Pizza was like seeing multiple films for the price of one ticket.
Pizza was also Vijay Sethupathi's first solo hit as a lead hero.
VJS scored back-to-back successes with Sundarapandian (which featured him in negative role) and Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom in the same year resulting in a meteoric rise in his popularity.
Pizza, produced by CV Kumar, was made at a budget of 1.5 crore. The film also established Kumar as a producer who supports films with bold and innovative themes.
Pizza was released on 19 October 2012 by Sangam Cinemas Chennai, in 300 theatres initially and the number of theatres was increased to 600 after the film's positive response.
Pizza completed a 100 day-run in many centres, and amassed 8 crores at the box-office.
Pizza (along with Balaji Mohan's 2012 debut, Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Eppadi) became a trendsetter and established the trend of short filmmakers making their inroads into Kollywood without working as AD
At 124 minutes, Pizza was one of the earliest films to kick in the 2 hour movie trend.
SS Music-fame Pooja played a full-length role in Pizza.
Pizza, with sound design by Vishnu Govind and Sree Sankar, was the first Tamil film to feature 7.1 surround sound.
The ringtone of Bobby Simha's mobile is a French song 'non regrertte' sung by famous Edith Piaf, which was also used in Christopher Nolan's 'Inception' as a sync for kick in their dreams.
Director Nalan Kumarasamy of Ka Ka Po fame played an uncredited cameo role in the film as VJS's friend.
The satellite rights of the film were secured by Sun TV for a record price for a debutant's film.
The remake rights for the Hindi version was bought by Bejoy Nambiar for 1.5 crore, which itself was the actual budget of the original version
The film's Hindi version, also titled Pizza, starring Akshay Oberoi, Parvathy Omanakuttan, was shot in 3D and released in 2014.
The Hindi version was directed by debutante Akshay Akkineni, son of veteran editor and multiple National Awards winner, Sreekar Prasad. The film also had music by New Zealand-composer Mickey McCleary
Producer Suresh Kondeti acquired the Telugu dubbing rights of Pizza, and the dubbed version did very well in Andhra Pradesh.
Renowned director Birsa Dasgupta remade the film in Bengali as Golpo Holeo Shotti (2014).
Renowned director Birsa Dasgupta remade the film in Bengali as Golpo Holeo Shotti (2014).
Mogathirai, a song from Pizza, composed by Santhosh Narayanan, went on to become a chartbuster, and remained at top spots in FM station rankings for almost an year
Three iconic films - Psycho (1960), The Shining (1980), and The Exorcist III (1990) - are referenced in Pizza. The footage from these films are shown playing on TV at important junctures in the film.
Pizza's cinematographer, Deepak Kumar Padhy, went to work in movies like Dhilluku Dhuddhu and Dhilluku Dhuddhu 2.
Pizza also marked the debut of director Arunraja Kamaraj as lyricist. He wrote two songs - Rathiri and Engo Odugindrai - for the film.
The lyrics for all the songs in the Telugu version were written by Sahithi.
A sequel called Pizza 2: The Villa was produced and released the following year by the same production house. The sequel did not carry on with the characters from Pizza, but told another horror tale.
Here are a few more exclusive stills from the film...
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