Gautham Vasudev Menon’s Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu, which was released on August 25, 2006, turns 19 today. While the neo-noir cop drama has since earned cult status, the director once revealed that the film nearly didn’t happen at all.
Fresh off the success of Kaakha Kaakha, Kamal Haasan had agreed to do a project for producer Kaja Moideen, with Gautham as the director. Menon first pitched him a script that eventually became Pachaikili Muthucharam, but Kamal backed out. The filmmaker then spent weeks wondering what kind of role would suit the actor before settling on the idea of a cop thriller. But fate had other twists—following the producer's tragic suicide attempt, Kamal told Gautham he didn’t want to do the film at all.
“The producer’s council reminded him that he had taken an advance, and I had too—so we had to finish the film,” Gautham recalled in a 2006 interview with Baradwaj Rangan. With little time to prepare, Kamal agreed on the condition that they start immediately. “He didn’t get a full narration of the script,” Gautham said. “He’d get the scene, read the dialogues, and start acting. All he knew was that he was a cop. He didn’t know where Jyotika would come in, or where Kamalini would come in. He didn’t know who the villains were—the first time they met was when they were acting together.”
Despite this unorthodox process, Kamal delivered a restrained yet magnetic performance as DCP Raghavan. “Some people said Kamal sir didn’t look very interested in the project, but it worked for me,” Gautham noted. “I wanted the character to be simple, very underplayed. And he was brilliant—there are some things you just cannot write. The way he looked at Jyotika, the subtlety he brought—it stunned us all.”
Looking back, Gautham admits compromises were made. “In Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu, the first half is what I wanted to do. The second half is what I did for the producer and Kamal sir,” he said, pointing to the climax where the villain dies instantly instead of a lengthy fight sequence he had originally envisioned. “Even now, I feel there could have been a 100-foot fight between both of them.”
What began as a film Kamal nearly dropped out of became one of the most celebrated cop thrillers in Tamil cinema, remembered for Harris Jayaraj’s music, Ravi Varman’s visuals, and, above all, Kamal’s layered performance. Daniel Balaji, Salim Baig and Prakash Raj also star in prominent roles in Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu. It revolves around DCP Raghavan, who tries to track down two serial killers, Amudhan and Illamaran. The film is also one of the first Indian films to be made using Super 35. Kamal Haasan won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor for the film.
