There has been much discourse around the deletion of scenes from the recent Rajinikanth starrer Jailer 2 that featured several big-name stars, such as Vijay Sethupathi, Shivarajkumar, and Mohanlal. While Vijay Sethupathi, Shivarajkumar, and Mohanlal still had some presence in the final film, directed by Nelson, the makers reportedly deleted the whole portions of Santhanam.
In a recent interview with Dinamalar Cinema, Jailer 2 dubbing engineer Godwin spoke about the exclusion of Santhanam from the film. The dubbing engineer revealed that the iconic comedy actor was originally part of a scene, where Rajinikanth does a slow-motion walk, at the birthday party of Chakri Kalpak (Mithun Chakraborty). He added that Santhanam's character arranged the 'Bindaas' song as "an event manager or something," but the film's makers deleted it as they found it an unnecessary scene.
Noting that such decisions are made by the director, the deletion of these scenes has not negatively impacted the final output. "After all, Thalaivar is important for us," the dubbing engineer said, referring to the Rajinikanth factor in the film.
Interestingly, Santhanam was seen in a celebratory cake cutting ceremony alongside Rajinikanth, the other cast and the crew behind the film as it became a massive hit at the box office. The video sparked much debate around why Santhanam was removed from the final cut of the film. Now, we know the answer to it thanks to the film's dubbing engineer.
So far, the Jailer sequel has earned around 777 crore from theatres worldwide, according to data from the tracker Sacnilk. It is the highest-grossing Tamil film of all time. However, the chances of the film crossing the 1000-crore mark look slim now, as the daily collection has come under ten crore now and since several big films await release in November.
