''Champion'' is a 2019 Indian

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

-language

sports drama A sports film is a film genre in which any particular sport plays a prominent role in the film's plot or acts as its central theme. It is a production in which a sport, sporting event, athlete (and their sport), or follower of sport (and the spor ...

film written and directed by

Suseenthiran Suseenthiran is an Indian film director and screenwriter in Tamil cinema. He rose to fame with his directorial debut ''Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu'' (2009). Career Suseenthiran, who originally hails from a small village called Amarapoondi in Palan ...

. The film stars newcomers Vishwa and Mirnalini Ravi,

Narain Narayana (Also rendered Narayane, Narayanan, Narain, Narayankar or Narine) (from Sanskrit नारायण, ''nārāyaṇá'', literally "eternal man") is an Indian name. It is identical in form to the name of the deity Narayana, another name ...

Manoj Bharathiraja Manoj K. Bharathi (born 11 September 1976 as Manoj Bharathiraja) is an Indian actor. He is most noted as the son of director Bharathiraja. Manoj made his acting debut with ''Taj Mahal'' in 1999. He has been the part of few Tamil movies like ''S ...

, and Stun Siva play pivotal roles. The music for the film is composed by

Arrol Corelli Arrol Corelli is an Indian music composer. He made his debut in the Tamil film ''Pisaasu'' (2014) directed by Mysskin and produced by director Bala's B Studios. Early life and career Arrol Corelli was born and brought up in Maraimalainagar nea ...

while cinematography and editing is handled by

Sujith Sarang Sujith Sarang (born 22 June 1985) is an Indian cinematographer known for his work in ''Dhuruvangal Pathinaaru'', ''Taxiwaala'', ''Dear Comrade'', ''Mudhal Nee Mudivum Nee'', '' Kanam'' and '' Oke Oka Jeevitham''. He works predominantly in Tam ...

and Thiyagu respectively. The film is produced by Raghavi under the production banner Kalanjiyam Cine Arts.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

of the film commenced on 30 May 2018. The film had its theatrical release on 13 December 2019 and received mixed reviews.

Cast

*Vishwa as Jones * Mirnalini Ravi as Sana *

as Santha *

as Gold Star Gopi * Stun Siva as Dhanasekar *Vasuki as Jaya *Sowmika Pandiyan as Pavithra *

Vinod Sagar Vinod Sagar is an Indian actor and dubbing artist working in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films, mostly as a supporting actor. Making his debut with '' Idhayam Thiraiarangam'', he played almost 30 small roles, before getting noticed in ''Pichaikka ...

as Rajiv Gandhi *B. H. Tarun Kumar as Bhai *Kutty

Production

The film was announced to be made as a sports drama film mainly based on the sport of football by director Suseenthiran after his previous sports drama films including ''

Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu ''Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu'' () is a 2009 Indian Tamil-language sports drama film written and directed by newcomer Susindran, starring debutant Vishnu Vishal, Kishore, and Saranya Mohan along with numerous other newcomers. The music was composed ...

'' (2009), ''Jeeva'' (2014) which turned out to be successful. The shooting of the film went on floors from 30 May 2018. Mirnalini Ravi was selected to make her lead film debut in the female lead role along with another newcomer Vishwa, the nephew of actor

R. K. Suresh R. K. Suresh is an Indian Tamil film producer and actor who heads the production company, Studio 9. In 2015, Suresh debuted as an actor, working in Bala (director), Bala's ''Tharai Thappattai'' and M. Muthaiah's ''Marudhu''. He is currently th ...

. The shooting of the film wrapped up in around 19 September 2019. The first look poster of the film was unveiled by actor Vishal through his

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account on 29 January 2019 coinciding on the eve of emotional 10 years anniversary of director Suseenthiran's filming career since making his directorial debut through ''

'' which was released on the same day (29 January) in 2009.

Soundtrack

The songs were composed by

with one song by Vishwa.

Release

''The Times of India'' gave the film a rating of three out of five stars and wrote that "''Champion'' is a redemption for Susienthiran whose last few films were so underwhelming that it felt like the director had become a spent creative force". On the contrary, ''The Hindu'' wrote that "''Champion'' only champions the cause for Susienthiran to script better films".

References

External links

* {{Suseenthiran 2010s Tamil-language films 2019 films 2010s sports drama films Indian sports drama films Films directed by Suseenthiran 2019 drama films Indian association football films