Paiyaa

''Paiyaa'' () is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language action-adventure film written, produced and directed by N. Linguswamy. It stars Karthi and Tamannaah, with Sonia Deepti, Milind Soman and Jagan appearing in supporting roles. The film, produced by N. Subash Chandra Bose under the banner of Thirupathi Brothers and distributed by Dhayanidhi Alagiri's Cloud Nine Movies, features a film score and soundtrack composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematography by Madhi and editing by Anthony Gonsalves.

In the film, a young woman is driven from Bangalore to Mumbai by a jobless young man who must evade gangsters chasing after them, as well as confront his own violent past in the city. Following a lengthy pre-production phase, during which the film underwent major changes in its main cast and its technical crew, it began shooting in December 2008 at various locations throughout South India, most notably in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.

''Paiyaa'' was released on 2 April 2010 to positive reviews and was commercially successful. The Telugu dubbed version of the film titled ''Awara'' was released on 21 May 2010 in Andhra Pradesh and received positive response. The film was remade in Bengali in 2012 as '' Jaaneman'', starring Soham Chakraborty and Koel Mallick, and in Kannada in 2014 as '' Ajith'', with Chiranjeevi Sarja playing the male lead.

Plot

Shivamanikandan aka Shiva is a young, carefree, unemployed man staying in Bangalore. He has a loyal group of friends, including his best friend, Priya, with whom he shares his feelings. His friends are determined to get him a job. One day he sees a young, beautiful woman named Charulatha, who is also looking for a job. Shiva is immediately attracted to her. He subsequently spots Charulatha on various occasions and follows her, but loses sight of her each time. He even misses a job interview Priya has arranged for him.

Later, as Shivamanikandan waits at the railway station to pick up a friend and owner of the Mitsubishi Lancer Shivamanikandan and his friends use, he is confronted by a tense Charulatha, accompanied by her uncle. They assume that Shivamanikandan is a cab driver and ask him to take them to Chennai. An excited Shivamanikandan accepts the offer and takes them. While stopping to refuel the car, Charulatha suddenly requests Shivamanikandan to drive on, leaving her uncle behind; Shivamanikandan does as she wishes and takes off. She first asks Shivamanikandan to drop her at the airport, but she misses the flight and later, at railway station, she is unable to go by train. So, she asks Shivamanikandan if he will take her to Mumbai by car.

Shivamanikandan instantly agrees and drives her to Mumbai. Shivamanikandan tries to get into a conversation with Charulatha. She initially refuses to talk, but eventually gives in and tells him about her background. It comes to light that Charulatha's mother, who had always supported her daughter, died after a violent altercation with her father; since then, her father has tried to force Charulatha to marry an unknown man of his choice. Not willing to bow to her father's wishes, she had escaped from home, but was later found by her father's business partner, Jayaraman, her supposed uncle. He was about to take her to register the marriage arranged by her father when Charulatha tried to escape, leaving him behind at the filling station. Now she wants to head to Mumbai to stay at her grandmother's home.

However, Charulatha is being followed by a gang, led by a furious Telugu-speaking lady. Shivamanikandan manages to lose the pursuers and decides to change the route to avoid the gang, but encounters a second gang. He realises that this gang is not following Charulatha, but himself, as they are the henchmen of a Mumbai-based gangster Baali. He recalls an incident that happened some years ago in Mumbai, when he stayed there at his friend Poochi's house. He had beaten one of Baali's men, who had attacked him, and later Baali himself, not knowing about him and his reputation in the city, and returned to Bangalore. Both gangs are following the couple to achieve their own ends. After reaching Mumbai and experiencing a series of events, they end up at Poochi's house. Poochi finds out where the grandmother lives, and Shivamanikandan brings Charulatha there. Shivamanikandan , unable to bear the thought that the journey is complete, leaves silently only to find Charulatha on the road. After hesitating, she reveals that her relatives had spoken ill about her parents, which prompted her to leave, not wanting to push the matter further. While in a state of doubt, they are attacked by Baali's gang, who have teamed up with Jayaraman.

Shivamanikandan saves Charulatha from the clutches of the goons by single-handedly overpowering them. While on their way back to Bangalore, his friends arrive. Priya, whom Shivamanikandan has called often, tells Charulatha of his feelings for her. Charulatha reciprocates Shivamanikandan's love, as she too has fallen for him during the journey, thus both unite.

Cast

* Karthi as Shivamanikandan aka Shiva, a carefree man living in Bangalore. He falls in love with Charulatha and drives her to Mumbai, freeing her from the clutches of her uncle and his men.
* Tamannaah as Charulatha. She also lives in Bangalore after fleeing from a forced marriage arranged by her father.
* Sonia Deepti as Priya, Shiva's best friend. She cares a lot about Shiva and works to find him a job. Shiva shares his feelings only with Priya.
* Milind Soman as Baali, a gangster based in Mumbai. He plans to kill Shiva, who had humiliated him during his first trip to Mumbai, but the plan backfires, and his men are beaten up after repeated attempts to confront Shiva.
* Jagan as Poochi, a young simpleton and friend of Shiva, who lives in Mumbai. He becomes frightened after seeing Shiva beat up Baali's men and immediately drives him out of the city. He also changes his looks to avoid any more involvement in their gang.
* Darshan Jariwala as Charulatha's uncle. He is seen in a small role where he scolds Charulatha for coming to their home.
* Puneet Tejwani as Mahesh Vinayak, a Hindi-speaking man who takes a lift with Shiva and Charulatha after his car breaks down. He annoys Shiva when he sits in the back with Charulatha.
* Arpit Ranka as Baali's henchman
* Jasper as Head Goon
* Rajkumar Kanojia as Rowdies gang member
* Ramachandran Durairaj as Rowdies gang member
* Daniel Annie Pope as Rowdies gang member
* Babu as Rowdies gang member

Production

Development

In September 2007, while working on '' Bheema'', a film starring Vikram, Linguswamy announced that Karthi would star in his next venture to be launched in January 2008. He said that he had written a story "suitable for Karthi", further adding that it would be "an action oriented film". The following month, sources suggested that he was planning a bilingual project, filming simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu with Karthi and Ram Charan Teja, respectively. However, in early November, reports claimed that Vishal would portray the protagonist after Linguswamy had considered Jayam Ravi for the lead character. The reports proved to be false and Karthi was confirmed as the lead actor of the film.

The film failed to begin production in January 2008, with sources reporting in March that Linguswamy was still working on the script. The film was yet to be titled. It was to feature the main crew members of ''Bheema'', including music director Harris Jayaraj, cinematographer R. D. Rajasekhar and editor Anthony. Linguswamy later announced the film with an entirely new crew; Yuvan Shankar Raja replaced Jayaraj as the film's music composer, and Madhi was selected as the cinematographer, after Rajasekhar had opted out of the project as he was busy working on ''Jaggubhai''. Linguswamy chose Priya Manikandan, wife of cinematographer Manikandan, as the chief costume designer, for whom ''Paiyaa'' would be her first film project. Linguswamy further revealed that the film would be produced by his home production studio Thirupathi Brothers and denied that it was a remake of a Telugu film. Lingusamy disclosed later that he had written two scripts, out of which Karthi eventually chose ''Paiyaa'', because he wanted to do an "urban love story" after two successive roles as a ruffian. Initially titled as ''Kuthirai'', it was later renamed as ''Paiyaa'', which was considered a tentative, working title only. Karthi said he was " ... dying to start shooting for Paiyaa " and to " ... wear good clothes ... and he accepted the film because he " ... desperately wanted to play a cool dude on screen.

The filming was supposed to begin in August 2008. However, due to the slow progress of Karthi's ongoing project, '' Aayirathil Oruvan'', ''Paiyaa'' was postponed several times, since Karthi needed to maintain the continuity of his looks for his role in ''Aayirathil Oruvan''. Its producer Ravindran complained at the Tamil Film Producers Council that Karthi was trying to change his look and move on to ''Paiyaa'' before finishing his commitments, which forced Linguswamy to readjust the schedules. The shooting finally began in December 2008. The film's music was released in November 2009 along with the trailer. In late 2009, after finishing the filming of ''Paiyaa'', Lingusamy disclosed his plans of remaking the film in Telugu and Hindi as well. Later, as ''Yuganikki Okkadu'', the Telugu dubbed version of Karthi's '' Aayirathil Oruvan'', emerged as successful in Andhra Pradesh, the team instead decided to dub and release the film in Telugu to cash in on Karthi's new-found popularity in the state. The Telugu version was titled ''Awara'' and its audio was released in March 2010; ''Awara'' was released simultaneously with the Tamil version. In March 2010, the film's distribution rights were acquired by Dhayanidhi Alagiri's Cloud Nine Movies.

Casting

In July 2008, actress Nayantara was signed for the female lead role in ''Paiyaa'' for a record salary of 1 crore. Speaking about the issue, the director admitted that she was one of his favourite actress and he liked her performance in ''Yaaradi Nee Mohini''. He also quoted: "The way her career graph shot up is intriguing. Unlike others her career progressed in reverse gear. She paired up with the superstar during the early years of her career and started accepting roles with heroes of next generation." She also expressed her interest to work in the project. However, plans were made to trim the film's budget due to the economic recession, and discussions were held with Nayantara to reduce her salary. The talks resulted in failure and Nayantara left the project in December 2008. Later, she was accused of cheating the director by refusing to return an advance of 15 lakh she had taken before commencement, after walking out of the film. The director filed a complaint with the Tamil Film Producers Council, which decided to ban the actress. Subsequently, Trisha was reported to have won the role, before Tamannaah was finalised as the female lead, who was signed for 80 lakh. Later in December 2008, Milind Soman, who had last appeared in ''Pachaikili Muthucharam'', was signed up for the main antagonist's role, a Mumbai-based don, with other minor antagonists numbering up to 18.

Filming

After Karthi had completed his film '' Aayirathil Oruvan'', the principal photography for ''Paiyaa'' began on 24 December 2008 at a highway near Bangalore. Shooting carried on in and around Bangalore in the following weeks. The film's main portions were extensively shot across some major highways, where the story plays, whilst the climax was filmed in Mumbai, where the journey would also end. The filming also took place in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

In May 2009, a street fight was filmed near the Chembarambakkam Lake in Chennai. Later that month, a song ("Suthudhe Suthudhe Boomi"), choreographed by Sabeena Khan, was shot at Prasad Studios in Chennai, where a set had been erected by art director Rajeevan. The song was said to have featured computer graphics and visual effects with which forests and mountain ranges were created. In June 2009, after nearly six months of shooting, more than sixty-five percent of the project was completed, with a song and the climax sequences being the remaining parts to be filmed. A twenty-five-day schedule was to be held in Mumbai and Pune, but the shooting got halted in July due to heavy rains. In October 2009, the final action scenes of the climax involving Karthi and Milind Soman were filmed in Mumbai and its suburbs in a ten-day schedule, following which a rain song ("Adada Mazhaida"), featuring Karthi and Tamannaah, was shot at the Athirappilly waterfalls in Kerala.

Music

The soundtrack for ''Paiyaa'' was scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja, collaborating with Linguswamy again after '' Sandakozhi'' (2005). The audio launch function was held on 12 February 2010 at the Sathyam Cinemas, Chennai which was attended by many prominent film personalities; director Shankar released the soundtrack. The album originally features five songs with vocals by singers Karthik, Benny Dayal, Haricharan, Rahul Nambiar and composer Yuvan Shankar Raja himself. Three songs were reportedly composed and recorded in Singapore. The lyrics were provided by Na. Muthukumar. The album received highly positive reviews and responses from critics and audiences alike and the songs were considered to have played an important role for the film's success.

Release

''Paiyaa'' was initially scheduled for a late 2009 release, but was pushed to 14 January 2010 coinciding with the Tamil harvest festival Thai Pongal

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