Billa (2007 film)

Billa
File:Billa poster.png Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Vishnuvardhan
Written by	Javed Akhtar Salim Khan Vishnuvardhan
Produced by	L. Suresh
Starring	Ajith Kumar Nayantara Namitha Prabhu Rahman Santhanam
Cinematography	Nirav Shah
Edited by	A. Sreekar Prasad
Music by	Yuvan Shankar Raja
Distributed by	Balaji Movies (India) Ayngaran (Worldwide)
Release date	14 December 2007
Running time	128 min
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Box office	$14 million

Billa is a 2007 Tamil action film, directed by Vishnuvardhan. Based on the 1980 Tamil film of the same name starring Rajnikanth, as well as the 2006-released Bollywood film, Don: The Chase Begins Again, it was adapted by the director, who rewrote portions of the film from the original. Ajith Kumar and Nayantara played the lead roles while Prabhu Ganesan, Namitha, Rahman, Adithya and Santhanam were also part of the cast. The film was produced, released and distributed worldwide by Ayngaran International on December 14, 2007.

The film grossed $13 million at the box office, eventually becoming one of the highest grossing Tamil films of the year. The theatrical rights of the film was purchased by Pyramid Saimira. In 2008, the film was selected to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival. Ajith Kumar and Vishnuvardhan had attended the screening at Cannes, France.

Plot

The story begins with a sadistic underworld don David Billa (Ajith Kumar), on Interpol’s criminal list, hiding and operating out of Malaysia. DSP Jayprakash (Prabhu) has spent the last few years looking for Billa, leaving behind a life in India.

During a chase with the police Billa is severely wounded after an accident and dies in front of the DSP. The DSP then secretly holds a burial of Billa. Interpol Officer Gokulnath (Rahman) is assigned to work with DSP Jayaprakash to capture elusive Billa as no-one knows of Billa's death. DSP Jayaprakash keeps the death of Billa as a secret even from his fellow officers, and tracks down a look-alike called Saravana Velu (Ajith Kumar), a lowly pick-pocket . He asks Velu to infiltrate Billa's gang by pretending to be Billa. In return he will make sure that the child Velu adopted, Karan, gets a proper education.

The DSP trains Velu and sends him back to Billa's gang as a person who has lost his memory. Slowly Velu starts to learn about Billa's gang and even speaks to Jagdish, Billa's boss, on the phone. Velu provides a pen drive with the secret information of the crime network to the DSP, but he is about to be killed by Sasha (Nayanthara) because her brother Ranjit as well as her fiance Rhea(Rose Dawn) were killed by Billa. At this juncture, the DSP arrives and tells her that he is Velu and not Billa. Later Velu secretly provides information to the DSP about a meeting of Billa's network and C.J(Namitha), Billa's girlfriend, overhears his conversation. He accidentally kills C.J. A shootout occurs at the party and the DSP is secretly killed by Jagdish, leaving his gun behind. Velu finds the DSP's body and the gun, but is taken into the custody of the police team, now headed by Interpol Officer Gokulnath. He argues during interrogation that he is Velu and not Billa to Gokulnath. Velu mentions a piece of evidence - the pen drive which may prove his innocence but the pen drive is nowhere to be found.

Unable to prove his innocence, he escapes from a police van. He phones Gokulnath and ask him to meet at the Aero bridge. Here it is revealed that Gokulnath is none other than the Underworld Crime Don Jagdish and he is the one who killed Jayprakash. Officer Anil Menon apparently had the pen drive all along and strikes a deal with Velu to get hold of Jagdish. Meanwhile, Sasha and Karan have been kidnapped by Jagdish and wants the pen drive in return for it. Velu meets Ranjith and gives him a second pen drive with the same data, but corrupted. When Ranjith tries to kill Velu, a scuffle ensues making Ranjith fall from the top. In a final confrontation, Jagdish fights with Velu. Jagdish posing as Gokulnath asks the police to arrest Velu as Billa but gets shot by the squad of police and dies as the police have wired the entire conversation between Jagdish and Velu, thus proving his innocence. Velu finally hands over the original pen drive to Officer Menon.

Cast

• Ajith Kumar as David Billa and Saravana Velu
• Nayanthara as Sasha
• Namitha as C. J.
• Prabhu as DSP Jayaprakash
• Rahman as Jagdish alias Gokulnath
• Santhanam as Krishna

• Adithya as Anil Menon
• Yogjapi as Ranjith
• Rose Dawn as Rhia
• Avneesh Parekh as Karan
• T. Balasubramaniam as Rajesh

Production

Development

File:Billa308.jpg

Ajith Kumar portrayed as David Billa.

After the official announcement of the production company, the director and the cameraman, Nirav Shah and Vishnuvardhan began to select other members of the cast and the crew to be a part of the Billa team, Ajith Kumar could not assist in helping choose the other members. For his crew, Vishnuvardhan picked his preferred technicians; with Sujatha as the dialogue writer, Nirav Shah as the cinematographer, William Ong as the stunt master, Thotta Tharani as the art director, Pa. Vijay as the chief lyricist and A. Sreekar Prasad as the editor. Vishnuvardhan's orthodox music composer, Yuvan Shankar Raja was chosen, creating great expectations for the project.

Prakash Raj was almost immediately selected to play a role in the film, after helping make Vishnuvardhan's last project, Arinthum Ariyamalum a success. The role of the comedian was tipped to go Vadivelu, after he received rave reviews for his comic chemistry in Chandramukhi with Rajinikanth, but however, despite the reviews, Vishnuvardhan's regular pattern meant that the spotlight for a comedian will be limited. Other reports claimed that popular Tamil actor, Srikanth was to act as the father of the children Ajith raises in the film but soon the story was denied. The leading lady of the film's selection took longer than it was expected. Isha Sherwani, who had been in contention to act in the last few movies of Ajith Kumar, was finally expected to be selected as she had owed a favour in return to Vishnuvardhan. However she rejected the offer at the time citing a lack of dates and the clashing of her other films schedules. Another actress, Reema Sen, was also considered and approved by Vishnuvardhan, but was already committed to other Bollywood films. Soon, another actress, was approached for the film, Asin Thottumkal but Vishnuvardhan decided to reject her as she had already paired with Ajith in his previous two films. Other famous actresses such as Shriya Saran; who had acted in the hit Mazhai, Trisha Krishnan, Banu and Pooja were considered but then rejected for the role of the heroine. In early 2007, Vishnuvardhan and Ajith announced officially that Nayanthara had been selected to essay the role as Ajith's's love interest.

Nayanthara was relatively new to Tamil cinema when she was selected for the role. Despite acting in over a dozen films in the Telugu language opposite big names such as Venkatesh and Akkineni Nagarjuna, she had only acted in four Tamil language films which were Ayya, in which she played a young role,Chandramukhi opposite Rajinikanth, Vallavan opposite Simbu and Kalvanin Kadhali opposite S. J. Suryah. Vishnuvardhan and his crew opted for Prakashraj, Prabhu, Santhanam, Mumaith Khan, Namitha as the second heroine.

On 13 April 2007, the eve of Tamil New Year's Day, the launch of Billa took place at the AVM studios in Vadapalani, Chennai. Among the attendees were the stars of the old cast, Rajnikanth, Sripriya, Suresh Balaji as well as noted directors Mani Rathnam, Dharani, K. S. Ravikumar, and Saran. The confirmed cast uptil the date of the launch also were invited, among them being Ajith Kumar along with his wife, Shalini; Nayanthara, Namitha and Prabhu Ganesan.

The entire production of the movie took about six months to be completed and released. Prior to Billa, Vishnuvardhan had directed three films, Kurumbu, Arinthum Ariyamalum and Pattiyal, two of which were successful. Billa, was started after a debacle surrounding his other venture, Sarvam, which was eventually postponed to make way for Billa.

The film was originally announced, provisionally after the release of the Bollywood film, Don: The Chase Begins Again - which was a remake of the yesteryear film with the same name from 1978. Also from the 1978 version of Don, a remake was made in 1980 into Tamil, called Billa. 2007's Billa drew inspirations from these three versions. Vishnuvardhan claims to have had Ajith Kumar on his mind to penact the lead role, prior to him signing the project. Suresh Balaji, who had acted in the yesteryear version of Billa, acquired the rights to produce the film. The film became the second Tamil film to be remade from its yesteryear version after Naan Avanillai.

In an interview, Vishnuvardhan, mentioned that he had "twice missed out on the chance to direct him [Ajith Kumar]. The third time when I got a chance to direct him, I made sure that I would not miss it. I was all ready to write a good script for him but he said, he wanted me to re-make Billa" , confirming it was Ajith Kumar's idea. While Yuvan Shankar Raja was signed on as the music director, as per his previous films, while Pa. Vijay assisted him with the lyrics and Vishnuvardhan's wife, Anu, debuted as a costume designer.

Casting, music and location

Apart from the casting of Ajith Kumar in the dual lead role, previously played by Rajnikanth, the rest of the cast took nearly four months to finalize. The role essayed by Sripriya in the original, was given to Nayanthara, controversially after Bollywood actress, Isha Sherwani was paid the advance. Vishnuvardhan reported that he was pleased with Nayanthara's role in, E and subsequently opted for her. The other heroine role in the film, was initially written for Shriya Saran, but due to her contract with, Sivaji: The Boss, she refused to do the film. Despite other actreses such as Trisha Krishnan, Reema Sen and Bhanu being considered, the role was given to Pooja Umashankar. Soon later, she also refused the role citing that she was reluctant to appear in a bikini, as the role required. Upon this, Namitha, another actress was given the role.

The remaining members of the cast were selected subsequently after the launch, which was held on the 13 April 2007. Despite early reports of Prakash Raj playing the role enacted by Suresh Balaji of an inspector in the original, the role eventually went to Prabhu Ganesan. Comedien Santhanam also became a part of the project as did another character artiste, Adithya also signed up to be one of the members of the police troupe, as did Malayalam actor, Rahman, who with Billa, made his comeback into Tamil cinema. The item number, danced by Helen in the original was originally given to Mumaith Khan, but was later changed to newcomer, Rose Dawn, for unknown reasons.

The film was mostly shot in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia overlooking the Petronas Towers. A song sequence was shot in Kerala, with the backdrop of waterfalls while some scenes were picturized in various cities across South India. For the film's music and soundtrack, Vishnuvardhan renewed his previous association (Kurumbu, Arinthum Ariyamalum and Pattiyal) with Yuvan Shankar Raja.

Soundtrack

Untitled

The soundtrack has 6 songs composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, lyrics were penned by Pa. Vijay. Since the film is a remake, two songs from the original soundtrack, composed by M. S. Viswanathan, were remixed and feature in this soundtrack.

The formal release of the soundtrack of Billa was held on 26 November 2007 at Hotel Residence Towers in Chennai.

No.	Song	Singers	Length (m:ss)	Lyrics
1	My Name is Billa (Remix)	Naveen, Kay Kay	03:54	Pa. Vijay
2	Naan Meendum	Deepika	04:46	Pa. Vijay
3	Sei Yedhavathu Sei	Neha Bhasin, Preethi Balla	04:50	Pa. Vijay
4	Seval Kodi	Vijay Yesudas & Chorus	04:53	Pa. Vijay
5	Vethayala Pottendi (Remix)	Shankar Mahadevan	04:23	Pa. Vijay
6	Theme Music (Instrumental)	Yuvan Shankar Raja	01:44	Pa. Vijay

Billa 2

The Sequel for this film was expected to be done with Soundarya Rajinikanth Productions. bur later it was droped. And the Director of this film Confirmed that Billa 2 did not droped and it will be began in mid of 2011. The technical crew remains unchanged as that of Billa 1. And its expected to be produced by Sivaji Productions who Earlier Produced Aasal With Ajith.

External links

• Billa