Billa (2007 film)

Billa
Directed by	Vishnuvardhan
Written by	Story: Javed Akhtar, Salim Khan Screenplay Vishnuvardhan
Produced by	L. Suresh Balaji
Starring	Ajith Kumar, Nayanthara, Prabhu Ganesan, Namitha, Rahman, Santhanam
Cinematography	Nirav Shah
Music by	Yuvan Shankar Raja
Distributed by	Balaji Movies Ayngaran Ayngaran
Release dates	December 14, 2007
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	[Estimate]

Billa (2007) is a Tamil language feature 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, it was adapted by the director, who rewrote portions of the film from the original. The protagonist's role went to Ajith Kumar while the female lead's role involved a widespread search for three actresses to portray the three significant feamle roles, which eventually fell to Nayanthara, Namitha and Rose Dawn, a newcomer.

Plot

The story begins with a sadistic underworld don David Billa (Ajith). Most-wanted gangster, hiding and operating out of Malaysia, on the top of Interpol’s criminal list. A lone tiger he is, and a ruthless one at that. As he says, “Look at history. If you want to live, to survive, you can kill any number of people, for any reason.” This is Billa – scheming, clever, slippery, enigmatic and dangerous. No one knows his story, really, except that he literally clawed his way to where he is now, from an orphaned and deprived childhood to the top of the food chain. Along the way, he bent and broke every rule for not just survival, but for money, power and love of the game.

File:Nayanthara black.jpg

Nayantara as portrayed as Sasha in Billa

DSP Jayprakash (Prabhu) has spent a huge chunk of the last few years looking for the elusive Billa. He has left a life behind in India, only to base himself in Malaysia and strategise the capture of the man who has 50 high-profile crime cases slapped against him. As luck would have it, his path does cross Billa’s and from then on, it’s a rollercoaster ride.

The Malaysian team is headed by the DSP Jai Prakash (Prabhu Ganesan) who wants to break the back of the operations of the Underworld Dons. He believes that capturing the dangerous and elusive underworld don, David Billa, will be the most effective way of accomplishing this. Billa's gang consist of Ranjith and C.J (Namitha). Soon, Sasha (Nayanthara) joins them but she has other plans - kill Billa. Billa was responsible for killing her brother Rajesh as well as his fiancee.

During a chase with the police Billa is seriously wounded after an accident and dies in front of the DSP. The DSP then secretly holds a burying of Billa. He keeps it a secret even from his fellow officers, and tracks down a look-alike called Velu, a lowly pick-pocket(also played by Ajith Kumar). 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. When Velu secretly provides information to the DSP about a meeting of Billa's Network, He accidentally kills C.J. A shootout occurs at the party and the DSP is killed by Jagdish (Rahman) who had come to take over the investigation from the DSP as Interpol Officer Gokulnath; and Velu is forced to run from the police as well as Billa's gang members - pursuing the last piece of evidence (a Pen drive) which has all of Billa's criminal activities loaded on it, a Pen Drive which can get him out of this mess.

Through various plot twists, the DSP's Aid in the case gets the Pen drive and strikes a deal to get hold of Jagdish. Velu arranges a meeting with Jagdish and assists in his capture. In a final confrontation, Jagdish gets shot by a squad of police and dies. Velu finally hands over the Pen drive to the police.by this way the film ends

Cast

Main article: Characters in Billa

With the exception of the gang's henchmen, Billa had a significant number of known actors in its cast. The cast included:

• Ajith as David Billa and Saravana Velu. Coming off some success with Kireedam and from 2006, Varalaru, Ajith was looking for a role which would continue his re-emergence in the Tamil cinema industry. After Farhan Akhtar's remake of Don from its original, Vishnuvardhan took up the idea, to do the same with the 1980 Billa and immediately made Ajith Kumar his primary choice for the project. Ajith agreed and was approved by [Rajinikanth]], who played the lead role in its previous version. Ajith received extremely positive reviews for his portrayals of the two roles, with the Rediff review claiming he was "electrifying as Billa" and "his performance is much better than the rest of the film". Other reviews back this up, by claiming he was "amazingly natural" and that "his performance marks a new high in his acting career".

• Nayanthara as Sasha. Nayanthara changed her usual homely look and wore much more glamorous outfits in Billa. Nayanthara was praised as "gorgeous" and "the show stopper", whilst the film brought her back into the reckoning as a leading actress.

• Namitha as C.J. Namitha, prior to Bills, had been involved in roles which made her seem vulgar compared to other actresses. However in Billa, she was reported to be beaten in the glamour quotient by Nayanthara and a reviewer claimed that she was "surprisingly restrained."

• Rahman as Jagadish/Gokulnath. Rahman, a Malayalam actor, made his comeback with the film and received mostly positive reviews for his role in the movie.

• Adithya as Anil Menon.

• Rose Dawn as Rhea.

• Santhanam as Swegan

• Dicpal as Swesan

Production

The Key Elements

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 - 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 13th of April, 2007. Despite early reports of Prakash Raj playing the role enacted by Suresh Balaji of an inspector in the original, the role evntually 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.

Development

On April 13, 2007 - a day prior to 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, 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.

Soundtrack & DVD

Untitled

Soundtrack

The film has songs composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, two of which have been re-mixed from the original film, which had M. S. Viswanathan as the music composer:

• My Name is Billa - S. P. Balasubramaniam

• Vethialaya Pottendy - Malaysia Vasudevan

DVD

The DVD is set to released worldwide six months after the initial release of the film which looks set to be released on 12th December 2007.daya Congrats the film

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Ajith in his new look

Publicity & Release

Publicity

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Ajith and Nayanthara

The publicity of the film was initially created when Vishnuvardhan picked Ajith to star in the movie and hence named the movie Billa. Permission and allowance was asked from the producers of the yesteryear film Billa starring Rajinikanth in the lead role. Later there was confirmation that Rajinikanth had personally told Ajith to attempt the challenge of remaking Billa. The trend in Kollywood in recent times is to remake yesteryear hits and this has been backed by Vishnuvardhan who confirmed that this will definitely be a modern day interpretation of the old Billa starring Rajinikanth, Sripriya and Praveena.

When the cast showed Nayanthara opposite Ajith, for Nayanthara fans it marked her return to fame in Kollywood. She had previously been involved in an affair with Simbu and when they parted ways, indecent photographs of them was produced which dented Nayanthara's image. But nonetheless she is a heroine very high up the pecking order in Kollywood and Tollywood. She has put her past behind and is back in Billa, the combination will be a new and different one with Ajith Kumar, whose fans much anticipate any release of their actor.

Namitha is the late arrival to the previous role of Praveena as Billa's girlfriend. The Ajith-Pooja partnership was talked about after Attagasam, which did well at the box office. However this partnership is new, yet exciting.

The film was launched on the 2007-04-20 by Rajinikanth at AVM studios. The film is to be shot extensively in Malaysia.

The release date of the film has been set as December 14. It will be Ajith's third and last film of the year. The trailer itself has said to begun the Billa fever across Tamil Nadu.

Release

The film was released on 14th December 2007 in 229 screens across Tamil Nadu and 50 screens in Overseas .The film was released on December 28,2007 in 25 screens in Kerala.

Box-Office Performance

• The film collected a distributors' share of Rs.7.2 crores in its first week of release.

Kerala

• The film colllected a distributors' share of over Rs.1 crore.