Prior to Saamy, Kavithaalaya Productions was
tottering along with Loss after Loss
The Last profit maker for Kavithaalaya had been POOVELI all
the way back in 1998
Since then the Company had churned out 7 Films, all of which
made losses to the tune of nearly ₹8 Crore
Though Pushpa Kandasamy was the face of Kavithaalaya
productions, it was Balachanders name that ran the company
Most of Kavithaalaya's financiers were former Actors and
Businessmen and Jains who charged 16% a year in interest
At least in this aspect they were luckier than G
Venkateswaran, brother of Mani Ratnam who borrowed at lower interest from
UNSAVORY BORROWERS LIKE ARUL NAVEEN
Balachander’s s own last directorial Parthaale Parvasam had
been a major bomb that cost distributors ₹3 Crore in losses
This after Simran and Madhavan both agreed not to charge a
fee in honor of Balachander
Balachander's Proteges were both otherwise occupied
Rajini was in hiatus and contemplating retirement or a
political journey after Baba while Kamal was already having call sheets until
2004
It was Janagaraj who was Balachander's friend and protege
who suggested that Balachander should go with the Younger Talent and make
Masala Films
He recommended Vikram who had worked with Janagaraj in KING
Balachander was still unsure though Vikrams films Dhill and
Gemini had burnt the box offices red with profits
Hari was a protege of Balachander
His previous film Thamizh starring Prashanth and Simran had
been a big hit
Balachander asked Hari to do a film for Kavithaalaya
Hari had three stories - One would become Arul starring
Vikram too and the other was abandoned
The third was a Police film
Balachander listened and approved and said “Any chance
Vikram would fit the role?”
Hari replied “I considered nobody else but Vikram”
Vikram had a packed call sheet back then
He was shooting already for Kadhal Sadugudu and also for
Dhool in their last and second last schedules
So Balachander on the recommendation of another Protege
Prakash Raj listened to Director Ramana and green lighted another story this
time with Vijay in the lead. This would be Tirumalai and change the life of
Vijay as a Masala Actor.
Now Vikram heard Balachander wanted a film with him and
decided to give him a 100 Day Call Sheet. He did this because Kadal Sadugudu
had a break thanks to the Vivek filmed comedy portions needing to be merged
into the shot sequence
Vikram generously agreed to a pay cut for the honor of
working with Balachander
He also decided to put on weight because playing a Senior
Cop wasn't the same as playing a Young Trainee Cop
AM Ratnam also agreed to allow Vikram to shoot
simultaneously for Saamy in the last schedule for Dhool even though it meant
the wrap would be on 12th November 2002 instead of 12th September
The Choice of Villian was hard
Perumal Pichai was a tough villian and Hari initially
believed Ashish Vidyarti would fit the bill. However Balachander wanted Kannada
Actor Ambarish
Ambarish who was into politics refused to play villian but
instead recommended Malayalam Actor Tilakan
Tilakan was a bit sick and had a full call sheet
Balachander's friend Dasari (something), a Telugu Director
or Producer recommended using KOTA SRINIVASA RAO
This was during an informal discussion as friends when
Dasari said “KSR is perfect for this character”
Sreenivasa Rao was doing father roles in Romcoms and family
films back then and expressed an interest in playing a major villian
Trisha was easier
Hari wanted a new face and Trisha had the available call
sheets
Vikrams close friend Vivek played comedian yet again (They
were very close. Vivek called him KENNY till the end of his life)
The Script had numerous changes
The Death of Perumal Pichai was rewritten many times until
the final ending was approved
Trisha was to be killed off but instead Balachander
recommend Vijay kumar be killed off to maintain the commercial value of the
film
It was again Balachander who recommended that Saamy be a
DySP and not an Inspector based on the script and this meant since he would
have to be in his late 30s - the Trisha Vikram romance was suitably rewritten
with enough dialogues to indicate the young age of Trisha
Kota Srinivasa Rao improvised his entire acting on his own.
His expressions and his movements were so good that even Vikram was awestruck
at times.
The Distributors who held ₹4 Crore of
Kavithaalaya losses purchased the rights for Saamy for ₹ 2.7 Crore on a 30–70
profit sharing agreement for every rupee earned after they recouped their
entire ₹6.7 Crore
Typically this meant Balachander would be in the black with
distributors but he wouldn't make any money out of the movie
Vikram didn't take his final payment and said he would take
it only after Balachander paid off his dues
Same gesture he showed Kamal and waited 2 1/2 years before
getting that payment after Vikram
A Gesture he didn't show to GVM later
Saamy was not just a massive hit.
It broke Padayappas record
It was the biggest grosser in TN History and held the record
for two years before Rajini reclaimed the position in 2005 for the next 12/14
years until Bahubali II / Bigil finally took Rajini out of a list he had
dominated since Annamalai in 1992 with a very brief hiatus
The Films share was ₹19 Crore and Balachander took home ₹ 9
Crore with which he paid off all his debts to the financiers of ₹4 Crore
He ended from a ₹8 Crore Loss to a ₹5 Crore Profit
Distributors were furious that they didn't outright buy the
film rights for ₹8 Crore as offered by Balachander
Kavithaalaya also sold remake rights in four languages and
that money too came to Balachander
Plus the audio track also was among the last cassettes sold
in TN and made money
Balachander gifted Vivek and Vikram Mitsubishi Pajero cars
for the films success
In one swift stroke - Balachander was profitable and his
company was in the black
The sad part was TWO DAYS AFTER RELEASE WHEN EVERYONE
KNEW THE FILM WAS RUNNING TO HOUSEFULL SHOWS -
G Venkateswaran hanged himself when he was told that two of
his financiers would be coming to visit him and if he couldn't pay, they would
do things to him that he couldn't imagine
What happened next?
Balachander after Saamy and Tirumalai was laughing all the
way to the bank
Yet he never risked a solo production again and always tied
up with financiers on a percentage basis where he never owed any debt
Kota Sreenivasa Rao became hugely famous as a Tamil villian
and ended up leasing a bungalow in Chennai in KK Nagar to come and go from
Vijayawada where he was living then and later from Hyderabad. He acted villian
in many films including Sarkar in Hindi as Selvar Mani.
Hari became the third biggest name in Tamil Cinema in the
2000–2020 period after Shankar & GVM. His fame dropped massively after
Singam 3 & Saamy Square
Saamys Gross was finally beaten by Chandramukhi in 2005 but
Chandramukhi was nearly beaten by Vikrams Anniyan released a
couple of months later
Such was Vikrams raw power
Yet despite all this Vikrams career stagnated post 2005 and
today he has been overtaken by Vijay, Ajith and Suriya who were all far below
him in the pecking order
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