Virumaandi (Pothuraju in Telugu) is remembered as a movie that bridged art and commerce successfully. Of course, that’s apart from the ‘Sandiyar’ name controversy. Here, we look at a few blasts from the past related to it.

ChennaiOnline had a long article revealing several behind-the-scenes details including apects like the bull-fight (jallikkattu) scene, art direction, editing, stunts and editing. Have a patient read and get to know some of the information that you may not know.

Kamal is always at the forefront of the movie medium and also possesses great foresight. Here’s an article where he talks about DVDs and distribution.

Virumaandi famously won an award at the PiFan film festival in Korea. After that, he expressed his happiness to The Hindu. Kamal also talked about a retrospective at the Rotterdam Film Festival earlier. Here are some excerpts:

“I see it as a kind of peer acceptance and that makes the award even more invaluable to me…”

“The whole thing came as a surprise to me. I had gone to the fest as an invitee. `Virumaandi’ was not an entry at the competition level and I had no inkling of the honour. There I was seated in the audience, waiting to put my hands together for the winner when my name was announced. I was confused because I was not on the stage with the other nominees … caught unawares, I did not even have a prepared text to thank the jury for the recognition,” laughs Kamal.

It (the citation) describes the film as one “that successfully manages to combine social and political drama, romance, humour, musical and spectacular action in one story of epic proportions…all the more impressive is the fact that it has been written, produced and directed by one man who also plays the lead role…”

“…When others tell me that I would have won international acclaim if I had been in the West, I turn around and tell them, this is my place and I should win world renown from here … with my kind of cinema.” And Kamal Hassan is doing just that.

The movie was also featured at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles. Take a look at the write-up!

Ah, nostalgia! Time to check out the movie once more?