The film was officially announced in February 2018 under the tentative title Thalaivar 165, as it is Rajinikanth's 165th film as it is the lead actor, and the official title was announced in September 2018. Principal photography commenced in June 2018. It was shot in several locations including Darjeeling, Uttar Pradesh, and wrapped by late-October 2018. The film's music was composed by Anirudh Ravichander, while cinematography and editing were handled by Tirru and Vivek Harshan.
Kaali, a mysterious and deceivingly aged person, takes up the job of a boys' hostel warden at a college in Ooty. Kaali notices that a group of unruly final-year students, led by Michael, the spoiled son of a Gnanam, a local leader, dominate the hostel. Kaali puts a stop to Michael's antics, which leads to a rivalry between them. Kaali also forms a close bond with Anwar, an NRI hostelite, who is in a relationship with Anu, the daughter of Mangalam, a pranic healer.
Kaali convinces Mangalam to accept her daughter's relationship with Anwar, where they end up falling for each other. Michael, who lusts for Anu, is enraged on hearing about her relationship with Anwar and attempts to harass them, only to be stopped by Kaali. The school suspend Michael and his friends, where Anwar records and shares the humiliation of Michael and his gang. The video is noticed in Uttar Pradesh by Jithu, a local goon, and his father Singaaram alias Singaar Singh, a powerful politician.
On seeing Anwar in the video as well as in a photo with his mother Poongodi on Facebook, Singaar sends his men to Ooty to kill Anwar for unknown reasons. At the same time, Michael, who is humiliated at his suspension, sends his men to beat Kaali. Michael's plan backfires as he and his men get mixed in the fight between Kaali and Singaar's men. Kaali subdues Singaar's men, earning Michael and Gnanam's respect, following which Anwar meets Kaali's friend, who narrates about his past. Anwar is the son of Maalik, Kaali's best friend, and Kaali's real name is Petta Velan, a respected person in Madurai.
Past: Maalik learns that Devaram and Singaar are involved in an illegal sand mafia, which leads to Maalik and Petta getting enough evidence for the police to arrest Devaram. Petta learns that Maalik is in love with Devaram and Singaar's sister Poongodi, who conceived with him out of wedlock. Though reluctant, Petta finally agrees, and he and his wife Saraswathy "Saro" manages to convince Poongodi's father Rajapandi to get Poongodi married to Maalik, but Devaram and Singaar vehemently oppose the alliance and the property transfer to Poongodi.
After Maalik and Poongodi's marriage, Devaram and Singaar kill Rajapandi. On learning this, Petta kills Devaram during Rajapandi's funeral and chases Singaar out of the village. Enraged about Devaram's death and his forced exile, Singaar orchestrates a bomb blast during Poongodi's seemantham, killing Maalik, Saro and Petta's son Chinna. After finding that Poongodi is still alive, Petta takes her to safety. Poongodi later gives birth to Anwar and Poongodi leaves for Australia with Anwar as refugees to escape from Singaar.
Present: On learning about his past, Anwar, along with Petta and Michael's henchmen leave for Uttar Pradesh to kill Singaar. Petta and Anwar confront Jithu, who is determined to kill them after learning about them from Singaar. The duo manages to escape Jithu. Later, Petta meets Jithu privately and reveals to him that he is actually his son Chinna, who did not die in the blast, but Singaar adopted him after finding him still alive in the wreckage.
When Jithu confronts Singaar regarding his parentage, the latter sends his men to kill him and Petta rescues him. Petta, Anwar, Michael's henchmen and Jithu ambush Singaar's mansion and decimate his guards. Petta confronts Singaar and shoots him down. After Singaar's death, Petta reveals to Jithu that he is not Chinna, but Singaar's son as Chinna already died in the bomb blast. Petta reveals that he used Jithu to lead to Singaar as a strategy to kill him. After this, Petta holds Jithu at gunpoint and lights out with gun shooting sound.
In early February 2018, after completing his filming commitments for Pa. Ranjith's Kaala (2018), Rajinikanth held final discussions with a group of young directors, including Arun Prabu Purushothaman, Atlee, and Karthik Subbaraj for his next project.[16] On 23 February 2018, production house Sun Pictures announced that they would produce a film starring Rajinikanth to be directed by Karthik Subbaraj. To accommodate the film's shoot throughout the course of 2018, the director postponed the pre-production work of another proposed film starring Dhanush for YNOT Studios.[17][18] Subbaraj revealed that he was confident about approaching Rajinikanth to work on his film, after the actor was impressed with his earlier project, Jigarthanda (2014) and expressed a desire to collaborate. The pair had first discussed the script in early 2017, but Rajinikanth did not take a final call until finishing his existing filming commitments to Kaala and 2.0 (2018).[19] Talking about the project, Subbaraj initially revealed that the film would be an "action drama" which was "fictional" but "realistic".[8][20]
Development
Anirudh Ravichander was signed on to work as the film's music composer in early March 2018, in a move which saw him collaborate with his maternal uncle Rajinikanth, and Subbaraj, for the first time.[21][22]Tirru and Vivek Harshan were selected to be the film's cinematographer and editor respectively, continuing their collaboration with Subbaraj following their work in Mercury (2018).[23] Likewise, stunt choreographer Peter Hein also joined the team thereafter.[24] In late May 2018, Subbaraj and Tirru went on a recce to scout locations in Nepal and North India to shoot the film.[25] The film's title Petta was revealed on 7 September 2018.[1]
Casting
Vijay Sethupathi was signed on to play a character in April 2018, and accordingly reworked his dates to fit the film into his busy schedule.[26][27] The actor signed the film after a month of media speculation that he would portray a villainous role, and revealed that he signed the film as he had blind trust in Subbaraj, and initially did not request to listen to the script.[28] Subbaraj had also been keen to sign Fahadh Faasil for a role in the film, but the actor's filming commitments for Varathan (2018) meant that he could not allot dates.[29] Hindi film actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui joined the cast in July 2018, while two other regular collaborators of Subbaraj, actors Bobby Simha and Sananth, were also signed to play pivotal roles in the film.[30] Other members of the cast included supporting actors Guru Somasundaram,[31]Munishkanth,[32]Shabeer Kallarakkal,[33]Deepak Paramesh,[34] Adithya Shivpink,[35] and Manikandan R. Achari.[36]
Principal photography began in June 2018. The first schedule of the shoot began on 7 June at Eastern Forest Rangers College at St. Mary's Hill, Kurseong in Darjeeling, with the initial portions lasting nine days. The team then shot in other location across Darjeeling and the hill towns for a further month, in locations including St. Paul's and Mount Hermon School.[47][48] To finish the first schedule, the team returned to Kurseong for six days. An audition to cast 150 local actors was also held in Charbagh, Lucknow during the first schedule.[49] During the making of the schedule, Rajinikanth met with politician Gautam Deb, who helped the makers have a hassle free shoot in exchange for the promotion of tourism in the area.[50] Principal photography wrapped in October 2018, fifteen days ahead of schedule.[51]
The soundtrack album and background score is composed by Anirudh Ravichander, marking his first collaboration with Rajinikanth and Karthik Subbaraj.[52] The lyrics were penned by Vivek, Ku. Karthik, Dhanush and Karthik Subbaraj. The album consists of all eleven songs, 5 of which are theme songs. The first single, "Marana Mass" was released on 3 December 2018,[53] followed by "Ullallaa" which released on 7 December 2018.[54] The full album was released on 9 December 2018, under the Sony Music label.[55][56] In January 2022, "Marana Mass" hit 200+ million views in YouTube.[57]
Release
Petta was released on 10 January 2019, coinciding with Pongal and clasing with Viswasam.[58]
Reception
Box office
Petta was released on 600 screens in Tamil Nadu with tough competition from Viswasam. The film grossed ₹1.12 crore at the Chennai box office. The film also grossed $133K at the US, overtaking Viswasam which grossed $18K.[59] On its opening day, the film grossed ₹36.6 crore worldwide, with a share of ₹19 crore worldwide. The film collected ₹104 crore, in 3 days and grossed more than ₹138 crore in the opening weekend. The film collected ₹104.3 crore (US$16.26 million) worldwide on 4 days.[60] The film collected ₹200 crore within 23 days.[61] The film collected ₹105.1 crore (US$16.38 million) in Tamil Nadu, ₹18 crore (US$2.81 million) in Karnataka, ₹4.5 crore (US$701,460.13) in the rest of India and ₹71.6 crore (US$11.16 million) in overseas with a total of ₹219—250 crore worldwide at the end of its theatrical run and became the second highest grossing Tamil film of the year.[62]
M. Suganth from The Times of India gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Petta is less of a Karthik Subbaraj film, but it gives Rajini fans their Thalaivar in a way that they have been dying to see him, celebrating the Rajinisms."[64] Srinivasa Ramanujam of The Hindu stated that "Despite quite a few underwritten characters, Petta triumphs by bringing back the Superstar of yore."[65] Kirubhakar Purushothaman of India Today gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Petta is a classic Rajinikanth film that his fans should not miss."[66] Anusha Iyengar from Times Now rated 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Petta is a complete mass entertainer with twists and turns that will make you howl in the theatres like you would in a Thalaiva film."[67]
Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Karthik Subbaraj has a sense of style, which breaks through only occasionally in Petta. For that Rajini Sir will have to submit a little more to the script, and a last little twist in the long drawn-out climax holds out hope.[68]Sify gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Karthik Subbaraj has packed a pleasing crowd puller that is a satisfying revenge drama with twists and turns."[69]
Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Rajinikanth returns to the basics with aplomb. Just go and watch it for the Rajinikanth that you missed in his last few releases."[70]Baradwaj Rangan of Film Companion gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote "Jigarthanda and Iraivi were sprawling stories but there was a sense of a gradual buildup, the sense of the narrative noose being slowly tightened. But Petta looks rushed and even the Karthik Subbaraj flourishes come off like affectations."[71] Gauthaman Baskaran of News18 gave 1/5 and wrote "Petta turns out be yet another outing for Rajinikanth who relies on gimmicks rather than solid performance."[72]Ananda Vikatan rated the film 41 out of 100.[73]
