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 sporadically in several legs, with filming locations including Darjeeling, Uttar Pradesh, and wrapped by late-October 2018. The film has music composed by Anirudh Ravichander, cinematography handled by Tirru and editing by Vivek Harshan.
Kaali is a mysterious and deceivingly elderly man who takes up the job of a boys' hostel warden at a college in Yercaud. Kaali notices that the hostel is dominated by a group of unruly final-year students, led by Michael, who is the spoiled son of a local leader named Gnanam. Kaali puts a stop to Michael's antics, which leads to enmity between the two. Kaali also forms a close bond with a NRI hostelite named Anwar, who is in a relationship with Anu, the daughter of a pranic healer named Mangalam.
Kaali convinces Mangalam to accept her daughter's relationship with Anwar, where they end up falling in love. Michael, who lusts for Anu, is angered on hearing of her relationship with Anwar and attempts to harass them, only to be stopped by Kaali. Michael and his friends are suspended, where Anwar records and shares the humiliation of Michael and his gang. The video is noticed in Uttar Pradesh by a local goon named Jithu, who is the son of a powerful politician named Singaaram alias Singaar Singh. On seeing Anwar in the video as well as in a photo with his mother 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 are caught 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, who was Kaali's best friend. It is also revealed that Kaali's real name is Petta Velan, a well-respected man in his village in Madurai.
Past: Maalik learns that Devaram and Singaar were involved in illegal sand mafia, which leads to Devaram getting arrested by Maalik and Petta. Petta learns that Maalik was in love with Devaram and Singaar's sister Poongodi, who conceived with him out of wedlock. Though relucant, Petta finally agrees, where he and his wife Saraswathy "Saro" managed to convince Poongodi's father Rajapandi to get Poongodi married to Maalik, but Devaram and Singaar vehemently opposes the alliance as well as the transfer of property to Poongodi.
After Maalik and Poongodi's marriage, Devaram and Singaar kills Rajapandi. On learning this, Petta kills Devaram during Rajapandi's funeral and chased 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 a boy, who is revealed to be Anwar and both of them leave for Australia as refugees to escape from Singaar.
Present: On learning his past, Petta, Anwar and Michael's henchmen leave for Uttar Pradesh to finish off Singaar. Petta and Anwar confronts Jithu, who is determined to kill them after learning about them from his father. 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 was adopted by Singaar after finding him still alive in the wreckage.
When Jithu confronts Singaar regarding his parentage, the latter sends his men to kill him, who is rescued by Petta. Along with Anwar and Michael's henchmen, Petta and Jithu ambush Singaar's mansion where they decimate his guards. Petta confronts Singaar and shoots him down. Following Singaar's death, Petta reveals that Jithu is actually Singaar's son and had used Jithu to lead to Singaar as part of a strategy to kill the latter. He also reveals that Chinna had died in the bomb blast. After this shocking revelation, Petta holds Jithu at gunpoint and kills him.
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.[17] 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.[18][19] 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).[20] Talking about the project, Subbaraj initially revealed that the film would be an "action drama" which was "fictional" but "realistic".[8][21]
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.[22][23]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).[24] Likewise, stunt choreographer Peter Hein also joined the team thereafter.[25] In late May 2018, Subbaraj and Tirru went on a recce to scout locations in Nepal and North India to shoot the film.[26] 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.[27][28] 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.[29] 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.[30] 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.[31] Other members of the cast included supporting actors Guru Somasundaram,[32]Munishkanth,[33]Shabeer Kallarakkal,[34]Deepak Paramesh,[35] Adithya Shivpink,[36] and Manikandan R. Achari.[37]
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.[48][49] 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.[50] 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.[51] Principal photography wrapped in October 2018, fifteen days ahead of schedule.[52]
"Marana Mass" Released: 3 December 2018 (2018-12-03)
"Ullallaa" Released: 7 December 2018 (2018-12-07)
The soundtrack album and background score is composed by Anirudh Ravichander, marking his first collaboration with Rajinikanth and Karthik Subbaraj. The lyrics were penned by Vivek, Ku. Karthik, Dhanush and Karthik Subbaraj. The audio launch took place on 9 December 2018, at Sai Leo Muthu Auditorium, Sri Sai Ram Engineering College, Chennai. The album consists of all eleven songs, which 5 of them are theme songs. The first single track, "Marana Mass" was released on 3 December 2018, followed by "Ullallaa" which released on 7 December 2018. The full album was made available for digital download on 9 December 2018, under the Sony Music record label, which had acquired the audio rights of the film. In February 2019, the album crossed 250 million streams on all platforms.[53][54][55] In January 2022, "Marana Mass" hit 200+ million views in YouTube.[56]
Petta was released on 10 January 2019, coinciding with the occasion of Pongal festival along with Ajith Kumar starrer Viswasam.[57]
Home media
Petta is available for streaming in Sun NXT and Netflix and on Voot, then on JioCinema following Voot's shutdown. The satellite rights of the film is sold to Sun TV.[58][59]
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.[60] 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.[61] The film collected ₹200 crore within 23 days.[62] 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.[63] The film had a 100 day theatrical run in Tamil Nadu.[64]
Critical response
Petta received mixed reviews from critics.[10] On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 71% of 7 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6/10.[65]
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."[66] Srinivasa Ramanujam of The Hindu stated that "Despite quite a few underwritten characters, Petta triumphs by bringing back the Superstar of yore."[67] Kirubhakar Purushothaman of India Today gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote "Petta is a classic Rajinikanth film that his fans should not miss."[68] 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."[69]
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.[70]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."[71]Behindwoods gave 3/5 stars and wrote "Style! Mass! Style! Petta is a celebration of Superstar Rajinikanth. Go enjoy it."[72]
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."[73]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."[74] 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."[75]Ananda Vikatan rated the film 41 out of 100.[76]
Legacy
The introduction scene of Petta Velan has been parodied by Yogi Babu for the film Pei Mama (2021).[77][78]
