It
had been three and half years since his last blockbuster
Padayappa had hit the theatres. His fans were becoming
restless to see their demi god and style master on
the celluloid. Everyone from six to sixty was looking
forward to the announcement from the Superstar, and
when it finally came, they went into frenzy. Then
started a series of speculations about the story and
the role of Rajini in the film. The released stills
with Rajini wearing a turban and showing chin mudra
increased the hype. Rajini was coming together again
with Suresh Krishna, the combination which had delivered
some memorable hits like, Badshah and Annamalai. The
movie on top of this had A.R.Rahman tuning the music,
increasing its value by three or four notches. But
when the movie finally got released, after the first
week, it was declared one of the biggest fiascos in
career of Rajinikanth. Heavy religious undertones,
confusing screenplay and a wafer thin story, all contributed
to the disaster. But one major factor that played
havoc was the way by which the media was handled by
the production team. Lack of periodic press releases
in the form of news or images and few broils with
some noted media houses did not help the cause at
all.
As a tail piece, Rajini discussed about the screenplay
and script of Baba with Shankar to make it crisp and
foolproof.
