Revision as of 21:33, 12 December 2014

Rajinikanth starrer Lingaa (2014)

Rajinikanth's cool entry: A motorcycle zooms into view with no rider: the Boss is coolly lying on the seat, legs crossed. Lingaa: O Nanba/ Vo Rabba Rabba

Rajinikanth's grand entry: The Boss leaps up from the motorcycle, making an unusual entry. Lingaa: O Nanba/ Vo Rabba Rabba

This page has been put together by North Indian scholars researching Thalaivaa Rajinikanth

All 18 images from Lingaa on this page, and the six images on our flagship page Rajinikanth are HD high-definition stills/ photographs captured from original, legally available HD video excerpts.

Sources include...

The Times of India <> The Times of India <> The Times of India

...and other sources mentioned in the body of the article.

Even if for only one day, 11 Dec 2014, Lingaa was at no.1 at the US box office. Lingaa earned $206,850 from 91 screens. It beat even Jennifer Lawrence' Hunger Games 2, which earned $190,000 from 1583 screens. Later in the week Lingaa might drop a few ranks on the US box office but, as we can see, its per-screen average might be hard to beat.
True Rajini fans will use a magnifying glass to read the first line at least.
This is a grab from Remtrak's Box office essentials

See also

For more photographs from Lingaa (esp for Mona Gasolina/ Monaa Monaa) and for a complete biography and filmography of the Thalaivaa see the main entry Rajinikanth.

Fact file

Rajinikanth starrer Lingaa (2014)

Rajinikanth starrer Lingaa (2014)

Rajinikanth starrer Lingaa (2014)

Rajinikanth starrer Lingaa (2014)

Rajinikanth starrer Lingaa (2014)

Lingaa: O Nanba/ Vo Rabba Rabba

Lingaa: O Nanba/ Vo Rabba Rabba

Lingaa: O Nanba/ Vo Rabba Rabba

Lingaa: O Nanba/ Vo Rabba Rabba

Lingaa: Mysore Palace: lavish sets. Unmai Orunaal/ Sathyam Shivamu

Lingaa: Unmai Orunaal/ Sathyam Shivamu

Lingaa: En mannavva/ Vo Manmadhaa: Rajinikanth and Sonakshi Sinha

Lingaa: En mannavva/ Vo Manmadhaa: Sonakshi Sinha

Lingaa: En mannavva/ Vo Manmadhaa: Rajinikanth

Lingaa: Indiane Vaa/ Indiany Raa: Rajinikanth

'U' censor certificate without cuts.

Running time: 174 minutes

Languages: Tamil, Telugu and Hindi.

It would be the first time ever in superstar Rajinikanth's 40 year career, that his movie is releasing on his birthday. 12th December

Year: 2014

Crew

Produced by Rockline Venkatesh

Directed by KS Ravikumar

Writers: Pon Kumaran, K.S. Ravikumar

Music: AR Rahman

Camera: Rathnavelu.

The film is directed by KS Ravikumar, who had earlier given hit films to Rajini like "Muthu" and "Padayappa". Rathnavelu's cinematography and Anthony's editing.

A.R.Rehman has composed music for Rajinikanth for the 7th time in all while it is the third time to give the music for the combination of K.S.Ravi Kumar and Rajinikanth.

Cast

Rajinikanth is in a dual role because the film straddles two generations. There is a Rajinikanth for each generation. According to rumours he was paid Rs 60 crore for the film

Heroines: Sonakshi Sinha and Anushka Shetty.

Jagapathi Babu is in a lead role.

Prabhu Ganesan makes a cameo appearance in the film.

Superstar comedians Santanam & Brahmanandam are in important roles

Title of Lingaa

Apparently, the film has been named after Rajinikanth’s grandson Linga, who is the son of actor Dhanush and Rajinikanth’s elder daughter Aishwaryaa R Dhanush. Indian Express

Storyline

Apparently the Boss plays the scion of a princely family and his mission is to build a dam for his people. Radharavi plays a crucial role as father of the Sonakshi Sinha character.

Was it ‘leaked’?

In May 2014, around a week after the shooting of Lingaa commenced, Andhra Headlines and Chennai Online claimed that the film’s plot had been leaked, and that the following was a synopsis of the film’s contents:

“Linga movie is about how a society gets rid of its age-old superstitions. A city has a river and an 80 year old dam built by Raja Lingeswaran in Kodaiyur (Tamil Nadu).

“The villagers of Kodaiyur witness many accidents near the dam, A probe is initiated to look into reason for the accidents and it reveals many untold things about the dam and its history.

“A village that opposes the dam construction insults the laborers and the laborers in turn curse the villagers. Rajini happens to be son of a construction laborer and villagers seek apology of the laborers. Another Rajini comes in here. He befriends the laborer son Rajini in order to bid an escape from the police and investigates the reason behind the dam mishaps and reveals the same to the village people.”

Apparently Lingaa contains a flashback episode that is set in the 19th century. Chennai Online claimed that one of the female lead is an IAS officer. (Not likely: IAS officers are not clad the way Anushka Shetty is.)

The film’s heroine Sonakshi Sinha revealed the storyline of the film thus: The story is spread across two generations and Sonakshi will be a part of the former one. She said “I am part of the 1940s generation and I play a girl who helps Rajinikanth. The look and the setting are completely new.” All India Youth

’Punch dialogues’

Director K.S.Ravikumar’s previous films with Rajinikanth--‘Muthu’ and ‘Padayappa’—lived up to the Rajinikanth, no, the Tamil, no, the Tamil-Telugu-old Hindi-Urdu tradition of ‘punch dialogues.’ Lingaa’s ‘leaked’ punch dialogue was:

i) Enakku Hindu venam, Muslim venam, Christian venam, chettiar, nadar, mudhaliar yaarum venam, Indian ah irukuravanga mattum en kooda vaanga (“I don’t need a Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Chettiyaar, Naadaar, Mudaliar. Those who call themselves Indians alone should come with me”.

i a) A variant of the same is said to be: "Enaku entha jaathikaaranum venaam, Indian-aa irukravan mattum en kuda vaanga.."

ii) Come On, Boys!

Plagiarism suits

Rajinikanth took strong objection to a petition lodged by aspiring filmmaker KV Ravi Rathinam of Madurai that the story of Lingaa has been plagiarised from his script, based on the life of Colonel John Pennycuick, a British engineer behind the construction of the Mullaperiyar dam, which he had written for a movie titled 'Mullai 999'. KS Ravikumar, who directed the film, and Rajinikanth himself filed a counter affidavit claiming that Lingaa is based on a story written by Mr. Ponkumaran

In his affidavit, Rajinikanth accused the petitioner that the plagiarism allegations on his film have been levied to tarnish his image. "The name, fame and repute enjoyed by me worldwide have been tarnished as if the film 'Lingaa' is a product of a copy-cat. I have been roped into unnecessary controversy. I hereby reserve my right to proceed against the petitioner for damages. Besides, a film needs to have 13 continuous scenes similar to that of the script written by the complainant for it to be considered as plagiarism. A bare reading of the affidavit filed by the petitioner does not disclose such an allegation," Rajinikanth said, adding that the subject of Mullaperiyar dam and nationalisation of rivers cannot be claimed as a copyright.

Case dismissed by court

Bollywood Life

The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court dismissed the writ petition seeking a stay on the release of Lingaa, saying merits of the rival claims made by both parties that they owned the story cannot be investigated in summary proceedings in a writ petition.

Justice M Venugopal of the bench said the appropriate remedy for the petitioner was to file a civil suit “before the competent forum or avail other remedies available under general law or criminal law, if he desires so”. The judge said the case did not have the merit for hearing as a writ petition. ”The petitioner himself is not sure of his rights or what duty he seeks to enforce through which by way of present writ of mandamus. On the basis affidavit and typed set of papers of this case, it is a fit case to be dismissed in limine as not maintainable,” the judge said. ”The petitioner cannot claim copyright in an unpublished work. The statements in Youtube do not constitute publication of story,” the judge said.

The court said even without knowing or attempting to know the exact story line of Lingaa, the petitioner had ventured to file the present plea on a mere guess and surmise with an intention to gain undue publicity for himself and hold respondents to ransom and make illegal gain out of it. Also he filed the petition “with an inordinate and unexplained delay at this eleventh hour” which disentitled him from maintaining the present writ, the judge said. In his petition, filmmaker Ravi Rathinam had alleged that the story-line of Lingaa was same as that of his 2013 movie Mullai Vanam 999. Justifying his claim, he said the entire story was uploaded on YouTube on February 24, 2013.

A second legal case (appeal)

Mohamed Imranullah S.,The Hindu

The Times of India

On 6 Dec 2014, six days before the scheduled release of Lingaa, K.R. Ravi Rathinam filed a writ appeal challenging the dismissal of his writ petition by a single judge two days before. He contended that the single judge should have considered the contradictory statements made by Mr. Rajinikanth and the film’s director, K.S. Ravikumar, in their counter affidavits with respect to the script and screenplay of the movie.

He pointed out that the actor had asserted that both the script and screenplay for Lingaa had been penned by S. Ponkumaran. On the contrary, Mr. Ravikumar had claimed that it was he who wrote the screenplay for the basic storyline of Mr. Ponkumaran.

Rockline Venkatesh asked to deposit Rs 10 crore

The Madurai bench of the Madras high court allowed producer Rockline Venkatesh to release "Lingaa" the movie after depositing Rs 10 crore (Rs 5 crore in cash and bank guarantee for the remaining amount) on filmmaker K R Ravi Rathinam’s writ petition against the single judge's order (above).

After hearing both sides, the bench said it could not find fault with the single judge's order and said the appellant should move the concerned civil court within four weeks from the date of receipt of the judgment copy.

Third legal case

A junior script writer, P. Sakthivel, also claimed ownership of the script of Lingaa and requested a Chennai city civil court to halt the release of the film. He said that he wrote a story ‘Uyir Annai’ in 2011 based on life history of Colonel John Pennycuick, a British engineer behind the construction of the Mullaperiyar dam. He registered the same in Film and Television Producer’s Guild of South India in 2012.

Fourth court case

The Times of India The Indian crab refused to let Lingaa rise. Three days before the film’s scheduled release M/s Balaji Studios Private Ltd, Saligramam, Chennai, requested the Madras high court to hold up the release of "Lingaa" on the ground that the film was an "unauthorized copy" of the Telugu film "Indra," starring Chiranjeevi and Sonali Bindre. M/s Balaji said that they had purchased all rights to "Indra" in 2010 and intended to remake it in Tamil soon.

M/s Balaji argued that, like Indra, Linga was about a man surviving the murders of his family members and his return and success in building a dam for the villagers.

The Madras High Court refused to stay the release of ‘Lingaa’ and adjourned the case by three days.

First day reactions

i) Fans are happy. Film likely to be successful.

ii) Film is too long. Needed better editing.

This section will be updated tonight and then once a day for three days.

Distribution

Trouble in Kerala

"Kochadaiiyaan" Loss haunts Rajinikanth's "Lingaa" in Kerala Prakash Upadhyaya IBTimes December 2, 2014

"Kochadaiiyaan" did not do well in Kerala. Prakash Upadhyaya IBTimes reported that ‘this seems to be haunting his latest movie "Lingaa" as its theatrical rights were not sold in Kerala [till ten days before it scheduled release]. Apparently the Kerala distributors' association told all its members not to buy the rights until the dues of "Kochadaiiyaan" were cleared by the concerned people.

The Plaza Group had acquired the rights for "Kochadaiiyaan" and in a bid to outdo competitors, it had quoted a fancy amount. But unfortunately, the Soundarya Ashwin-directed flick failed to live up to expectations [in Kerala] causing huge loss to exhibitors and distributors.

Distribution in Kerala, TN and Karanataka

Three days after the film distribution unit in Kerala ran into trouble, and just a week before the film's scheduled release, Vendhar Movies stepped in and acquired the distribution rights for Lingaa in Kerala and many parts of Tamil Nadu. (Silver Screen)

Tamil Nadu area rights:

Sukra Films is distributing the film in Coimbatore in 85 theatres – much higher than that of Chennai.

Mannan Films will take care of the movie’s screening in Chengalpet

Capricorn is in charge of it in the North – South Arcot region.

Vendhar has the rest of TN.

In Karanataka rights were sold to Sri Gokul films for a record Rs11 crore. Much of the film was shot in the state, which is the producer’s home state.

Business

Eros pays Rs 120 crore

Rajini’s Lingaa record breaking pre-release business Indian Updates

The movie is being produced by Kannada producer Rockline Venkatesh. The entire distribution was procured by the Eros International for ₹120 crores [two respectable publications including New Indian Express confirm this figure].

This is a never-heard-before record value for a South Indian film. Lingaa is going to have a theatrical release in both Tamil, Telugu and Hindi versions, and Eros is rumored to possess the Indian rights of all the language versions of Lingaa.

Meanwhile, the slick Tamil teaser of the film had zoomed past forty lakh (four million) views a week before the film’s release; its Telugu trailer had attracted 7.9 lakh (0.79 million) views; and the Tamil song Mona Gasolina had been viewed 15 lakh (1.5 million) times.

‘Rajini's Lingaa brings home Rs.200 crore even before release’

On 17 Nov ’14, almost a month before the film’s release India Today wrote: "Rs 55-60 crore are all set to come in for the satellite rights of the Tamil and Telugu version.

“Further, Rs.60-65 crore offer is already there for the taking w.r.t. Tamil theatrical rights in India. Telugu theatrical rights are further fetching them 30-35 crore. In addition, the film is being sold overseas for approx. 30 crore just for the Tamil version. In addition to this all, there are music rights which are with Eros.”

Analysts’ predictions

The industry and traders have pinned high hopes on the film and expecting Rs ₹200 crore [theatrical] business worldwide. Indeed, three weeks before the film’s release trade circles believed that Eros had sold the theatrical, overseas and satellite rights for Rs200 crore Great Telangaana (i.e. Eros had already made a profit of Rs80 crore on its investment).

Hanji 22 predicts: i) lifetime domestic collection Rs 200 Crore. ii) Rs 50 Crore in overseas circuits. iii)Total box office collection Prediction: 250 Crore.

Filmy Lovers predicts: Lingaa Film (in Telugu alone) will easily collect Rs 7-8 Crores on it’s 1st day (Friday) opening box office.

Rs 200 crore-plus insurance cover?

Business Standard

Industry estimates suggest that Lingaa has secured a mega-insurance cover, including production insurance and loss of revenue in India and overseas. The size of the cover could be well above Rs 200 crore. This includes upwards of Rs 100 crore for production cover apart from cover against force majeure incidents that could disrupt the screening of the film.

Sumant Salian, head of media and entertainment, Alliance Insurance Brokers, said: “They have covered loss of revenue overseas, since his films are very popular abroad.”

As a concept, film insurance came into existence in the early 1990s. Taal was one of the first movies to be insured. Sanjay Dutt’s arrest during the making of Khalnayak prompted Subhash Ghai to insure his next movie Taal, for which he paid Rs 15 lakh as premium for a film valued at about Rs 11 crore.

These policies cover loss to life or property on film sets. They also cover legal issues related to a film as well as post-release risks like theatre shutdown due to riots or strikes. Some policies also cover the advance paid to film stars.

In film insurance policies, the type of cover depends on the budget of the film. The premium for such a policy is usually 0.3-0.8 per cent of a film’s budget. If the budget of a film is Rs 100 crore, for instance, the premium would be Rs 30-80 lakh.

Number of screens

Australia: Lingaa's release schedule Down Under. The film broke Vijay's records in France.

First reports from mainstream media suggested that the film would be released on 3000 screens. Closer to the film’s release the number seems to have increased to between 4500 (tamilstar) and 5500 (DNA India) in the three languages and overseas exhibition put together.

The film is said to be releasing on 1500 screens in overseas markets

'Lingaa' allotted more screens than 'PK'

Rajinikanth's 'Lingaa' beats Aamir Khan's 'PK'- Here's how! DNA India Tuesday, 2 December 2014

In the battle for the number of screens allotted to each film., it seems Rajini has overtaken Aamir Khan whose ambitious project PK is releasing a week later. Rajinikanth's Lingaa is expected to open huge with a screen count of around 5500 whereas Aamir's PK will release in around 4500-5000 screens all over the world. The Rajinikanth - Sonakshi Sinha starrer will have a bombastic opening in US, UK, and Malaysia circuits and the film is likely to cash in on Rajinikanth's star power.

France: More screens than Kaththi

Lingaa Breaks Kaththi's Record! Filmi Beat

Surpassing the record that was earlier set by Vijay's Kaththi, Lingaa is set to make its way into 45 theatres all over France while Kaththi had earlier made it to 25 theatres.

Meanwhile in Hong Kong, The Tamil Cultural Association has arranged a special screening of the film on 12th and 13th of December. The first show will be screened at the GH Whampoa, hall number 1 at 9:15 pm on 12th and the next at the same theatre hall number 4 at 6:15 pm on 13th. They have also informed that the tickets for the movie can be purchased at the Maharaja Emporium in Hong Kong. The news has managed to put a smile on every Rajinikanth fans' face in Hong Kong as they now can catch their favourite star on screen.

USA: First non-Hollywood film at XL MAX

Lingaa took over 310 screens for its Tamil and Telugu versions in the USA. For the first time ever, XL MAX (IMAX) at Muvico Rosemont, IL, one of the biggest auditoriums in mid-west USA, was booked for a non-Hollywood movie, for the entire week. (behindwoods)

The making of the film

Tamil Wire <> India Glitz <> Truth Dive

Shooting

The shooting kick started in the first week of May 2014. The shoots were canned in exotic locations in and around Mysore. The intro song was canned in UAE and Macau.

The film had its share of controversies when shooting reportedly got halted once at the Mysore Palace when they were denied permission and second time at Hyderabad when the locals created havoc.

Then, buzzoop added, The Superstar is believed to have fainted on the sets while a high- octane stunt sequence was being canned.

The film, directed by K. S. Ravikumar, was making rapid progress at Ramoji Rao Film City. Rajini was reportedly taking part in a strenuous fight sequence without a body double when the mishap took place.

Sources said that he suddenly felt giddy and fainted and was rushed to a private hospital. Fortunately, there was nothing serious and doctors said that he fainted due to an allergy and was asked to take rest for a day.

However, Ravikumar rubbished the report on his social networking website. He wrote, “Early in the day, rumours started making rounds in a Tamil news daily that Superstar Rajinikanth had fallen sick while shooting for his upcoming film Lingaa. The news is false & baseless Mr. Rajinikanth is hale and hearty; very much happily active in the shooting and the news published are absolutely false ones. Ever Thankful!

On Nov 5 2014 renowned cinematographer Rathnavelu, fondly called as Randy has tweeted in his official Twitter page that the shooting of Rajinikanth’s upcoming film Lingaa was completed.

Randy tweeted, “Randy’s tweet reads as follows: “Yeah it’s a wrap! Lingaa movie shoot completed. Hugs from Thalaivar n KSR. Movie got over in lightning speed .. Thanx for my wonderful team”.

The post production works of the movie started thereafter.

Sets

National Award winning art director Sabu Cyril, who is the production designer of Superstar Rajinikanth’s ‘Lingaa’, has revealed that “We constructed a huge dam like set in a record time for ‘Lingaa’. We also built a full-fledged railway station and a train of British era,” he says.

Sabu and his team also created a palace for some important scenes. And for the ‘Mona Gasolina…’ song, which is already making waves, the production designer had to come up with a ship.

Since Sabu Cyril was elevated as production designer in Superstar Rajinikanth's 'Lingaa', he handpicked his former student Amaran as the film's art director.

Amaran, who worked for six movies with Mysskin, has done a great job in 'Lingaa' and won the appreciation of K S Ravikumar, Sabu Cyril, and of course, Rajini.

"We erected two grand sets for 'Va Mannava...' and 'Mona Gasolina...' songs. All this was done in record time," Amaran says.

Technology

Telugu One reported: Lingaa is creating the technical sensation now … Lingaa will be the first film in which a Phantom Flex 4k high speed camera is being used. Meanwhile, Hollywood's Lee Whittake is taking care of the stunt sequences in the film. He was the same person who designed stunts for Kamal Haasan's Vishwaroopam.