Vada Chennai

Vada Chennai (transl. North Chennai) is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language action drama film written and directed by Vetrimaaran. Produced by Lyca Productions, Wunderbar Films and Grass Root Film Company, the film stars Dhanush as Anbu, a skilled carrom player who becomes a reluctant participant in a gang war between two rival gangsters. The cast also includes Kishore, Samuthirakani, Daniel Balaji, Pawan, Andrea Jeremiah, Aishwarya Rajesh and Ameer. It is the first instalment in a planned universe. The film had been in the news since late 2009, with an official announcement only made in November 2011 that the filming would commence by March 2012. After being temporarily shelved, the film re-materialized in May 2015 with a new cast; featuring Dhanush as the lead, making his third collaboration with the director after Polladhavan (2007) and Aadukalam (2011). Principal photography for the film, which commenced in June 2016, was wrapped up in February 2018. The cinematography for the film was done by Velraj, editing was handled by G. B. Venkatesh and R. Ramar, and the musical score was composed by Santhosh Narayanan. Vada Chennai was initially slated to release on 13 September 2018, during the Ganesh Chathurthi festival, but was postponed to 17 October 2018, because of the post-production work. The film received critical acclaim, praising its direction, plot, music, action sequences and cast performances, while criticising its dialogues. Post-release, the film drew controversies, about the fishermen community, in which a few scenes from the film were found offensive, after the director decided to remove the scenes from the movie, and added further new scenes. The film received several awards at the 2018 Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards, including Best Actor for Dhanush, Best Supporting Actor for Ameer and Best Music Director for Santhosh Narayanan. At the 8th South Indian International Movie Awards, the film received several nominations, including Best Actor for Dhanush, which was the only win at the ceremony. The film was nominated in three categories at the 66th Filmfare Awards South, in which Dhanush won the Filmfare Award for Best Actor. A sequel and a prequel for the film were planned by Vetrimaaran, which will be made into a web series.