Padayappa

Padayappa is a 1999 Indian Tamil drama film written and directed by K. S. Ravikumar. The film features Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth, Ramya Krishnan and Soundarya in the lead roles, while Abbas, Lakshmi, Radha Ravi and Nassar play supporting roles. The soundtrack album and background score were composed by A. R. Rahman.

The plot revolves around Padayappa (Rajinikanth), a mechanical engineer whose father (Sivaji Ganesan) gives up his property to his foster brother (Manivannan), and then dies of shock soon after. Neelambari (Ramya Krishnan) initially loves Padayappa, but plans to humiliate him after his family humiliates her father (Radha Ravi). The rest of the plot deals with Padayappa overcoming all the obstacles placed by Neelambari.

Principal photography for the film began in October 1998. Padayappa was released on 10 April 1999 on the eve of Tamil New Year's day. This was the first Tamil film to be released worldwide with 210 prints and 700,000 audio cassettes, and became a commercially successful venture. Ramya Krishnan's performance was praised, winning her a Filmfare Award under the Best Actress category. The film also won five Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. Padayappa was dubbed into Telugu under the title Narasimha. The dubbed version was also commercially successful, and had a theatrical run of 50 days at 49 theatres.

Padayappa (soundtrack)

Padayappa is the soundtrack album of the 1999 Indian Tamil drama film of the same name written and directed by K. S. Ravikumar. The film's original soundtrack and score were composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics penned by Vairamuthu and was released through the audio label Star Music.

Development

Before the film's release, Rahman had asked Ravikumar whether the soundtrack could be released in August 1999. Ravikumar informed Rahman that he had spoken to the press about the completion of the film's making, and that Rahman would be blamed if the film had a delayed release. As a result, Rahman did a live re-recording of both the soundtrack and score to finish them on time.

The credits for the song "Vetri Kodi Kattu", which was sung by Palakkad Sreeram, initially went to Malaysia Vasudevan, who publicly stated that the credits for the song were attributed to Sreeram and not to him. Rahman requested the company who manufactured the audio cassettes to make the change. The song "Minsara Kanna" is based on the Vasantha raga, while "Vetri Kodi Kattu" is based on the Keeravani raga.