Gautham Menon reveals why Suriya backed out of Dhruva Natchathiram and Vijay rejected Yohan

Gautham Menon, who is gearing up to release his upcoming film Dhruva Natchathiram, opened up about why his ideas were rejected by Suriya and Vijay initially.

By: Entertainment Desk

Chennai | November 15, 2023 09:17 PM IST

3 min read

Gautham Menon's Dhruva Natchathiram is gearing up for release.

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Gautham Menon struggled to finish and release his upcoming film Dhruva Natachathiram, which was in the making for the past six years. It is now said that the film will be released on November 24, and Gautham is still sorting out legal issues around the project. Meanwhile, in an interview with Galatta Plus, Gautham revealed why the film was first rejected by Suirya.

Dhruva Natchathiram first went on floors with Suriya in the lead role. However, even before the shoot, the Tamil star backed out of the project as Gautham failed to provide a proper script for the film. Gautham told Suriya the outline of the project which is about a team of vigilantes set up by an influential person in the government after the Mumbai attacks. The idea was about an eleven-member team who will report to one guy. Among the eleven, there is one guy who is a leader of sorts. Now, they face a problem and how everyone comes together to solve it is what the film is about. “This is what I told Suriya also, but he said there is no reference to it. He said, ‘Will something like this really exist? Since you are making it up, people will question the authenticity. It has to be realistic.’ I said, ‘We will make a realistic action film. I won’t make a loud action film.’ But somewhere it didn’t fall in place. And then, a couple of years later, when I was casually talking to Vikram sir about this idea, he grabbed it. He said, ‘Let’s do it.'”

Gautham added, “See, I don’t want to also sound like I’m cribbing. We (Suriya and I) have a good relationship and all that. It’s a good equation between us. But, I couldn’t understand. And I said, ‘There’s no need for any reference points. I’m trying to figure out something myself. And all my films are made like that.'”

ALSO READ | Gautham Vasudev Menon opens up about 26/11 reference in Dhruva Natchathiram; discusses level of patriotism in his movie

Similarly, Gautham Menon had a script called Yohan for Vijay, which was also about an agent of sorts going against an arms dealer, who has caused mass destruction around the world. When asked if the film was similar to Dhurva Natachathiram and why Vijay turned it down, Gautham said, “No. Not at all. So, Yohan is more like a… a Bond kind of a film. There’s no team as such. It’s somebody who functions on his own. There is a need for him to be in that space. And he goes after an arms dealer. It’s just one man against an arms dealer, who’s responsible for a lot of destruction across the world. Vijay, at that point, just felt that it’s too much of an English film. The heroine was English-speaking. And the whole film was set in the US. And I said, ‘Let’s try something, you know.'”

After multiple delays, Dhruva Natchathiram, also starring Parthiban, Radhika Sarathkumar, Dhivya Dharshini, Simran, Vinayakan, is expected to be released this month. It has music by Harris Jayaraj.

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