Superstar Rajinikanth has countless hit movies to his credit in a career spanning over almost 5 decades. His fame was at its peak in the 90s when Rajinikanth dominated Tamil cinema. One film that he finished the decade with was the 1999 film Padayappa. Directed by KS Ravikumar, it also starred Ramya Krishnan and Soundarya. Padayappa was released on April 10, 1999. It went on to become a massive critical and commercial success. It completed 25 years of its release on April 10, 2024. As per reports, it earned more than Rs 61 crore. Its earnings set a record at that time because Padayappa became Rajinikanth’s first film in Tamil cinema to cross the Rs 50 crore benchmark.
Padayappa is also remembered by the audience because of actress Ramya Krishnan’s character. It became one of the first Tamil films to have an anti-heroine theme and the idea was conceived by Rajinikanth himself. He made his desire to work in an anti-heroine movie known to two other filmmakers before zeroing in on KS Ravikumar’s story. According to KS Ravikumar’s interview a few years ago, the anti-heroine character – played by Ramya Krishnan – was believed to have been based on late Tamil Nadu CM Jayalalithaa. As per reports, she and Rajinikanth were at loggerheads in the 90s. Rajinikanth, however, never openly talked about it or confirmed it.
Another interesting fact related to this film is that the first choice for the female lead opposite Rajinikanth was not Soundarya. As per reports, KS Ravikumar first approached the top actress of the era, Nagma, to star opposite Thalaivar in the film. Some scenes were also filmed with Nagma. Nagma reportedly dropped out of the film when she found that Ramya Krishnan’s role was meatier. There are, however, no official records of the reason she dropped out. Soundarya was then brought on board to play the character of Vasundara opposite Rajinikanth. Padayappa was also a milestone film in the sense that it was the last movie of Tamil cinema legend Shivaji Ganesan.
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