Not Silambarasan, Gautham Vasudev Menon Wrote Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa For This South Actor

Silambarasan and Trisha starrer Tamil-language musical romantic drama film Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, released in 2010, has a special place in the viewers’ hearts. The movie was written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon and was a huge hit at the box office. But do you know writer-director Gautham Vasudev Menon initially wrote the script for Mahesh Babu?

According to reports, producer Manjula Ghattamaneni, sister of megastar Mahesh Babu, once said, Gautham Vasudev Menon, ‘We are going to make a film for Mahesh Babu. You write the story for Mahesh Babu.’

However, Mahesh Babu means action films. But Gautham Menon wrote the romantic drama Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa. Later, in a media interaction, Gautham Vasudev Menon shared that he sat down to write an action thriller story, keeping Mahesh Babu in mind. But the words that came to his mind were romantic dialogues. He ended up writing a grand love story Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, with no action.

When Gautham Menon told this story to actor Mahesh Babu, he immediately rejected it, saying, “No, Gautham, I and you are doing an action film.” Later, he proposed the project to Silambarasan, who agreed to it.

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa was jointly produced by Elred Kumar, Jayaraman, VTV Ganesh, and P. Madan under the banner of Escape Artists Motion Pictures and RS Infotainment. Whereas Red Giant Pictures, owned by Udhayanidhi Stalin, distributed the movie.

It also featured Chinmayi, VTV Ganesh as Ganesh, Babu Antony, Kitty, and Uma Padmanabhan in other pivotal roles. The story was simultaneously shot in Telugu as Ye Maaya Chesave, starring Naga Chaitanya and Samantha as the main lead.

The movie revolves around a complicated relationship between a Hindu Tamil boy, Karthik Sivakumar, and a Malayali Christian girl, Jessie, from Alappuzha, Kerala. When Karthik falls in love with Jessie, he is faced with resistance and indifference since their religions are different and her family is strict and conservative and would never approve of their relationship.

A.R. Rahman scored the film’s music and Manoj Paramahamsa handled the photography. Anthony Gonsalves was the editor.

Later, the film was remade as Ekk Deewana Tha in Bollywood. A short film/sequel titled Karthik Dial Seytha Yenn, again directed by Menon with Silambarasan and Trisha reprising their roles, was released in May 2020.