Baasha - Tamil Cinema's Ultimate Gangster Film

 

Rajini's career can be divided into two parts. Apoorva Raagangal to Veera and Baasha to

Annaatthe! None of us including Rajini would have imagined that one film would change his life

and career upside down forever after the release of Baasha. How much ever you discuss

Baasha you just keep revisiting and we just can't decode its success. Some films just are meant

to be immortal and Baasha is one such film in Indian film history.

Let's get back to the journey of how the film started and where it has ended today!

Rajini acted in Hindi film Hum alongside Amitabh Bachchan as his younger brother and with

Govinda. One deleted scene in Hum between Amitabh Bachchan and Govinda impressed Rajini

so much to the extent of seeing an altogether new film can be done. It was in his mind for a

long time. Rajini's current PRO Riaz Ahmed once met Thalaivar in Mumbai and Rajini shared

about how he wanted to do Hum in Tamil with Prabhu and Karthik playing his brothers which

didn't happen.

Later on in the Annamalai shooting, Rajini shared the film's idea and title as Baasha with Suresh

Krissna, who found it interesting and said the Muslim angle has to be added to justify the title. After

the phenomenal success of Annamalai, Suresh Krissna wanted to start Baasha but Rajini didn't

want to do back-to-back mass films with Suresh Krissna so Veera happened.

On the release day of Veera, Rajini announced his next film as Baasha. Rajini and Suresh

Krissna developed the story in Hyderabad Taj Banjara hotel where Rajini loves to relax because

of the lake backdrop. Nagma who was creating waves with consecutive success in the South was taken

selected as heroine.

The shooting was done in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. Suresh Krissna has shared lots of

memorable incidents from shooting spot in his book My Days With Baashha.

Kamal Haasan had created history as Mumbai Don in Nayagan and Rajini created his own

history with Baasha as Mumbai Don. Later on, whoever tried to do a Don role with Mumbai

backdrop failed miserably! The highlight of the film was the way Suresh Krissna presented a

never before seen Rajini to the audience. Every punch dialogue, every mannerism, every scene

is memorable to the audience even today. Raghuvaran as the villain will be remembered as the only

villain to be loved by Rajini fans which is a rare thing to happen. The film's screenplay became a

trendsetter in action films forever. A lot of Tamil and Telugu films came using the Baashha

template story in which some became blockbusters and flops. Suresh Krissna himself and

Rajamouli have done a film (Simhadri) with Baasha format. The biggest talking point of the film

is the transformation scene during the interval fight scene which took the film altogether to

unimaginable levels which showed the peaks of Rajini's performance through his eyes and body

language aided by Deva's BGM.

For MGR Enga Veetu Pillai, for Sivaji Karnan and for Thalaivar it's Baasha. These films are a

hot property forever in repeat value in TV and in re-release. Baasha was re-released many

times but Sathya Movies had a digital release enhancing the sound and picture to the latest

technology to give a new film feel in 2017. Baasha had a special screening first in Sathyam to

see the response for digital version in Jan 2017 and in March 2017 the film had a good limited

release and the film ran up to 4 to 5 weeks with audience thronging to experience the Baasha

magic on the screen once again.

Baasha's box office records can't be compiled in a single post and everyone knows it's box office

history.

Rajini & Politics!

During the audio launch of the film, Rajini appreciated Jayalalithaa for starting a Film City in

Chennai is on the lines of Ramoji Rao Film City. The whole industry expected the film city to be named

after MGR or Sivaji but it was named after Jayalalithaa which didn't go down well in the industry.

During the ceremony of honoring Sivaji Ganesan for the Chevalier Award in Nehru Stadium on

April 22nd, 1995, Rajini openly on the stage criticized Jaya for insulting the legends by having

the film city in her name. This was a huge shocker everywhere seeing the turn of events.

Director Mani Ratnam went through many problems for his Bombay film due to the film's theme

on Hindu Muslim love stories on the Babri Masjid backdrop. Just a few days before Baasha's silver

jubilee function on July 10th, 1995, some miscreants threw a bomb in Mani Ratnam's house. Rajini

condemned this incident and attacked the Jayalalithaa government strongly for allowing bomb

culture in Tamil Nadu. 

Thus here onwards Rjaini name got inked in the world of Tamil Nadu politics all his life till Rajini

bid goodbye to politics in 2021!