Dharmadurai was directed by one of Rajini's favorite directors Rajasekar and produced by S.
Ramanathan and S. Sivaraman under the banner of Rasi Kalamandhir. S. Ramanathan is the
producer of Rajini's Hindi film "Geraftar".
Dharmadurai is a remake of Vishnuvardhan's Kannada super hit film Deva. In the Telugu version,
Mohan Babu was the hero & titled Maa Inti Kath which didn't do well as expected. Later
Dharmadurai was produced in Tamil and it was a blockbuster. Following this success, it was
produced in Hindi by new producer Dilip Kankariya and directed by KC Bokadia titled Tyagi.
Dharmadurai first paper advertisement was given on 14/4/1990 and it was titled "Kaalam
Maaripochu". They started the shooting with Rajini, Manjula, Ramesh Aravind, and Senthil, etc.
But later, they dropped the movie and started to shoot Deva's story as Dharmadurai.
Rajini was fully involved in the movie and Panchu Arunachalam made several changes to
improve the screenplay in Tamil. Dharmadurai team decided to release this movie for 1991
Pongal but the shoot was getting delayed due to unavoidable circumstances. Rajini was very
keen to release the movie for Pongal and therefore Thalaivar promised to give whatever support
they needed. Director Rajasekar took it as a challenge and worked continuously (non-stop) for 4
days which include shooting, dubbing, and re-recording. This was a real achievement and
commitment by the whole team.
It is to be noted that after 1982, Thalaivar didn't have a Deepavali release in 1990 which was a
huge disappointment for fans so fans were uncontrollable to see Dharmadurai for Pongal! The
opening day at Tanjore was glorious and the police could not control the crowd and there was a big
fight between police and fans.
All most every review were positive and except for some of the routine magazines that prefers to
show their nasty side.
Kumudam: old wine in new glass and it looks like a 20 years back Bheem Singh movie.
Hindu: This is another Aarilirundu Arubadhuvarai. At the end of the year, The Hindu pointed out
that Dharmadurai was one of the highest ran movies of the year 1991.
Makkal Kural: They mentioned Superstar's expression without any speech when he meets
his brothers after coming out of jail.
"ORU KATCHIYIL ANDHA NAAL SIVAJI DARISANAM"
Also, Makkal Kural had chosen Rajini as the Best actor of 1991 for Dharma Dorai
No doubt Dharmadurai was a clean winner in Pongal releases. This was only one film that
celebrated the silver jubilee among all the above releases. It is a family entertainer and the lady's crowd
at all theaters is unimaginable.
Director Rajasekar passed away on the 100th day of Dharmadurai and his sudden demise news
was major news in DD-1. Rajini lost one of the good directors in his career. If he was alive,
definitely Rajini may have 3 or 4 more Silver Jubilee Movies through him.
Dharmadurai did record business in all major cities, towns, and rural areas. Dharmadurai ran 50
days at 43 centers at Tamil Nadu and ran more than 100 days in many centers like in Chennai
Madurai Salem Coimbatore Tanjore Nagercoil Trichy!
Rajini introduction was one of the most favorite for fans seeing Thalaivar emerging out in Black
& White negative frame to color! That was a sheer GOOSEBUMPS celebration in theatres!
Rajini costume with brown shirt & yellow pants with a round hat was so famous that many fans
turned up on release day with the same dress! Hero Vijay in the Tirumalai movie replicated the
same costume in a scene as Dharmadurai get up!
In 2016, exactly after 25 years of Dharmadurai release, hero Vijay Sethupathi got the
Dharmadurai title for his film which was released in 2016 becoming Super Hit & 100 days shield
distributed in Rajini house!
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