Dasavatharam (2008)

Film Type:

Feature

Language:

Tamil

Spoken Languages:

English, Telugu

Colour Info:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Frame Rate:

24 fps

Aspect Ratio:

2.39:1 (Scope)

Stereoscopy:

No

Archival Source:

QubeVault

Movie Connection(s):

Dubbed into: Dasavataram (Telugu)
Dubbed into: Dashavtar (Hindi)

Filming Locations:

Goofs:

Factual Mistake
Shingen Narahashi's sister fights of Fletcher at her house. She is pushed into the bath tub. When the fight sequence resumes, her clothes (and hair) are completely dry.

Character Error
In the scene where Avatar Singh and Govindarajan are in the lift, Avatar Singh is seen to be leaving first while Govindarajan pretends to talk on his cellphone. If one looks closely, Govindarajan is holding his Nokia 3310 the wrong way - the screen is visible toward the camera. Possibly intended.

Trivia:

The film completed a 175-day run at the box office. About 20 million tickets were sold worldwide. It was also the first Tamil film to beat the record set by 'Sivaji' a year earlier. However, this new record was beaten two years later by 'Enthiran'.

Originally, Kamal Hassan was to act with ten actresses alongside each of his ten characters. Vidya Balan, Jyothika, Mumtaj, Kiran Rathod, Meena, Bhoomika Chawla, Sameera Reddy, Nadia Moidu, Kamalinee Mukherjee, Nithya Das, Meera Jasmine, Simran, Vasundhara Das, Trisha Krishnan, Nayanthara and Shriya Saran were all offered such roles in the film, but ultimately turned them down due to date clashes with other films. In the end, Asin and Mallika Sherawat were selected as the film's heroines.

The term "Dasavatharam" is used in Hindu mythology to depict the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu. Kamal Hassan plays ten characters in this film.

The first three minutes of the film cost the producer three crore (30 million) rupees.

Composer A.R. Rahman and actress Shriya Saran were part of this film's cast and crew. However, the AVM Company passed a rule that nobody making Rajnikanth's Sivaji should be involved in making this film, which forced the two of them out. They were respectively replaced with Himesh Reshammiya and Mallika Sherawat.

This is Mallika Sherawat's first Tamil film.

This is Asin's first film in a double role.

The film was originally meant to release on August 12 2006, but was delayed by six months to release on April 14 2007 - an auspicious date, being the Tamil New Year's Day. Unfortunately, the release was delayed further and the film was tentatively scheduled to release on February 15, 2008. Then legal wrangles forced the film to be postponed a further four months.

The film's tsunami VFX were shot at a 50,000 square foot area of land in which a 100-ft. wall was created near Muttukadu. Six machines, which generated 20-foot-high waves, were imported from the US, for a total cost of Rs. 3.5 crores.

Kamal Hassan make-up as the United States President took six hours to apply.

Kamal Hassan was keen to break the record for an actor appearing in the most roles, so he came up with an original storyline incorporating Indian religion and mythology.

The "Kaa...Karuppanukkum" song, with Kamal Hassan and Mallika Sherawat, was to be shot in the USA, but Sherawat had issues with her visa which meant she could not enter the States, so the song's destination was shifted to another destination: Malaysia.

The score for song "Ulaga Nayagan" was copied from the song "Why Does It Happen in Love?" from Dil Maange More!!!, which also had music by Himesh Reshammiya.

In September 2006, assistant director Senthil Kumar filed a case at Madras High Court, claiming he created the film's story in a script titled "Ardhanari" ("Clones"), and that actor Kamal Hassan and producer Oscar V. Ravichandran had stolen his script. On the basis of this complaint, the Chennai Police questioned the actor and later the High Court sent notices to Haasan and Ravichandran announcing an interim stay on the release of the film. In September 2007, the Court dismissed Kumar's petition, clearing the legal hurdle.