Dashavtar (2009)

 ●  Hindi ● 3 hrs 7 mins

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U.S.-based Bio-technologist, Govind K. Somaiyya, narrates from a stadium a tale of religious conflict in India - even before the appearance of Jesus and Allah. This conflict was between worshipers of Bhagwan Shri Shiv and Bhagwan Shri Vishnu - with devotees of the latter being put to death. Now in post-9/11 era President George W. Bush invests heavily in biological research but things get out of control when a vial containing a deadly chemical is inadvertently dispatched via courier to Tamil Nadu, India. In order to retrieve it, Govind must face heavy odds, including a deadly CIA Agent, Chris Fletcher; a killer named Jasmine; RAW Officer Pranab Kundu, as well as a martial-arts artist from Tokyo.
See Storyline (May Contain Spoilers)

Cast: Asin Thottumkal, Kamal Haasan, Kantharaj Kasthuri

Crew: KS Ravikumar (Director), Ravi Varman (Director of Photography), Himesh Reshammiya (Music Director)

Rating: U (India)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama, Thriller

Release Dates: 17 Apr 2009 (India)

Hindi Name: दशावतार

Did you know? Asin performed her first film in a double role. Read More
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Direction

Director

Production

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Art

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Film Type:
Feature
Language:
Hindi
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 from: Dasavatharam (Tamil)
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, which is about 20 million tickets were sold worldwide. Thus making 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', starring Rajinikanth in the lead.

Earlier Kamal Hassan was about to act with ten actresses alongside each of his ten characters in the film. 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. Eventually at 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, based on it Kamal Hassan plays ten characters in this film.

The first three minutes of the film nearly cost the producer three crores (30 million) rupees for those particular scenes.

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

Mallika Sherawat made her debut in Tamil with this film.

Asin performed her first film in a double role.

Originally the film was meant to release on August 12, 2006, but was delayed to release on April 14, 2007 - an auspicious date, being the Tamil New Year's Day. But unfortunately, this was also 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 Tsunami scene's VFX were shot at a 50,000 square foot area of land in which a 100-ft. wall was created near Muttukadu for the film. Six machines, which are capable of generating 20-foot-high waves, were imported from the US, by a total cost of Rs. 3.5 crores.

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

Kamal Hassan was keen and particular that 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.

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

On September 2006, assistant director Senthil Kumar filed a case at Madras High Court, claiming that he was created the film's story in a script titled "Ardhanari" ("Clones"), 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.