Suriya’s Soorarai Pottru is one of the important films in the career of the actor as it became the first Tamil film that made it big on popular OTT platform. The film was initially scheduled for theatrical release in 2020. However, the sudden imposition of nationwide lockdown has turned the heads of makers towards the OTT platform.
Though Suriya, at the initial stages, promised the makers that the film will be released across theatres, circumstances made 2D Entertainment sell the film to Amazon Prime Video. Though the announcement did not go well with theatre owners, Suriya compensated by offering rewards to notable technicians in the Tamil Film Industry.
Soorarai Pottru was directed by Sudha Kongara and bankrolled by Suriya and Guneet Monga under the 2D Entertainment and Sikhya Entertainment banners. The movie also had an ensemble cast of Paresh Rawal, Urvashi, Mohan Babu, and Karunas.
The film was partly based on the real-life events of Air Deccan founder GR Gopinath and the book, Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey, written by him. The film projected the struggle of an aspiring airline entrepreneur who created a space travel revolution by offering tickets at just 1 rupee.
Soorarai Pottru was released on Amazon Prime due to the COVID-19 lockdown on November 12, 2020. This film received a massive response and turned into a small screen blockbuster garnering millions of views in a short span of time. Suriya has dared to release his movie on the OTT platform and showed the way for all other producers too.
With a year of its release, Soorarai Pottru became the 3rd highest rated move on IMDB. Suriya’s 2D Entertainment expressed its gratitude to the fans who helped the film achieve a massive feat. They also released a video that contained the compilation of the film’s scenes.
Followed by Soorarai Pottru, Suriya acted in an anthology short film directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. The anthology has been titled Navarasa and features a plethora of directors and actors from the Tamil Film Industry. It is being bankrolled by Mani Ratnam for a popular OTT platform. The film will be released on Netflix in August 2021.
On the other Suriya is awaiting to resume the shooing of his film with director Pandiraj which has been tentatively titled Suriya 40. Pandiraj is known for his painstaking pre-production and completion of films on time. The National Award-winning director had already worked with Suriya’s brother Karthi in the film Kadai Kutty Singam (2018) that was produced by Suriya himself under his home banner 2D Entertainment.
The film also stars Priyanka Arul Mohan who will be making her debut in the Sivakarthikeyan starrer Doctor directed by Nelson Dilipkumar. Other actors in the film include Sathyaraj, Subbu Panchu, V Jeyaprakash, Saranya Ponvannan, Illavarasau, Cibi Bhuvana Chandran and many others.
