Looking through a hazy car window, a dreamy young man with an enchanting grin enters Ooty. There are no slow-motion track shots or standard hero introduction cues. He comes like a breeze, beams at his lady love, dances effortlessly, and leaves without much trace. 20 years on, Sachein is now returning to the big screen, again in that long-sleeved maroon sweater and beige cargo pants, and this time, he promises to make his presence felt. Amidst all the films breathing fresh air in this re-release season, Tamil superstar Vijay’s 41st film is the most in-demand entrant. Sachein, directed by John Mahendran, is being officially re-released this week.
Salem-based auditor and ardent Vijay fan Vicky Vijay doesn’t skip a beat while talking about his plans to catch the re-release. “I still remember the day Sachein was released. My father is a die-hard superstar fan, and he wanted to watch Chandramukhi,” — Rajinikanth’s film, as well as Kamal Haasan’s Mumbai Xpress, released along with Sachein; we’ll get to that in a bit — “However, I was too adamant that we watch the Vijay film. It was a jolly aana Vijay padam, especially thanks to his comedy scenes with Vadivelu, a duo that was popular from Friends,” says Vicky.
Producer Kalaipuli S Thanu of V Creations, who is re-releasing the 4K restoration, was more nervous than the fans 20 years ago. “We were extremely tense. So we wanted music composer Devi Sri Prasad to remix a Telugu song of his in Sachein, and we had even bought the rights. I don’t know what really happened, but it caused quite a stir. Newspapers read ‘Sachein release halted,’ and I was shocked. The court said we hadn’t obtained the rights properly.” Fascinatingly, Thanu explains, DSP composed a whole new tune that matches the song’s lip sync. That ended up being ‘Dai Dai Dai Kattikkoda,’ featuring Vijay and Bipasha Basu, which was added to the film a week after the release.
That’s not all. Theatre owners were sceptical of the release and hesitated to buy the film. “I now fondly remember financiers Sathya Ramamurthy and his son Sathya Ramesh. Without even receiving their due amount, they gave clearance to the prints from the lab, and only after we brought the prints to our office did the theatre owners pay the amount,” reminisces Thanu.
Kalaipuli S Thanu
| Photo Credit:
Shivaraj Vedhan
But what prompted Thanu to re-release Sachein after 20 years, especially in a 4K remastered version with a 7.1 Dolby mix? Thanu, who previously re-released Aalavandhan and is working towards remastering Khakha Khakha and Kandukondain Kandukondain, says that he has been witnessing the demand for Sachein’s re-release over the years. “Many theatre owners have repeatedly requested me to rerelease Sachein, stating that there’s immense demand among fans. Moreover, my anti-piracy team has been continuously taking down pirated copies of Sachein; even last night, at 3 AM, an HD-quality print was uploaded, and we had to take it down. And by the time we take down a print, it’s getting over 10,000 views. That’s just amazing,” says Thanu, mentioning that over 9,500 tickets have been pre-booked for the Friday shows of Sachein in Rohini Silver Screens, Chennai. “I am shocked because even new films struggle to get such pre-release bookings.” The release isn’t restricted to Tamil Nadu. Thanu says the film is set to play at over 40 screens in France, 80 in the US, and over 300 theatres in Malaysia.
To some filmgoers, like 28-year-old Chennai-based engineer Madhesh R, this demand seems mindboggling. “Until a few years ago, I wasn’t aware that Sachein had such a fan following. I have seen fans calling it an underrated Vijay film, but the craze we are seeing online is surprising,” says Madhesh, who is eager to catch the re-release to decipher this phenomenon. But with Madhesh, we wonder if an average filmgoer would have ever seen Sachein as a film that could be revisited on the big screen.
“The demand is such because films like Sachein and Ghilli are films loved even by those who dislike Vijay’s other films,” explains Vicky. “You would find many who say, ‘I don’t usually watch Vijay’s films, but I liked Ghilli, Sachein, and Thuppakki.’ Even Vaseegara, which didn’t run well, would fall under this. I have never seen Sachein as a strictly fan-favourite film, but one for all moviegoers,” he believes.
Thanu concurs. “All those who were five or ten years old when the film was originally released would now get a chance to celebrate it on the big screen. I foresee a lot of college-goers and young women thronging the theatres over this weekend,” he says.
Vadivelu and Vijay in a still from ‘Sachein’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Sachein, a ‘mystery’ of love
As Madhesh believes, the demand for the film must ride a lot on its comedy. Veteran comedian Vadivelu as Ayyasaamy was hilarious in the film, delivering many iconic lines like “Nangooram madhiri nachunu irundhucha?” and “First’u juice’u.” It would be safe to say that Vadivelu takes a lot of credit for the success of Sachein, during the release and potentially during the re-release. But again, given the popularity of the comedy tracks on television and YouTube, calling it the sole reason for the demand for re-release seems vague. Moreover, Thanu subtly hints that he had to remove a few bits from the film to make the content more amenable to modern audiences and “not hurt any sentiments.” It is safe to assume that he is referring to the many double entendres in the film.
In many ways, Sachein defies everything we assume is requisite for a film to stand the test of time, or to be revisited by the masses on the big screen. First and foremost, it is neither a commercial actioner like, say, Thirupaachi, nor does it have the re-watch value of a Ghilli. Sure, it has five dance numbers and Vijay delivers his fair share of fan service — references to Youth, Kushi (that iduppu joke!) and Thirupaachi (if you watched Good Bad Ugly and thought such references were a new thing, even Genelia gets a callback to Boys, and Santhanam to his debut Manmathan). Vijay gets two passable fight sequences and even breaks the fourth wall many times. But it is safe to say that Sachein isn’t loved for any of that.
“I still wonder how Vijay got the idea to do such a film after becoming a full-on action hero, after films like Thirumalai, Ghilli, Madhurey and Thirupaachi; his very next film after Sachein was an actioner like Sivakasi. So he need not have done it. In fact, after this film, he returned to that genre only in 2011 with Kaavalan,” ponders Vicky.
Thanu sheds more light: “I wanted Vijay thambi to do a film like Kushi because he had just done a series of action films. When John narrated the script to me, I really liked it. Then I told thambi that it would be great to do a light-hearted subject like Kushi. He was immediately on board with the idea. I sent John to narrate the story to him, and he immediately called and said that he found the pitch as entertaining as Kushi.”
Even as a romance drama, Sachin, which came with the tagline ‘miracle of love,’ isn’t a Kushi. The romance track, between Sachein and Genelia D’Souza’s Shalini, isn’t as moving as a Priyamaanavale or a Shahjahan. It is one of those breezy, laid-back flicks, with nothing drastically dramatic transpiring in its 150-minute runtime. “It was all pre-planned; we didn’t want it to be as emotional as a Kushi,” says Thanu.
A still from ‘Sachein’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
To his credit, John must have really nailed the narration. Sachein was loosely inspired by the director’s Telugu film Neetho, which unfortunately turned out to be unsuccessful. Thankfully, Sachein seemed wonderfully slicker and sharper than Neetho. The film, fascinatingly, was centred on the central character and not on the plot. In fact, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to say that the film is one of those rare attempts at character study in Vijay’s filmography. The film tells the story of a chirpy, exuberant college boy with a love for all and a demeanour as tender as the frames he’s painted on. We don’t know much about his past for a major chunk of the film, except that he occasionally drops hints that he misses his mother.
From the lens of 2025, Sachein may not be a male role model of romance; much of the film follows how he uses a kind of reverse psychology to woo Shalini, but this was a time when heroes were busy chasing after heroines with their thorny hearts. Sachein believed in falling in love at first sight and made an admirable, if a tad too romanticised, case for it. John’s story, at the heart of it, asks a question men and women have spent eternity wondering: Is love something that just happens, or is it something that blooms only when you understand someone else? “Am I a motorbike? To check the petrol consumption and resale value before buying it? It’s love; it just happens. I won’t lie that you are my dream girl. You have your share of flaws, but I still like you,” says Sachein at a pivotal moment, calling his tendency to accept people with their flaws a ‘manufacturing defect.’ To the lovelorn boys of the 2000s, Sachein taught how to gracefully accept rejection and to search for what he calls the purest of joys. “Any happiness that doesn’t harm someone else isn’t wrong. But even if a small smile hurts someone else, it’s wrong.”
Fascinatingly, Sachein is also quite an atypical college romance. Instead of the usual campus rom-coms, set inside corridors and classrooms, it told of a romance that any ordinary boy sitting in a college canteen would have wished for himself, of a fantasy imagined in a world outside those classroom windows. “That’s how you stand out, isn’t it? Showing the classrooms would have been ordinary,” says Thanu.
There are other highlights, like that fog that permeates almost every frame of the film, sometimes even indoors. Thanu credits the late cinematographer Jeeva with that creative call. “He wanted to capture the climate of the hills, and even John, while narrating the story, said that he wished to transport the audience to a chilly hill station.”
A still from ‘Sachein’
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
A charming Vijay and his trend-setting costume design:
In one of the sweet moments of Sachein, a young girl calls Vijay’s smile cute, to which he blushes sheepishly. Again, this was a time when audiences didn’t term such indulgences as cringeworthy. Every minute of the 150-minute Sachein might feature Vijay with that sparkling grin, images of which continue to be on the display pictures of many Vijay fans. This is easily one of the most charming Vijays we have seen on screen. “Even everyone at Vijay thambi’s house would agree with that. They all love this film,” says Thanu. Like Shalini would tell Bipasha’s Manju in a later moment, “his smile is definitely a problem.”
The film is equally remembered for its trend-setting costume design. Sachein, along with Suriya’s Ghajini, turned long-sleeved sweaters into a fashion statement among Tamil youth. “I started wearing those full-zipped sweaters only after Sachein. Similarly, many started wearing a shirt inside a sweater; of course, wearing a shirt within a shirt has been the trend since Rajinikanth, but even now, when we go to a hill station, we instinctively choose Sachein as our dress code.” From the top of his mind, Vicky recalls Vijay’s white sweater from ‘Va Va Va En Thalaiva,’ reminiscing about how he bought pink cargo pants after the star’s costume in the ‘Vaadi Vaadi’ song.
A still from ‘Sachein’
| Photo Credit:
Kalaipuli S Thanu/YouTube
A memorable partnership with Sunfeast, and a clash with the titans
While recollecting the days ahead of the release, Vicky mentions how it was the popularity of ‘Va Va Va En Thalaiva’ and ‘Vaadi Vaadi’ on the radio that generated much of the film’s hype. “Those days, we knew about a film’s release only through posters, television commercials or songs. A major attraction was the labels we got along with Sunfeast biscuits.” Thanu, known for his marketing strategies, had partnered with ITC Limited, which owns Sunfeast. “We even had a competition in our neighbourhood on who collected all the freebie stickers we got with the biscuit,” adds Vicky.
This isn’t just random trivia. Sachein featured multiple, not-so-subtle product placements, and to a generation of filmgoers, the snack almost became synonymous with Vijay’s image on the labels. “For Kandukondain Kandukondain, we had partnered with Fair and Lovely. So the success of that campaign led to such a partnership for Sachein,” says Thanu, adding that the remastered version may not feature these tie-ins.
Remember we mentioned how Sachein clashed with Rajinikanth’s Chandramukhi and Kamal Haasan’s Mumbai Xpress? Even today, Sachein is widely remembered as that Vijay film that ran for over 200 days despite taking on a goliath in Chandramukhi. For Thanu, it was out of the question to not release on that date; he stresses how they had announced the release date even before the film went on floors. “We need to make good on our promise and release the film on the date we had announced. That’s where a banner’s pride rests. So our focus was on getting it ready to release in April.” He reminds coolly that he has always been a daring producer. “Remember when Thalapathy and Guna were released on the same day? My film, Vanna Vanna Pookkal, directed by Balu Mahendra, too released on the same day and ran for 129 days,” he recalls.
Instead of fighting shy of competition, Thanu doubled down on publicity. “Amongst the three films that were released that day, only ours had over 200 banners across the city. If you had visited Sangam Cinemas, you would have seen a huge banner of Sachein. I tried different poster sizes so our film would stand out amongst the other two. Vijay thambi used to observe all that, and sometimes he would text me saying, ‘Sir, this is a bit too much.’(laughs)”
Vijay might have bid goodbye to cinema — the actor-turned-politician announced that his upcoming film would be his last — but the reception he is expected to get this Friday says that somewhere, in the hearts of fans, lovelorn youth and men who like to live in the comfort of their childhood memories, Sachein lives on. Wearing a dark red sweater and beige pants, he is still riding his cycle on the chilly slopes of Ooty, still whispering ‘Main kya karoon?’ to Shalini.
Published – April 17, 2025 08:31 pm IST
