Billa-2007 Photos

After Dasaavathaaram, the movie whose stills I was most looking forward to was undoubtedly Billa. While Dasaavathaaram atleast had those publicity stills released when the movie was launched, Billa, as far as I can recall, did not even have those (all the news items about the eagerly-anticipated movie have the same photo of Ajith, taken when he attended the launch). The lack of photos as the movie’s release neared (the latest news has the movie’s release date as Nov 30 but I think that is quite suspect since even the audio hasn’t been released yet) was surprising. But we finally got a peek at the film through some official photos released last week.

Ajith, in a slightly different hairstyle, looks good and stylish and the photos do suggest that style will play a big part in the film’s makeup. My biggest complaint about the photos though is that they look too ‘generic’. In other words, there’s nothing in them to identify the film as a remake of Rajni's Billa. Unlike the early stills of Shah Rukh’s Don, there are no photos of Ajith dancing to the updated Naattukkulla Enakkoru… or My Name is Billa… or Vethalaiya Pottendi…; there's no photo of whatever’s gonna take the place of the all-important red diary; and there's no photo of Ajith and Nayanthara together in the film. So the photos don’t invoke nostalgia about the original and seem just like photos from any other Ajith-starrer.

The most pleasant surprise from the photos is Nayanthara (the most unpleasant surprise is probably Namitha, who seems to have gotten plumpier than before). When I wrote about possible candidates for the different roles when the movie was first announced, I eliminated Nayanthara from the heroine’s role since it was more action-packed than your average heroine’s role and I felt she was too plump for it. But she has really slimmed down admirably (surprising, since our heroines usually go the other way!) and looks fit and ready for an action role. How she'll look executing those karate chops and kicks is something we'll know only after the movie releases but as far as her physical appearance goes, she looks perfect for the role.

Looking at the other photos, Helen’s role seems to have gone to a newcomer Rose. So I guess Namitha is playing the villain’s moll(played by Isha Koppikar in Don) who exposes the fake Billa. One photo has Prabhu and Rahman but it looks like they’re playing cops (maybe the officer who hires the fake Billa and the Interpol officer?). So I’m still not sure who is playing the all-important role played by ‘Thengai’ Srinivasan in the original and by Arjun Rampal in Don.