Piriyadha Varam Vendum
Piriyadha Varam Vendum is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by Kamal. A remake of his own Malayalam film Niram, the film stars Prashanth, Shalini, Jomol, and Krishna with an ensemble cast including Manivannan, Janagaraj, Ambika, Manorama, and Kovai Sarala. Shalini, Jomol, and Sarala reprise their roles from the original film. The music was composed by S. A. Rajkumar with cinematography by P. Sukumar and editing by K. Rajagopal. The film released on 16 February 2001 and became a commercial success. This was Shalini's final film role before her retirement from the film industry.
Plot
Sanjay and Nithi have been best friends right from their childhood days. They have grown up together, attend the same college, and spend every minute of their waking hours together. Both have admirers in college with Sneha wooing Sanjay and Praveen Raj revealing his love for Nithi. Nithi's week-long trip to Bangalore, along with some prodding by his housemaid, makes Sanjay realize how much he misses Nithi and that he is in love with her. But respect for their friendship and her makes him hide his feelings. Meanwhile, Nithi accepts Praveen's proposal, and things quickly move towards their marriage. But when things come together, Nithi realizes that she cannot stay without Sanjay, and at that time he reveals that he too loves her.Production
Following Niram, the film's director Kamal chose to make his debut in Tamil films by remaking it. Initially titled Kadhal Neethana, he signed up Prashanth to play the lead role, while Shalini retained the leading female role after agreeing to work on it on stage at the success function of Niram. The makers approached Devayani to play a second lead role, but she turned down the offer. Sneha and newcomer Krishna were then signed up to play the second leads for the film, while it was reported that Kushboo would also play a pivotal role. Sneha was later replaced by Jomol, who had played the role in the original version of the film, and Kushboo did not feature.Delays in production due to the producer's financial problems meant that the dates of the lead pair went awry, and they were unable to come together to finish the shoot quickly. Prashanth chose to prioritize making his other film Appu as he had to sport a beard, and thus, Shalini was left waiting, although she had stated that she would not act again after her impending marriage. Shalini subsequently married actor Ajith Kumar, and the actor was unwilling to let his wife rejoin the team, stating that they had misused her dates. The team considered releasing the film in October 2000 using Shalini's scenes from the Malayalam version, while using graphics to edit out Kunchacko Boban and place in Prashanth, before Shalini readily agreed to feature. It subsequently became her final film before retirement.
Retitled as Piriyadha Varam Vendum, the film continued shooting in late 2000 with sequences including a song being filmed in Kochi with Mink Brar making a guest appearance. Owing to the earlier date problems, the team had shot the song "Vasco Da Gama" with guest dancer Raghava Lawrence, but Prashanth was not pleased about the sudden change of cast in the song and requested to re-shoot it at his own cost. The song was financed by Murali Manohar, while Prashanth's father Thiagarajan supervised the production of the song, which was guest directed by R. Madhesh and shot by Priyan, who had all volunteered.