Jeans is a 1998 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film co-written and directed by S. Shankar, and produced by Ashok Amritraj and Murali Manohar. The film stars Prashanth and Aishwarya Rai, while Lakshmi, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nassar, Senthil and Raju Sundaram play supporting roles. The background score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman, while Ashok Kumar and the duo B. Lenin and V. T. Vijayan handled the cinematography and editing, respectively.
Krishnaveni is admitted in the hospital where Visu works as a resident doctor and the surgery is performed. Visu soon realises that Krishnaveni is paralysed as she was operated on the wrong side of her brain due to a mix-up with another patient. He appeals aggressively to the doctors and has the error corrected by another surgery, then spearheads an angry fight for compensation. The hospital compensates US$2 million to avoid a court case. Due to these actions, Madhu soon falls in love with Visu.
Krishnaveni soon realises that Madhu and Visu are in love and extends the family's stay in the US. However, Nachiappan objects to the romance as he wants his sons to marry identical twin girls. In a flashback, it is shown that Nachiappan had an identical twin brother Pechiappan, who lives in Karaikudi and is a simpleton. They both married for love in their youth, but Pechiappan's wife Sundarambal tortured and abused Nachiappan's pregnant wife Meiyaththa so badly that the latter died after giving birth to Visu and Ramu. Nachiappan eventually left the house along with Visu and Ramu to prevent Pechiappan and Sundarambal from separating over Meiyaththa's death.
Krishnaveni decides to solve the problem by lying to Nachiappan that Madhu does have an identical twin named Vaishnavi, who was raised separately in an orthodox Brahmin household. The reason for their separation is claimed that "having twins would bring bad luck on their family". Nachiappan falls for the lie and leaves for India along with Visu, Ramu, Juno, Krishnaveni, Madhu and Madhesh in order to "meet" Vaishnavi and fix the marriages of Visu and Ramu with Madhu and Vaishnavi respectively. Krishnaveni has Madhu pose as Vaishnavi, who contrary to Madhu, is very demure and traditional in nature. Ramu immediately falls in love with Vaishnavi, unaware that she is Madhu. Meanwhile, Pechiappan, whose marriage with Sundarambal has worsened due to the latter's inability to have children, attempts suicide. Nachiappan rescues him and hatches a plan to unite both the families through Visu's and Ramu's marriage plan. Nachiappan impersonates Pechiappan and leaves for Karaikudi, where with his business sense and practical nature, he rescues Pechiappan's failing restaurant business and eventually reforms Sundarambal as well. Pechiappan takes Nachiappan's place and stays with Visu and Ramu.
Eventually, Madhu, realising that Ramu is madly in love with her alter-ego, decides to stop acting as Vaishnavi as she feels she is hurting Ramu's as well as Visu's feelings through her act. Visu too finds out in parallel that Vaishnavi does not exist. Enraged, Visu and his family immediately leave Madhu's house, but Ramu tells him that Madhu had lied due to her love for him and convinces him to reconcile with her. Ramu further manages to convince his father, unaware that he is his uncle Pechiappan, to get Visu and Madhu married. When Nachiappan realises the truth and finds out that Visu and Madhu are getting married, he immediately rushes to Chennai with Sundarambal and stops the wedding. At this point, it is revealed that both Nachiappan and Pechiappan had impersonated each other in order to reunite both the families. Sundarambal manages to convince Nachiappan to get Visu and Madhu married since Madhu, by posing as Vaishnavi, had done the same thing that Nachiappan and Pechiappan did. Visu and Madhu get married. Later, at their reception, Madhesh entertains the couple and guests with computer-generated special effects.
A difference of opinion exists regarding how the film got its name. According to Amritraj, the title Jeans was selected due to being a homophone of "genes", and "seem[ed] very appropriate to the movie",[10] while Shankar said, "Young people are associated with denim wear and so Jeans is an apt title".[8]
The film's launch was held at the AVM Studios in Vadapalani, Chennai in December 1996. The Jeans invitation was printed, wrapped in denim and hand-delivered by Shankar to his close colleagues and friends in Chennai, which included prominent actors in the Tamil filmdom.[11] The cast and crew of the film wore their favourite pair of blue jeans to the launch, as requested by the film's producers.[11]
The original actor considered for the dual roles of Viswanathan and Ramamoorthy was Abbas, who rejected the project citing that his dates were booked for the full year of 1997.[12] The second choice for the lead role, Ajith Kumar, also opted out due to call sheet problems.[11][13] The role eventually went to Prashanth, who sacrificed seven films in the process, and chose to work exclusively on the project during the period.[11] Aishwarya Rai, Miss World 1994, was the original choice for the roles of Madhumitha and Vaishnavi and collaborated with Shankar after she had been unable to work with him in his previous venture Indian.[11] Rai initially attempted to dub in her own voice,[8] but was later dubbed over by Savitha Radhakrishnan.[14] The supporting cast included Senthil and Raju Sundaram, with the latter making his debut as an actor. Prominent supporting actresses Lakshmi and Geetha were signed up for the film, whilst Radhika agreed to appear in a guest appearance. Another supporting role was taken by S. Ve. Sekhar after playback singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam opted out of the role.[11] Shankar wanted Goundamani to appear in a dual role, but due to the actor's unavailability, the genre of the film was changed from comedy to romance; the roles offered to Goundamani went to Nassar.[15][16]
The other substitution in the project involved the cinematographer. Despite reports that Shankar would again sign-on Jeeva, whom he had worked within Kadhalan, Gentleman and Indian, Santhosh Sivan was announced as the cinematographer for the film. Though between the time of the announcement and the finishing stages of the film, cinematographer Ashok Kumar was publicised as the official cinematographer for the film. In mid-1997, the Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI) went on strike and in the midst of this, the film's art director Thota Tharani, a FEFSI supporter, refused to sacrifice his position in FEFSI and stopped working in Jeans.[11] Without much choice, Shankar signed a newcomer Bala to take over the set design and artwork for the film. The film's art direction is credited to both Thota Tharani and Bala. S. T. Venky was signed up to deal with the special effects in the film, with Jeans. The film also was assisted in graphics effects created by Pentafour Software.[11]
The actual present scenes of the story are filmed in United States and few Tamil Nadu cities especially in Chennai, Karaikudi and Madurai. the fantasy song scenes set in the United States, the team toured various American cities with a tour party of 35 technicians, including eight from Hollywood.[17] The initial scenes of the Nachiyappan family's catering company were filmed in Las Vegas, whilst other scenes were shot in California at the Universal Studios, where the shooting of foreign films is usually not permitted. However, with influence from the film's producer Ashok Amritraj they were able to obtain special permission to film a few scenes inside. Besides the King Kong set, Jeans was also shot in the "simulated earthquake experience" sets.[11]
The filming in Los Angeles received much publicity as well as the filming at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Other Jeans shooting locations in the United States of America included the Valley of Fire, Manhattan Beach, Malibu Lake and many scenic spots throughout California. The song Columbus was picturised as it at the shores of Venice Beach, California with some foreign male and female dancers. Shankar also filmed in New Jersey and New York City at the World Trade Center when co-producer Michael Salomon and his wife, Luciana Paluzzi visited the sets of Jeans.[11] The subplot about a botched brain surgery was noted by some critics to have been inspired by a true incident involving actress Sridevi's mother, though the makers did not confirm this.[18]
After a 45-day schedule in the United States, Shankar and the team returned to India to film a couple of scenes in the climax. The team then visited several other countries to picturise the song Poovukkul, with featured scenes with seven prominent buildings in the world, dubbing Rai as the "eighth wonder of the world".[8] Shankar admitted that due to no real list being present, thought had been put into which wonders were selected.[19] The team made a thirty-day trip around the world stopping to can scenes at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Empire State Building, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Egyptian pyramids, the Colosseum and the Eiffel Tower.[20] Prashanth's costumes for this song were designed by Anu Parthasarathy.[21]
During the shooting in Paris, Diana, Princess of Wales had died and shooting was delayed as a result of her death.[11] The team initially wanted to capture a top angle shot of the Statue of Liberty which got cancelled due to snowfalls in afternoon.[22] For the song "Anbe Anbe", Kasi designed the costumes of Rai based on the paintings drawn by Raja Ravi Varma as suggested by Shankar.[23] Three weeks prior to the release of the film, on 1 April 1998 a screening was held labelled the Making of Jeans with prominent personalities invited; however, the short film showed the real manufacture of jeans courtesy of a company named Diana Garments. The prank was claimed by a Tamil journal who utilised an April Fools joke.[19]
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