{"id":24634,"date":"2025-08-26T16:17:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T16:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/24634\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T16:17:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T16:17:09","slug":"puli-producer-says-the-2015-film-almost-broke-him-but-vijays-salary-doubled-anyone-else-wouldve-died-by-suicide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/24634\/","title":{"rendered":"Puli producer says the 2015 film almost broke him, but Vijay’s salary doubled: \u2018Anyone else would’ve died by suicide\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Updated on: Aug 26, 2025 08:04 pm IST <\/p>\n

Vijay’s former PRO turned producer, PT Selvakumar, made the painful revelation about Puli while being conferred with an honorary doctorate.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

PT Selvakumar was Vijay<\/a>\u2019s friend and his PRO for years before he produced the 2015 Tamil fantasy film Puli. While receiving an honorary doctorate for his contribution to cinema, he reflected on his career and remarked how the making of Puli almost broke him. Ironically, Vijay\u2019s salary was doubled after that, despite the dud. Videos of the same have surfaced online.<\/p>\n

\"Puli Puli was a 2015 Tamil fantasy film that also starred Sridevi and Kichcha Sudeep in lead roles. How Selvakumar came on board for Puli<\/strong><\/p>\n

Selvakumar revealed that one day, Vijay called him home and asked him to produce a film starring him with director Chimbu Deven. While sceptical, the producer reveals that he felt happy he was going to produce a film. Shobana was the first choice to play Demon Queen Yavanarani, but the producer reveals he stayed in Mumbai for three days to get Sridevi <\/a>on board, and Kichcha Sudeep later on for Demon Prince Senadhipathy Jalatharangan.<\/p>\n

Issues before and during Puli\u2019s release<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Selvakumar says he was \u2018betrayed\u2019 by people close to him. Days before Puli’s release on 1 October 2015, the IT department raided Selvakumar, Vijay, and producer Shibu Thameens\u2019 homes. \u201cI am not a child of a rich family. I released the film by spending everything I had, including my house\u2019s deed,\u201d said the producer, adding, \u201cUnfortunately, it was a terrible failure. My 27 years of hard work were ruined. If it had been anyone else, they would\u2019ve died by suicide.\u201d Puli also ran into trouble when the first two shows were cancelled due to financial issues.<\/p>\n

Vijay\u2019s salary doubled despite the failure<\/strong><\/p>\n

While Selvakumar was grappling with the high-budget film barely breaking even by making \u20b9100 crore worldwide, he remarks that Vijay\u2019s salary was doubled. \u201cEven though the film failed, it was the first pan Indian film. We had Hollywood stunt directors working here for the first time and had actors from other languages. Puli was the first Vijay film to make \u20b9100 crore. He was paid \u20b925 crore for Puli, but for his next film (Theri in 2016), he received \u20b945 crore,\u201d he said. Puli, which received mixed to negative reviews, also starred Shruti Haasan<\/a>, Hansika Motwani, and Nandita Swetha.<\/p>\n

Selvakumar has worked as a PRO for many hit films, including Pokkiri and Ghajini. He produced Pokkiri Raja (2016) and Banda Paramasivam (2003) in addition to Puli. He also played small roles in a few films. It is unknown which university gave him the doctorate. <\/p>\n

\"\" News<\/a> \/ Entertainment<\/a> \/ Tamil Cinema<\/a> \/ Puli producer says the 2015 film almost broke him, but Vijay’s salary doubled: \u2018Anyone else would’ve died by suicide\u2019 <\/p>\n

See Less <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated on: Aug 26, 2025 08:04 pm IST Vijay’s former PRO turned producer, PT Selvakumar, made the painful…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[268],"tags":[434,18,117,19,17,20624,20623,20625,13287],"class_list":{"0":"post-24634","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-pt-selvakumar","14":"tag-puli-movie","15":"tag-puli-producer-on-vijay","16":"tag-vijay"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}