Suriya’s Soorarai Pottru emerged as the biggest winner at the 68th National Film Awards announced in New Delhi today. The movie bagged five awards including the best feature film for the year 2020. Suriya shared the Best Actor award with Ajay Devgn for Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior whereas Soorarai Pottru’s female lead Aparrna Balamural won the Best Actress award. The movie also won an accolade for best background music.
Based on the book Simply Fly: A Deccan Odyssey, this Sudha Kongara directorial portrays the life of Simplify Deccan Airlines founder and entrepreneur GR Gopinath on screen in a fictional retelling.
A retired Army captain, Gopinath founded low-cost airline Air Deccan which later came to be known as Simplify Deccan. Suriya plays Nedumaaran Rajangam or ‘Maara,’ a fictional character based on Gopinath, whose sole aim in life is to make air travel inexpensive and accessible to the common people.
Determined in his mission, Suriya’s character battles all odds to establish his own airlines in the film. The film also stars Paresh Rawal, Urvashi, Mohan Babu, Vivek Prasanna, Karunas, and Dhan Dhanoa in key roles.
The screenplay of Soorarai Pottru was written by Shalini Suhadevi whereas Vijay Kumar wrote the dialogues.
Where to watch Soorarai Pottru?
Soorarai Pottru was directly released on the OTT platform Amazon Prime video in November 2020. The film is available to be streamed on the platform with a subscription.
Sorarai Pouttru is being remade in Hindi with Akshay Kumar reprising the character played by Suriya in the original film. Actress Radhika Madan will star as the female lead in the project. The Hindi adaptation will be directed by Sudha Kongara, who also helmed the original project.
Suriya will be seen making a guest appearance in the Hindi version.
The year 2020 changed the course of cinema owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. With theatres under lockdown, several filmmakers shifted gears and released their original theatrical releases on OTT. Despite the change in medium, there were some critically acclaimed releases that year. The year also put regional content in the spotlight, with Suriya’s Soorai Pottru and P Virumaandi’s directorial debut Ka Pae Ranasingham winning hearts across the country.
