Suriya on a promotional poster of Soorarai Pottru. (Image courtesy: actorsuriya )
Highlights
- Suriya plays the lead role in the film, also starring Aparna Balamurli
- Soorarai Pottru was the first Tamil film to release online amid pandemic
- This film premiered on Prime Video on November 12 last year
Tamil film Soorarai Pottru, starring Suriya and directed by Sudha Kongara, has joined the Oscar race for this year in the Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and many other categories. Soorarai Pottru is based on the life of Captain Gopinath, who founded budget airline Air Deccan. Suriya plays the lead role in the film, also starring Aparna Balamurli and Paresh Rawal. On Republic Day, the film's co-producer Rajsekar Pandian took to Twitter to announce the big news about Soorarai Pottru entering the Oscar race. He wrote: "Happy Republic Day! #SooraraiPottru joins OSCARS under General Category in Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Original Score and other categories! The film has been made available in the Academy Screening Room today."
Take a look at his tweet here:
Last year, after nationwide lockdown was imposed in India due to the coronavirus pandemic, Suriya's Soorarai Pottru became the first Tamil film to release on an OTT platform. And for those who don't know, the Academy Awards organisers last year allowed the movies that skipped the big screen and premiered on any OTT platform to contend for Oscars 2021. Along with this, the organisers have made several other changes because to the pandemic, like extending the cut-off date for Oscar-eligible films from December 31, 2020 to February 28, 2021. The 93rd Academy Awards, which was about to take place on February 28, has been postponed to April 25.
In Soorarai Pottru, Nedumaran Rajangam (played by Suriya) fulfills his dream of starting a budget airline for people coming from all classes. This film premiered on Prime Video on November 12 last year.
Earlier, talking about Soorarai Pottru, Suriya told NDTV: "Captain Gopinath made the common man fly for one rupee. When every common man wanted to fly and it was his dream, to fly the common man was Gopinath's dream. We've put the story in an interesting manner."
Soorarai Pottru, which received positive reviews from critics after its release, is also among the 10 Indian films to be screened at the Golden Globes Awards 2021 under the Best Foreign Film category.
Soorarai Pottru, written by Kongara and Shalini Ushadevi, also features Urvashi, Mohan Babu and Karunas.