Mahesh Babu, not Simbu, was supposed to star in Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa. Here's how the climax looked like then

Hindustan Times

2 days ago

Gautham Vasudev Menon's 2010 film Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, with Simbu and Trisha Krishnan in the lead roles, has to be one of his most iconic films. Recently, on Sudhir Srinivasan's podcast, the filmmaker revealed that he initially wrote the film for Mahesh Babu with a completely different ending. Gautham Vasudev Menon wrote the film for Mahesh Babu but he turned it down.
Gautham did not name Mahesh in the conversation but mentioned that he wrote Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa for a 'big superstar' whose family was producing the film in Telugu. Mahesh's sister Manjula Ghattamaneni had produced the Telugu version, Ye Maaya Chesave, with Naga Chaitanya and Samantha Ruth Prabhu.
He stated that when they signed him to write a film, he wrote what came to him 'naturally' in six days, which was a love story and not an action film. 'The ending was different in my first draft. Actually, he'll be working on a film set. The film's actor will be Chiranjeevi sir. And this girl is now getting married, finally, somewhere else. They've moved on, but he somehow wants to be there for the wedding. When he looks disturbed on set, the hero asks him what's wrong. When he tells him, he arranges a helicopter for him. I wrote a cinematic version,' said Gautham.
However, when he narrated the film to Mahesh, he turned it down because he didn't want to star in a love story. 'When I narrated it to the hero, he said everyone will expect us to do an action film. I expected the same, so I don't want to do this. I then took it to an equally big star in Telugu, but he had the same issue,' said the director. About Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa
Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa starred Simbu and Trisha. It was shot simultaneously as the Telugu version, Ye Maaya Chesave, with Chaitanya and Samantha. Manjula produced the Telugu version under Indira Productions, and the Tamil version was backed by Elred Kumar, Jayaraman, VTV Ganesh and P Madan under the banners Escape Artists Motion Pictures and RS Infotainment. The film explores the complicated relationship between a Hindu boy and an older Malayali girl. Both films received good reviews and are considered classics.