Raja Rani (2013 film)

Raja Rani (transl. The King and Queen) is a 2013 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy drama film written and directed by Atlee, and produced by A. R. Murugadoss. The film stars Arya, Jai, Nayanthara and Nazriya Nazim, while Santhanam, Sathyan and Sathyaraj appear in supporting roles. It follows a couple who are reluctantly married, and slowly fall in love after learning of each other's past.

Raja Rani is the feature directorial debut of Atlee. Filming began in October 2012 and ended in August 2013. The film was released on 27 September 2013 and became a commercial success. It won several accolades, including four Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and two Filmfare Awards South from four nominations. It was remade in Bengali as Shudhu Tomari Jonyo (2015), and in Sinhala as Sihinayaki Adare (2024)

John and Regina agree to marry each other for their parents' sake. After their marriage, they live together as strangers in their apartment, where the neighbours are upset with John, who comes home drunk every night from office, which John does deliberately to annoy Regina, who later applies for a transfer to Australia. One night, Regina falls due to fits, and John takes Regina to the hospital, where John is unable to respond to the doctor's queries about Regina's age and her medical history due to his intoxicated state. When John goes to apologise to the doctor later on, the doctor tells John that it is important to know about his wife's health, even if he dislikes his wife. John asks Regina about her health issues, and Regina reveals that she had fits twice in the past.

During college, Regina falls in love with Surya Muthuraman, who works in the call centre of a mobile company. Surya gets selected for airline cabin crew training in the United States (US), where Surya and Regina decide to inform their parents about their love, but Surya's father objects to their relationship, and hence they decide to get married without informing their parents. On the designated day of Surya's and Regina's marriage, Surya fails to show up at the registrar's office for the wedding. Regina's father, James, feels sorry for Regina and he takes her to Surya's house, where they learn that Surya has already left for the US. A few days later, Regina gets a call from Surya's friend Aiyappan and he tells her that Surya has committed suicide. Due to the shock of Surya's death, Regina suffers fits for the first time. 3 years later, Regina can't stand the fact that her father is in a mess due to her reluctance to marry and accepts the marriage proposal from John's family for Regina's father's sake, which leads Regina to marry John.

Upon hearing this story, John begins to like Regina and has immense respect for her, but Regina continues to disrespect John, until his best friend Sarathy comes to their flat and reveals what happened in John's past.

John, who roams around town with Sarathy, and goes to Keerthana's house to pick up a cheque on behalf of Sarathy’s uncle. John falls in love with Keerthana at first sight and roams around trying to find out more about her. Eventually, John finds out about Keerthana, but Keerthana rejects John's love after John assaults Keerthana's co-worker. However, it’s revealed that Keerthana loves John, but she never expressed it. John ties the knot with Keerthana a few days later. The day after their marriage, Keerthana dies in a car accident. This leaves John heartbroken, and he vows not to marry another girl again. 4 years later, Sarathy consoles and convinces John to marry again, which leads John to marry Regina.

Upon hearing this story, Regina also begins to like John and she feels sorry for his loss, as John witnessed Keerthana's death where as she had only heard about Surya's death. Even though John and Regina like each other, they never reveal it to each other. On John's birthday, Regina gives a gift to John and insists that he open it alone, but John doesn’t open the gift and throws it under the bed as he thinks that Regina is only pretending to be affectionate in front of James, who later witnesses this and thinks that John was acting affectionate with Regina in front of everyone. James tells Regina about John privately, but Regina remains confused as she genuinely has feelings for John, but thought John had feelings for her. Regina's request for the transfer to Australia is approved, and she tells him whilst he has a beer on the terrace. However, John tells her to go ahead with her plans, as he thought the beer was a bribe to agree to a divorce. Regina wanted to express her love for him on the terrace, and leaves heartbroken to the airport the next morning with John.

After dropping Regina off at the airport, John gets a call from Regina, who tells him that she saw Surya at the immigration counter. John rushes to the airport to meet Surya and tries to get Surya to accept Regina. Surya tells John that he was forced to leave by his father and that he faked his death so that Regina would get over him. Surya lies to John, saying that he is now happily married, and Surya tells John that a man cannot always marry the girl he loves, but a man can always love the girl he marries. As John leaves, Surya glances at the ring in his hand, which was gifted to him by Regina, showing that he will always live with the memories of their relationship and he will never marry another girl.

An angry Regina slaps him and admits that she never wanted to get back with Surya, since she loves John. Regina throws the gift that John never opened. When John opens the gift, he finds the words "Let's begin our life," and John confesses his love to Regina, and Regina says, "Brother, I already have a boyfriend," alluding to what Keerthana called John during their relationship, meaning that Regina knows about John's past. John and Regina realise their love for each other, and they reunite and begin their lives together.

Raja Rani marked the feature directorial debut of Atlee, an assistant director to Shankar.^[2] The film was produced by A. R. Murugadoss, has art direction by T. Muthuraj and cinematography by debutant George C. Williams, a former associate of Nirav Shah.^[3]

Arya and Nayanthara were signed on as the lead pair, reuniting after Boss Engira Bhaskaran (2010).^[4] Atlee initially wanted Sivakarthikeyan to portray the role that eventually went Jai.^[5][6] Nani said he was considered for Arya's role, but he did not have the dates.^[7] Nazriya Nazim announced her inclusion in May 2013.^[8] Sathyaraj said he accepted to act in the film because he liked the modernity of the script.^[9]

The first filming schedule began in October 2012 at a bungalow in Greams Road, Chennai.^[3] Kamal Haasan switched on the camera and a song picturising Jai and Nayanthara was canned on the occasion. Arya was not present for the schedule as he was filming for Settai (2013) in Mumbai.^[10] Filming also took place in East Coast Road, in a Kerala-themed house.^[11] The scene depicting the marriage of Arya and Nayanthara's characters was shot at St Mary's Church in Pune.^[12] This was the only part shot outside Chennai.^[9] Filming wrapped in August 2013.^[13]

Critics have noted that the film draws similarities and inspirations from Tamil films like Nenjathai Killathe (1980),^[14] Mouna Ragam (1986)^[15][16] and the Kannada film Milana (2007).^[17][18]

The soundtrack album for Raja Rani was composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar.^[19][20] A single "Hey Baby" was released on 19 August 2013.^[21] The complete album was released on 23 August 2013 at Sathyam Cinemas, Chennai.^[22]

A first official film teaser showing the lead pair quarrelling through their projections in a mirror, was released on 11 May 2013 by Fox Star Studios.^[23] The teaser went instantly viral garnering a large number of views.^[24] The official trailer was released along with the music album on 23 August 2013.^[25] The film was released on 27 September 2013.^[2] It was distributed by Fox Star Studios, the third of a three film deal with Murugadoss.^[26]

S Saraswathi of Rediff.com rated the film 3/5 and stated, "Debutant director Atlee's Raja Rani is a simple refreshing tale about how to cope with life, when we lose someone we love. The film has a lot going for it and definitely succeeds in entertaining the audience."^[27] M Suganth from The Times of India gave 3 stars out of 5 and wrote "The film does leave you exhausted by the time it ends. Still, it remains always watchable, mainly because the director, like his mentor Shankar, embraces his old school storytelling methods with conviction".^[28] Sudhish Kamath of The Hindu cited "Atlee's promising debut Raja Rani merits a watch in spite of its fundamentally flawed structure".^[15]

In contrast, Gautaman Bhaskaran of Hindustan Times rated it 2 stars and said, "At a little over 150 minutes, Raja Rani is a bumpy ride with potholes of songs, with characters who are nothing better than caricatures and with a romance that hardly engages".^[29] Sify too gave an unfavourable review stating, "Debutant director Atlee's highly hyped Raja Rani starts off promisingly and keeps us engaged in the first half. But post-interval it loses steam, and turns out to be a cheesy, emotionally manipulative drama with a predictable long drawn out climax that goes on and on for 35 minutes".^[18]

Raja Rani earned approximately ₹4 crore (equivalent to ₹6.8 crore or US$800,000 in 2023) worldwide on its first day, with ₹3.50 crore (equivalent to ₹5.9 crore or US$700,000 in 2023) from Tamil Nadu alone.^[30] It was number one at the Chennai box office during its opening weekend.^[31] The film eventually emerged a huge success after earning over ₹50 crore (equivalent to ₹85 crore or US$10 million in 2023) worldwide as of mid-November.^[32]

Raja Rani was remade in Bengali as Shudhu Tomari Jonyo (2015),^[39] and in Sinhala as Sihinayaki Adare (2024).^[40]

The scene where John (Arya) marries Regina (Nayanthara) was spoofed in the director's own Bigil (2019). In that film, Angel (Nayanthara) refuses to marry John (Abi Saravanan) and instead falls for Michael (Vijay).^[41]

• Raja Rani at IMDb 
• Raja Rani at Rotten Tomatoes