16 Vayathinile starring Superstar Rajinikanth, Ulaganaygan Kamal Hassan and Gorgeous Sridevi Directed by Bharathi Raja won numerous awards and impressed audience on its way to become a Blockbuster. The classic film was remade in Telugu as Padaharella Vayasu by Darsakendrudu Raghavendra Rao, starring Sridevi, Mohan Babu and Chandra Mohan and became a Superhit in Telugu too. 42 years later, Bama Rajkannu, daughter of Tamil version producer SA Rajkannu is bringing to the Telugu film viewers a digitally restored and dubbed version of 16 Vayathinile, titled as Neekosam Neereekshana. The Production house, Supreme Almighty Creations is planning to release it exclusively online and then it will be dubbed in 4 more languages.
Producer Bama Rajkannu said, ” I want to preset the classic my Dad produced 40 years back in Tamil to the Telugu audience. I have edited 30 minutes of the film matching the sensibilities of Telugu audience and double censored it. Neekosam Neereekshana has come out like a straight movie starring Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan and Sridevi and the climax differs from the Telugu remake, Padaharella Vayasu. New music director, KK has composed 5 new songs for the film and they are available on Aditya Music’s YouTube channel. However, we have retained the re-recording tracks (background score) of Ilaiyaraaja garu. Rajinikanth garu helped me financially since the expenses became triple that of a regular dubbing film. Due to COVID-19 pandemic, I had to cancel the preview. I have arranged to screen the film privately for Rajinikanth garu and Kamal Haasan garu. Lab technicians had a tough time cleaning, scanning, enhancing the colours and restoring frame by frame into Cinemascope. Three audiographers worked on the original by recreating and mixing sound effects to match 5.1 quality. The voice for both the hero and villain was given by the same dubbing artist, but you won’t be able to make out the difference. I had plans to release the film in 1,000 theatres, but we are considering a direct online release given the COVID-19 scenario.”
Music: Ilaiyaraaja
Producer: Bama Rajkannu
Director: Bharathi Raja
