Chennai 600028

Chennai 600028 is a 2007 Tamil sports comedy film written and directed by Venkat Prabhu, in his directorial debut. The film stars Jai, Shiva, Premji Amaran, Aravind Akash, Nithin Sathya and newcomers Ajay Raj, Ranjith, Vijay Vasanth, Prasanna, Inigo, Karthik and Arun in the lead along with Vijayalakshmi, daughter of National Film Award-winning director Agathiyan, and Kristine Zedek, making their acting debut as well. The film was produced by S. P. B. Charan along with J. K. Saravana, a Singapore-based award-winning producer. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by Premji Amaran and Yuvan Shankar Raja, respectively.

The film is based on street cricket played in India, focussing on various themes as friendship, love and rivalry in a suburban area. Following its theatrical release on 27 April 2007, it received critical acclaim and emerged a surprise sleeper hit, going on to achieve cult status in the subsequent years and is often cited as one of the first independent Tamil films. The film's title is derived from the pincode for Mandaveli, a suburb of Chennai, where the story takes place. The success of the film gained the relatively unknown actors — Jai, Shiva, Premji Amaren and Nithin Sathya, newcomers Vijayalakshmi, Vijay Vasanth and the director Venkat Prabhu popularity. Upon release, the film was dubbed into Telugu and released as Kodithe Kottalira. This film was also remade in Sri Lanka as Super Six and it is the highest budgeted film made so far in the Cinema of Sri Lanka. The film was also remade in Kannada as Bangalore 560023.

Chennai

Chennai /ˈtʃɛnnaɪ/ (formerly known as Madras ⁱ/məˈdrɑːs/ or /-ˈdræs/) is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal, it is a major cultural, economic and educational centre. Chennai is known as the "Detroit of India" for its automobile industry. It is the fourth-largest city and fourth-most populous metropolitan area in the country and 36th-largest urban area in the world.

The city is host to the third-largest expatriate population in India after Mumbai and Delhi, with 35,000 in 2009 and steadily climbing to 82,790, in 2011. Tourism guide publisher Lonely Planet named Chennai as one of the top ten cities in the world to visit in 2015. Chennai is ranked as a beta-level city in the Global Cities Index and was ranked the best city in India by India Today in the 2014 annual Indian city survey. Chennai has also been named in the "hottest" cities to live in for 2015 by BBC among global cities with a mixture of both modern and traditional values. National Geographic ranked Chennai as world's 2nd best food city and Chennai was the only Indian city to feature in the list. Chennai was also named as the 9th-best cosmopolitan city in the world by Lonely Planet.

Venkat Prabhu

Venkat Kumar Gangai Amaren (born 7 November 1975), better known by his stage name Venkat Prabhu, is an Indian filmmaker, who has worked as an actor, director and playback singer in the Tamil film industry. After completing his education, he began pursuing an acting career, with his first three ventures, featuring him in a starring role, failing to release, following which he began appearing in character roles. He hogged spotlight for the first time when he turned director with the summer hit Chennai 600028 (2007). He achieved further commercial successes with his subsequent directorials Saroja (2008),Biriyani (2013) and Mankatha (2011). His father Gangai Amaren is a renowned music director.

Career

Early years

Yuvan Shankar Raja

Yuvan Shankar Raja (born 31 August 1979) is an Indian singer-songwriter, film score and soundtrack composer, and occasional lyricist from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He has predominantly scored music for Tamil films. The youngest son of noted film composer Ilaiyaraaja, he began his musical career in 1996, at age 16, when he composed the film score for Aravindhan. After initial struggle, he made his big break with the Thulluvadho Ilamai soundtrack (2001), and evolved as one of Tamil cinema's most sought-after composers by the mid-2000s.

Within a span of 15 years, Yuvan Shankar Raja has worked on over 100 films. Considered a versatile composer, he often strives for different and innovative music and has explored and used elements of various genres in his compositions that range from folk and R&B to techno and heavy metal. He is particularly known for his use of western music elements and often credited with having introduced Hip hop to the Tamil film and music industry and having started the "era of remixes" in Tamil Nadu. Being popular among the younger generation, he is frequently referred to as the "Rockstar", and the "Youth Icon of Tamil Film Music". In addition, Yuvan Shankar Raja is recognized for his background score in films (re-recording) that have fetched him accolades among critics.