Slumdog hands Vijay Sethupathi a blind beggar's reckoning

We walk past beggars every day and almost never wonder what their lives hold. That blind spot is where Puri Jagannadh has set his new film. Slumdog 33 Temple Road, the director’s first film made directly in Tamil, drops Vijay Sethupathi into that overlooked world, and the teaser unveiled in Chennai makes clear it is going there with intent, not pity.

Puri said the story grew out of two real incidents. “We pass many beggars in our daily lives, but we rarely know the lives, the feelings and the stories behind them,” he told the gathering. He built the film around exactly those people, an action picture, yes, but one carrying a heavy emotional charge, pitched at young audiences and families alike. The pan-India release will roll out in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.

The role is a departure. Vijay Sethupathi, the actor producers love precisely because he carries both craft and box-office weight, plays a part Puri promises will look unlike anything his fans have seen. The director kept returning to the actor’s lack of vanity: a man who turns up to set every single day with the eagerness of a debutant, with not a trace of ego in his performance. Vijay Sethupathi returned the warmth, calling Puri a piece of cinema history and saying the director’s clarity, knowing exactly what each frame needs, leaves an actor feeling he is in safe hands, an echo of the special film he had promised this would be when the project was first announced.

The villain is a coup of casting. Kannada star Duniya Vijay takes the antagonist’s role, and Vijay Sethupathi admitted he was surprised to see him sign on, then won over watching how disciplined and prepared the actor was on set. Tabu was the team’s first and only choice for her character; Puri said she praised the whole script, not just her part, and has stayed in their corner since. Zarina Wahab plays a mother whose scenes, the director confessed, brought tears to his eyes during the shoot.

For producer Charmme Kaur, the evening was a homecoming. She first came to Chennai in 2002 as an actress with Kaadhal Azhivathillai, and standing before the same press more than two decades later, now wearing the producer’s hat, she said the faces and the affection had not changed. Slumdog is the first film her Puri Connects banner has made directly in Tamil, produced with newcomer JB Narayan Rao’s JB Motion Pictures. She vowed a clean, full-scale release across all five languages.

Samyuktha plays the female lead opposite Vijay Sethupathi, with VTV Ganesh and Brahmaji rounding out the ensemble in roles the makers are keeping under wraps. Behind the music is National Award winner Harshavardhan Rameshwar, of Arjun Reddy and Animal, who has packed the film with six songs and a background score he says pushes for something new.

The teaser is out now.

Slumdog 33 Temple Road releases worldwide in five languages.