Mankatha

Mankatha
Theatrical release poster
Directed byVenkat Prabhu
Written byVenkat Prabhu
Produced byDhayanidhi Alagiri
Vivek Rathnavel
StarringAjith Kumar
CinematographySakthi Saravanan
Edited byPraveen K. L.
N. B. Srikanth
Music byYuvan Shankar Raja
Production
company
Distributed bySun Pictures
Radaan Mediaworks[1]
Ayngaran International (United Kingdom)
Lotus Five Star (Malaysia)
Release date
  • 31 August 2011 (2011-08-31) (India)[2]
Running time
160 minutes[3]
CountryIndia
LanguageTamil
Budget₹24 crore[4]
Box officeest. ₹68–100 crore[5][6]

Mankatha (/məŋɡɑːθɑː/; transl. Gambling) is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film[3] directed by Venkat Prabhu and produced by Dayanidhi Azhagiri's Cloud Nine Movies. The film stars an ensemble cast of Ajith Kumar, Lakshmi Rai, Anjali, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Andrea Jeremiah, Ashwin Kakumanu, Vaibhav Reddy, Premji Amaren, Mahat Raghavendra, Jayaprakash, Aravind Akash and Subbu Panchu. It is the fiftieth film of Ajith as a lead actor and the third and penultimate film of the production studio. The film follows Vinayak, a corrupted ACP in Mumbai, who joins a gang of four who plans on a heist of cricket betting money.

The film was officially announced in August 2010 under the initial official title Mangaatha, however, it underwent a change to Mankatha due to numerology reasons. Principal photography commenced in October 2010. It was shot for the most part in Chennai, the Dharavi slum in Mumbai and Bangkok and wrapped by June 2011. Following speculations regarding the film's release, Sun Pictures acquired the theatrical rights and distributed the film via Radhika's Radaan Mediaworks. The film has music composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematography handled by Sakthi Saravanan and editing by Praveen K. L.-N. B. Srikanth.

Mankatha released worldwide on 31 August 2011 in theatres to critical acclaim from critics and became the second biggest opening Tamil film after Enthiran at the time of release.[7][8]

  1. ^ "Mankatha gets the right theatres!". Behindwoods. 27 August 2011. Archived from the original on 23 July 2012. Retrieved 19 February 2024.
  2. ^ "Mankatha's release date confirmed". Behindwoods. 22 August 2011. Archived from the original on 12 November 2013. Retrieved 22 August 2011.
  3. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Bbfc.co.uk was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Kohli-Khandekar, Vanita (31 August 2011). "B-town taps festive joie de vivre". Business Standard. Archived from the original on 1 January 2015.
  5. ^ T.N.Ashok (16 February 2013). "Tamil films alive and kicking". Madras Musings. Archived from the original on 4 October 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2021. Venkat Prabhu's Mangatha, a masala movie that pandered to Ajit's fans, made by Cloud 9 Movies, made Rs.68 crore against an investment of Rs.30 crore.
  6. ^ "'Viswasam' - 'Bigil' to 'Mankatha' - 'Thuppakki': Five times when Vijay surpassed Ajith at the box office". The Times of India. 26 June 2020. Archived from the original on 14 July 2021. Retrieved 8 July 2021.
  7. ^ "Ajith's Mankatha gets the second biggest opening ever". The Indian Express. 16 September 2011. Archived from the original on 14 July 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2012.
  8. ^ "Ajith is emperor of opening". Sify. 10 September 2011. Archived from the original on 28 January 2012. Retrieved 24 July 2012.