Nachiappan is a widowed, wealthy, and successful Indian American restaurateur based in Los Angeles. He has two sons – Viswanathan "Visu" and Ramamoorthy "Ramu" – who are identical twins. They both are medical students and spend their evenings helping out their father alongside the restaurant's chief cook, Juno. One evening, when Visu & Ramu go to the airport to do their lunch supply, Visu sees an Indian Tamil family from Chennai – Madhumitha "Madhu", her younger brother Madhesh, and their grandmother Krishnaveni – having some problems with the immigration authorities. Visu pitches in to help and learns that they just flew in from India so that Krishnaveny can undergo a surgery to remove her brain tumour. After many confusions, the trio meets with Ramu also. The twins arrange for the three to reach their host.
Krishnaveni is admitted in the hospital where Visu works as a resident doctor and the surgery is performed. Visu soon realises that Krishnaveni is paralysed as she was operated on the wrong side of her brain due to a mix-up with another patient. He appeals aggressively to the doctors and has the error corrected by another surgery, then spearheads an angry fight for compensation. The hospital compensates US$2 million to avoid a court case. Due to these actions, Madhu soon falls in love with Visu.
Krishnaveni soon realises that Madhu and Visu are in love and extends the family's stay in the US. However, Nachiappan objects to the romance as he wants his sons to marry identical twin girls. In a flashback, it is shown that Nachiappan had an identical twin brother Pechiappan, who lives in Karaikudi and is a simpleton. They both married for love in their youth, but Pechiappan's wife Sundarambal tortured and abused Nachiappan's pregnant wife Meiyaththa so badly that the latter died after giving birth to Visu and Ramu. Nachiappan eventually left the house along with Visu and Ramu to prevent Pechiappan and Sundarambal from separating over Meiyaththa's death.
Krishnaveni decides to solve the problem by lying to Nachiappan that Madhu does have an identical twin named Vaishnavi, who was raised separately in an orthodox Brahmin household. The reason for their separation is claimed that "having twins would bring bad luck on their family". Nachiappan falls for the lie and leaves for India along with Visu, Ramu, Juno, Krishnaveni, Madhu and Madhesh in order to "meet" Vaishnavi and fix the marriages of Visu and Ramu with Madhu and Vaishnavi respectively. Krishnaveni has Madhu pose as Vaishnavi, who contrary to Madhu, is very demure and traditional in nature. Ramu immediately falls in love with Vaishnavi, unaware that she is Madhu. Meanwhile, Pechiappan, whose marriage with Sundarambal has worsened due to the latter's inability to have children, attempts suicide. Nachiappan rescues him and hatches a plan to unite both the families through Visu's and Ramu's marriage plan. Nachiappan impersonates Pechiappan and leaves for Karaikudi, where with his business sense and practical nature, he rescues Pechiappan's failing restaurant business and eventually reforms Sundarambal as well. Pechiappan takes Nachiappan's place and stays with Visu and Ramu.
Eventually, Madhu, realising that Ramu is madly in love with her alter-ego, decides to stop acting as Vaishnavi as she feels she is hurting Ramu's as well as Visu's feelings through her act. Visu too finds out in parallel that Vaishnavi does not exist. He then yells at Madhu and Lakshmi for deceiving him and subsequently immediately leave Madhu's house along with his family, but Ramu tells him that Madhu had lied due to her love for him and convinces him to reconcile with her. Ramu further manages to convince his father, unaware that he is his uncle Pechiappan, to get Visu and Madhu married. When Nachiappan realises the truth and finds out that Visu and Madhu are getting married, he immediately rushes to Chennai with Sundarambal and stops the wedding. At this point, it is revealed that both Nachiappan and Pechiappan had impersonated each other in order to reunite both the families. Sundarambal manages to convince Nachiappan to get Visu and Madhu married since Madhu, by posing as Vaishnavi, had done the same thing that Nachiappan and Pechiappan did. Visu and Madhu get married. Later, at their reception, Madhesh entertains the couple and guests with computer-generated special effects.
Made on a then-record budget of ₹20 crore (equivalent to ₹90 crore or US$11 million in 2023), the film was completed in a year and a half. Jeans, unlike Shankar's other films, was the first to be shot outside of India for major portions of the film. The producers of the film were Ashok Amritraj, S.K. Durairaj, Michael Soloman and Murali Manohar, whom all made their Tamil film debuts with Jeans.[8] Amritraj did not work on any Tamil film afterwards.[9] The film reunited Shankar with his award-winning technical crew from his previous film Indian, whilst the cast was finalised by him after he had completed the story.[10]
A difference of opinion exists regarding how the film got its name. According to Amritraj, the title Jeans was selected due to being a homophone of "genes", and "seem[ed] very appropriate to the movie",[10] while Shankar said, "Young people are associated with denim wear and so Jeans is an apt title".[8]
The film's launch was held at the AVM Studios in Vadapalani, Chennai in December 1996. The Jeans invitation was printed, wrapped in denim and hand-delivered by Shankar to his close colleagues and friends in Chennai, which included prominent actors in the Tamil filmdom.[11] The cast and crew of the film wore their favourite pair of blue jeans to the launch, as requested by the film's producers.[11]
Casting
The original actor considered for the dual roles of Viswanathan and Ramamoorthy was Abbas, who rejected the project citing that his dates were booked for the full year of 1997.[12] The second choice for the lead role, Ajith Kumar, also opted out due to call sheet problems.[11][13] The role eventually went to Prashanth, who sacrificed seven films in the process, and chose to work exclusively on the project during the period.[11] Aishwarya Rai, Miss World 1994, was the original choice for the roles of Madhumitha and Vaishnavi and collaborated with Shankar after she had been unable to work with him in his previous venture Indian.[11] Rai initially attempted to dub in her own voice,[8] but was later dubbed over by Savitha Radhakrishnan.[14] The supporting cast included Senthil and Raju Sundaram, with the latter making his debut as an actor. Prominent supporting actresses Lakshmi and Geetha were signed up for the film, whilst Radhika agreed to appear in a guest appearance. Another supporting role was taken by S. Ve. Sekhar after playback singer S. P. Balasubrahmanyam opted out of the role.[11] Shankar wanted Goundamani to appear in a dual role, but due to the actor's unavailability, the genre of the film was changed from comedy to romance; the roles offered to Goundamani went to Nassar.[15][16]
The other substitution in the project involved the cinematographer. Despite reports that Shankar would again sign-on Jeeva, whom he had worked within Kadhalan, Gentleman and Indian, Santhosh Sivan was announced as the cinematographer for the film. Though between the time of the announcement and the finishing stages of the film, cinematographer Ashok Kumar was publicised as the official cinematographer for the film. In mid-1997, the Film Employees Federation of South India (FEFSI) went on strike and in the midst of this, the film's art director Thota Tharani, a FEFSI supporter, refused to sacrifice his position in FEFSI and stopped working in Jeans.[11] Without much choice, Shankar signed a newcomer Bala to take over the set design and artwork for the film. The film's art direction is credited to both Thota Tharani and Bala. S. T. Venky was signed up to deal with the special effects in the film, with Jeans. The film also was assisted in graphics effects created by Pentafour Software.[11]
The actual present scenes of the story are filmed in United States and few Tamil Nadu cities especially in Chennai, Karaikudi and Madurai. the fantasy song scenes set in the United States, the team toured various American cities with a tour party of 35 technicians, including eight from Hollywood.[17] The initial scenes of the Nachiyappan family's catering company were filmed in Las Vegas, whilst other scenes were shot in California at the Universal Studios, where the shooting of foreign films is usually not permitted. However, with influence from the film's producer Ashok Amritraj they were able to obtain special permission to film a few scenes inside. Besides the King Kong set, Jeans was also shot in the "simulated earthquake experience" sets.[11]
The filming in Los Angeles received much publicity as well as the filming at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Other Jeans shooting locations in the United States of America included the Valley of Fire, Manhattan Beach, Malibu Lake and many scenic spots throughout California. The song Columbus was picturised as it at the shores of Venice Beach, California with some foreign male and female dancers. Shankar also filmed in New Jersey and New York City at the World Trade Center when co-producer Michael Salomon and his wife, Luciana Paluzzi visited the sets of Jeans.[11] The subplot about a botched brain surgery was noted by some critics to have been inspired by a true incident involving actress Sridevi's mother, though the makers did not confirm this.[18]
After a 45-day schedule in the United States, Shankar and the team returned to India to film a couple of scenes in the climax. The team then visited several other countries to picturise the song Poovukkul, with featured scenes with seven prominent buildings in the world, dubbing Rai as the "eighth wonder of the world".[8] Shankar admitted that due to no real list being present, thought had been put into which wonders were selected.[19] The team made a thirty-day trip around the world stopping to can scenes at the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Empire State Building, the Great Wall of China, the Taj Mahal, the Egyptian pyramids, the Colosseum and the Eiffel Tower.[20] Prashanth's costumes for this song were designed by Anu Parthasarathy.[21]
During the shooting in Paris, Diana, Princess of Wales had died and shooting was delayed as a result of her death.[11] The team initially wanted to capture a top angle shot of the Statue of Liberty which got cancelled due to snowfalls in afternoon.[22] For the song "Anbe Anbe", Kasi designed the costumes of Rai based on the paintings drawn by Raja Ravi Varma as suggested by Shankar.[23] That song was shot on an elaborate set with hundreds of actors and according to Ashok Kumar, "Ten generators were put to use, and we did special lighting, deliberately exaggerating the reds, yellows and blues with fog and smoke effects".[24] Three weeks prior to the release of the film, on 1 April 1998 a screening was held labelled the Making of Jeans with prominent personalities invited; however, the short film showed the real manufacture of jeans courtesy of a company named Diana Garments. The prank was claimed by a Tamil journal who utilised an April Fools joke.[19]
Soundtrack
The soundtrack of Jeans was composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics by Vairamuthu.[25] The song "Anbe Anbe" is set to the raga Kapi,[26] "Kannodu Kanbathellam" is set to Abheri,[27][28] "Poovukkul" is set to Sankarabharanam,[29] and "Varayo Thozhi" is set to Mohanam.[30] The audio launch took place in March 1998. To make the audio cassettes more "elegant and memorable", cassette store owners were told to wrap the cassettes in jeans clothing before giving them to customers.[31]
Jeans had a limited release on 14 April 1998,[19] and a wide release on 24 April.[31] With 240 prints, it holds the 1998 record for a Tamil film.[34][31][35] The team also released 35 prints of the film in Malaysia, a record at the time.[36] The film completed 100 days of screening in the theatres in the state of Tamil Nadu, and the Tamil version was commercially successful.[37][38][39] Shankar later revealed that the film's box office performance improved with time.[40] The film performed well in Malaysia, running for over 100 days in cinemas.[41] The film was dubbed in Telugu as Jeans and released on 9 May 1998,[42] which was also commercially successful.[43] The film was later dubbed that same year and released in Hindi under the same title,[44] which performed poorly at the Mumbai box office.[45]
Critical reception
Rajitha from Rediff.com praised the characters of Prashanth, Aishwarya Rai and Nassar as "ever dependable", whilst singling out praise for Radhika whom she describes that " with her startling cameo, sweeps the acting honours". The reviewer praised the technical crew describing Venky's FX as a "virtual reality", Ashok Kumar's cinematography as "throughout and outstanding", Raju Sundaram's choreography as "memorable" and A. R. Rahman's score as "entirely hummable". Shankar's directorial attributes were described to be to a "perfect flow of narrative and a penchant for demanding and getting perfection out of every element of his cast and crew" and that the film was an "easy fit".[18] V. Maheshwara Reddy of The Indian Express called the film a "hilarious comedy" and drew significant praise to the performance of Aishwarya Rai and the music of Rahman.[4]
D. S. Ramanujam of The Hindu said, "Many historic landmarks in the world are captured, and director Shanker employs all these factors gainfully in Amritraj Solomon Communications' Jeans, but gives a go-by to the storyline (story and screenplay are also his)".[6] VRR of Deccan Herald described the film as a "colossal waste", criticising Shankar's story and direction and the performances of Prashanth and Lakshmi.[46] R. P. R. of Kalki wrote Shankar in this film may have understood how the story can get bogged down if there is too much desire to scare with grandeur and felt love between Prashanth and Aishwarya and relationship between brothers has been needlessly dragged though he praised Rahman's music; however he felt the cinematographer failed to capture locations thrillingly.[47]
In November 2013, Prashanth announced that he had registered the title Jeans 2 and was completing the pre-production works of a sequel to the 1998 film. The film was set to be directed and produced by Prashanth's father Thiagarajan, who revealed that production would begin in May 2014 and that they were trying to bring members of the original team back for the venture.[57][58] In January 2014, Ashok Amritraj stated that he was not involved in the sequel and questioned the viability of the project, citing that he did not believe that Prashanth and his father had the rights to make a sequel.[59] In February 2016, Prashanth reaffirmed that the sequel was in development.[60]
