Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...

Prashanth Prashanth Thiagarajan (born 6 April 1973), known professionally as Prashanth, is an Indian actor, businessman, playback singer and film producer known for his works predominantly in Tamil cinema. Besides Tamil films, he has also appeared in f ...

Aishwarya Rai Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (; Rai; born 1 November 1973) is an Indian actress who is primarily known for her work in Hindi and Tamil language, Tamil films. Rai won the Miss World 1994 pageant and later established herself as one of the most-popu ...

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, , ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She along with Parvat ...

Radhika Sarathkumar Radhika Sarathkumar () is an Indian actress, film producer, film director and politician who works predominantly in Tamil cinema, Tamil and Telugu cinema, Telugu cinema, TV serials and web series as well as in Hindi cinema, Hindi, Malayalam ci ...

Senthil Senthil (born 23 March 1951) is an Indian comedy actor who works in Tamil cinema. He is famous for his comedian roles along with fellow actor Goundamani. The pair dominated the Tamil industry as comedians in the 1980s and 90s.Raju Sundaram play supporting roles. The background score and soundtrack were composed by

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

, while

Ashok Kumar Ashok Kumar (born Kumudlal Ganguly; 13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001), was an Indian actor who attained iconic status in Indian cinema. He is regarded as one of the greatest actors of Indian cinema. He is considered to be the first Super-st ...

and the duo B. Lenin and V. T. Vijayan handled the cinematography and editing, respectively. ''Jeans'' had a wide release on 24 April 1998 and was the most expensive film to be made in Indian cinema at that time. The film won four

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Cinema of Tamil Nadu, Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Governmen ...

, the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil (Rahman) and the National Film Award for Best Special Effects. It was also India's official submission for the

Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film The Academy Award for Best International Feature Film (known as Best Foreign Language Film prior to 2020) is one of the Academy Awards handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). It is given to a ...

.

Plot

Nachiappan is a widowed, wealthy, and successful

Indian American Indian Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly from India. The terms Asian Indian and East Indian are used to avoid confusion with Native Americans in the United States, Native Americans in the United States, who ar ...

restaurateur based in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of 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 Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

– 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 revelaed that Nachiappan had a conjoint twin brother Pechiappan, who lives in

Karaikudi Karaikudi is the largest city of Sivaganga district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the centre of the Karaikudi Metropolitan Area, the 21st largest urban Agglomeration of Tamil Nadu based on 2011 census data. It is part of the area ...

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.

Cast

Themes and influences

The concept of the lead actor playing multiple roles in the film was common in Tamil cinema with

Rajinikanth Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (born 12 December 1950), known professionally as Rajinikanth, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. In a career spanning over five decades, he has done 170 films that includes films in Tamil, Hindi, ...

doing so in '' Moondru Mugam'' (1982) and

Kamal Haasan Parthasarathy Srinivasan (born 7 November 1954), known professionally as Kamal Haasan, is an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Considered as one of the most accomplished actors of Indian Cinema, Haas ...

in some films. However, unlike those films, '' Jeans'' was regarded as an oddity in the sense that the conservative Ramamoorthy character was not well written and did not have a defined purpose.

Production

Development

Made on a then-record budget of , 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 and J. Murali Manohar, both of whom made their

Tamil film Tamil cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Tamil language, the main spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is nicknamed Kollywood, a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam, a Chen ...

debuts with ''Jeans''. Amritraj did not work on any Tamil film afterwards. 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. 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 A homophone () is a word that is pronounced the same as another word but differs in meaning or in spelling. The two words may be spelled the same, for example ''rose'' (flower) and ''rose'' (past tense of "rise"), or spelled differently, a ...

of "genes", and "seem dvery appropriate to the movie", while Shankar said, "Young people are associated with denim wear and so ''Jeans'' is an apt title". The film's launch was held at the AVM Studios in

Vadapalani Vadapalani is a neighbourhood in the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, India. It is known for its film studios, the Vadapalani Andavar Temple, and Vengeeswarar Temples which are important pilgrimage centres for Hindus. Situated in the western par ...

,

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

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 film industry. The cast and crew of the film wore their favourite pair of blue jeans to the launch, as requested by the film's producers.

Casting

The original actor considered for the dual roles of Viswanathan and Ramamoorthy was

Abbas Abbas may refer to: People * Abbas (name), list of people with the name, including: **Abbas ibn Ali (645–680), popularly known as ''Hazrat-e-Abbas'', the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib (the first imam in Shia Islam) **Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (567 ...

, who opted out due to call sheet problems. The role eventually went to

Prashanth Prashanth Thiagarajan (born 6 April 1973), known professionally as Prashanth, is an Indian actor, businessman, playback singer and film producer known for his works predominantly in Tamil cinema. Besides Tamil films, he has also appeared in f ...

, who sacrificed seven films in the process, and chose to work exclusively on the project during the period.

Aishwarya Rai Aishwarya Rai Bachchan (; Rai; born 1 November 1973) is an Indian actress who is primarily known for her work in Hindi and Tamil language, Tamil films. Rai won the Miss World 1994 pageant and later established herself as one of the most-popu ...

, 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''. Rai initially attempted to dub in her own voice, but was later dubbed over by Savitha Radhakrishnan. The supporting cast included

Senthil Senthil (born 23 March 1951) is an Indian comedy actor who works in Tamil cinema. He is famous for his comedian roles along with fellow actor Goundamani. The pair dominated the Tamil industry as comedians in the 1980s and 90s.Raju Sundaram, with the latter making his debut as an actor. Prominent supporting actresses

Lakshmi Lakshmi (; , , sometimes spelled Laxmi, ), also known as Shri (, , ), is one of the principal goddesses in Hinduism, revered as the goddess of wealth, fortune, prosperity, beauty, fertility, sovereignty, and abundance. She along with Parvat ...

and Radhika were signed up for the film, whilst Geetha 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. Shankar wanted

Goundamani Subramaniyan Karuppaiya (born 25 May 1939), known by his stage name Goundamani, is an Indian actor and comedian who works in Tamil cinema. He is known for his comic duo partnership in Tamil language, Tamil films with fellow actor Senthil. The p ...

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. The other substitution in the project involved the cinematographer. Despite reports that Shankar would again sign-on Jeeva, whom he had worked within ''Kaadhalan'', ''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 Ashok Kumar (born Kumudlal Ganguly; 13 October 1911 – 10 December 2001), was an Indian actor who attained iconic status in Indian cinema. He is regarded as one of the greatest actors of Indian cinema. He is considered to be the first Super-st ...

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 Thota Tharani is an Indian art director, production designer and painter known for his work in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi cinema. With over six decades of experience, he is recognized for his detailed set designs and visual storytellin ...

, a FEFSI supporter, refused to sacrifice his position in FEFSI and stopped working in ''Jeans''. 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.

Filming

The actual present scenes of the story are filmed in United States and few

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

cities especially in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

,

Karaikudi Karaikudi is the largest city of Sivaganga district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the centre of the Karaikudi Metropolitan Area, the 21st largest urban Agglomeration of Tamil Nadu based on 2011 census data. It is part of the area ...

and

Madurai Madurai ( , , ), formerly known as Madura, is a major city in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District, which is ...

. 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 Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood ...

. The initial scenes of the Nachiyappan family's catering company were filmed in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

, whilst other scenes were shot in California at the

Universal Studios Universal Studios may refer to: * Universal Studios, Inc., an American media and entertainment conglomerate ** Universal Pictures, an American film studio ** Universal Studios Lot, a film and television studio complex * Various theme parks operat ...

, 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 King Kong, also referred to simply as Kong, is a fictional giant monster resembling a gorilla, who has appeared in various media since 1933. The character has since become an international pop culture icon,Erb, Cynthia, 1998, ''Tracking Kin ...

set, ''Jeans'' was also shot in the "simulated earthquake experience" sets. The filming in Los Angeles received much publicity as well as the filming at the

Grand Canyon The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in Arizona, United States. The Grand Canyon is long, up to wide and attains a depth of over a mile (). The canyon and adjacent rim are contained within Grand Canyon Nati ...

in

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

. 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. Scenes canned at the Los Angeles International Airport featured local actors as customs officers. The song "Columbus" was picturised at the shores of Venice Beach, California with some foreign male and female dancers. The song was named after

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

and was described as "a pastiche of

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

music videos and ''

Baywatch ''Baywatch'' is an American Drama (film and television), drama television series about lifeguards who patrol the beaches of Los Angeles County, California, and Hawaii, starring David Hasselhoff. It was created by Michael Berk, Douglas Schwartz ...

''". Shankar also filmed in

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

and New York City at the World Trade Center when co-producer Michael Salomon and his wife, Luciana Paluzzi visited the sets of ''Jeans''. 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. 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". Shankar admitted that due to no real list being present, thought had been put into which wonders were selected. The team made a thirty-day trip around the world stopping to can scenes at the

Leaning Tower of Pisa The Leaning Tower of Pisa ( ), or simply the Tower of Pisa (), is the , or freestanding bell tower, of Pisa Cathedral. It is known for its nearly four-degree lean, the result of an unstable Foundation (engineering), foundation. The tower is on ...

, the

Empire State Building The Empire State Building is a 102-story, Art Deco-style supertall skyscraper in the Midtown South neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, United States. The building was designed by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon and built from 1930 to 1931. Its n ...

, the

Great Wall of China The Great Wall of China (, literally "ten thousand ''li'' long wall") is a series of fortifications in China. They were built across the historical northern borders of ancient Chinese states and Imperial China as protection against vario ...

, the

Taj Mahal The Taj Mahal ( ; ; ) is an ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India. It was commissioned in 1631 by the fifth Mughal Empire, Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his belo ...

, the

Egyptian pyramids The Egyptian pyramids are ancient masonry structures located in Egypt. Most were built as tombs for the pharaohs and their consorts during the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old and Middle Kingdom of Egypt, Middle Kingdom periods. At least 138 identi ...

, the

Colosseum The Colosseum ( ; , ultimately from Ancient Greek word "kolossos" meaning a large statue or giant) is an Ellipse, elliptical amphitheatre in the centre of the city of Rome, Italy, just east of the Roman Forum. It is the largest ancient amphi ...

and the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower from 1887 to 1889. Locally nicknamed "''La dame de fe ...

. Prashanth's costumes for this song were designed by Anu Parthasarathy. During the shooting in Paris,

Diana, Princess of Wales Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William, ...

had died and shooting was delayed as a result of her death. The team initially wanted to capture a top angle shot of the

Statue of Liberty The Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World''; ) is a colossal neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, within New York City. The copper-clad statue, a gift to the United States from the people of French Thir ...

which got cancelled due to snowfalls in afternoon. For the song "Anbe Anbe", Kasi designed the costumes of Rai based on the paintings drawn by

Raja Ravi Varma Raja Ravi Varma () (29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906) was an Indian painter and artist. His works are one of the best examples of the fusion of European academic art with a purely Indian sensibility and iconography. Especially, he was notable f ...

as suggested by Shankar. 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". 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 April Fools' Day or April Fool's Day (rarely called All Fools' Day) is an annual custom on the 1st of April consisting of practical jokes, hoaxes, and pranks. Jokesters often expose their actions by shouting "April Fool " at the recipient. Mas ...

joke.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of ''Jeans'' was composed by

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

, with lyrics by

Vairamuthu Vairamuthu Ramasamy (born 13 July 1953) is an Indian lyricist, poet, and novelist working in the Tamil film industry. He is a prominent figure in the Tamil literary world. A master's graduate from the Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai, he firs ...

for all songs The song "Anbe Anbe" is set to the raga Kapi, "Kannodu Kanbathellam" is set to Abheri, "Poovukkul" is set to

Sankarabharanam Sankarabharanam may refer to: * ''Sankarabharanam'' (1980 film), an Indian Telugu-language musical drama film * ''Sankarabharanam'' (2015 film), an Indian Telugu-language crime comedy film * Sankarabharanam (raga), a rāga in Carnatic music ...

, and "Varayo Thozhi" is set to Mohanam. 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.

Release

''Jeans'' had a limited release on 14 April 1998, and a wide release on 24 April. With 240 prints, it holds the 1998 record for a Tamil film. The team also released 35 prints of the film in Malaysia, a record at the time. The film completed 100 days of screening in the theatres in the state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, and the Tamil version was commercially successful. Shankar later revealed that the film's box office performance improved with time. The film performed well in Malaysia, running for over 100 days in cinemas. The reason for the film's success was attributed to the

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

government's ability to fight piracy. The film was dubbed in Telugu as ''Jeans'' and released on 9 May 1998, which was also commercially successful. The film was later dubbed that same year and released in Hindi under the same title, which performed poorly at the Mumbai box office.

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". V. Maheshwara Reddy of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' called the film a "hilarious comedy" and drew significant praise to the performance of Aishwarya Rai and the music of Rahman. D. S. Ramanujam of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' 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)". VRR of ''

Deccan Herald ''Deccan Herald'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper published from the Indian state of Karnataka. It was founded by businessman K. N. Guruswamy and launched on 17 June 1948. It is published by The Printers Mysore, a privately hel ...

'' described the film as a "colossal waste", criticising Shankar's story and direction and the performances of Prashanth and Lakshmi. R. P. R. of ''

Kalki Kalki (), also called Kalkin, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hinduism, Hindu god Vishnu. According to Vaishnavism, Vaishnava cosmology, Kalki is destined to appear at the end of the Kali Yuga, the last of the four ages i ...

'' 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. Regarding the Telugu dubbed version, Giddaluri Gopalrao of '' Zamin Ryot'' wrote that with all of the special features and full commercial value, this film is diverse, quirky and entertaining. A critic from ''Andhra Today'' wrote, "Had it been supported by a good story, it would have been a great movie".

Accolades

''Jeans'' was submitted by India as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the

71st Academy Awards The 71st Academy Awards ceremony, organized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best of 1998 in film and took place on March 21, 1999, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p. ...

, but did not make the final shortlist. The decision to submit ''Jeans'' met with widespread criticism as it was seen as a populist film. The film won four

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Cinema of Tamil Nadu, Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Governmen ...

: Best Comedian (Senthil), Best Female Playback Singer (Nithyasree Mahadevan), Best Choreographer (Raju Sundaram) and Best Costume Designer (Kasi). It also won the Filmfare Award for Best Music Director – Tamil (Rahman), and the National Film Award for Best Special Effects.

Cultural inaccuracies

''Jeans'' fails to account for

distance decay Distance decay is a geographical term which describes the effect of distance on cultural or spatial interactions. The distance decay effect states that the interaction between two locales declines as the distance between them increases. Once the ...

and diasporic Tamils are shown being nationalistic towards India and even singing and giving a standing ovation for " Sare Jahan se Accha" during an antakshari sequence.

Possible sequel

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 Thiagarajan Sivanandam (born 21 June 1946) is an Indian actor, film director and film producer in Tamil cinema. Besides Tamil, he has acted in several Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi films. He is the father of Tamil actor Prashanth, son- ...

, 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. 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. In February 2016, Prashanth reaffirmed that the sequel was in development.

References

Bibliography

*

External links

* * {{Authority control 1990s Indian films 1990s Tamil-language films 1998 films 1998 romantic comedy films Films about Indian Americans Films about Indian weddings Films about marriage Films about twin brothers Films directed by S. Shankar Films scored by A. R. Rahman Films set in Los Angeles Films shot in Agra Films shot in Egypt Films that won the Best Special Effects National Film Award Foreign films set in the United States Indian films set in New York City Indian nonlinear narrative films Indian pregnancy films Indian romantic comedy films Tamil-language Indian films Tamil-language romantic comedy films Twins in Indian films

Plot

Cast

Themes and influences

Production

Development

Casting

Filming

Soundtrack

Release

Critical reception

Accolades

Cultural inaccuracies

Possible sequel

See also

References

Bibliography

External links