96 Was Originally Planned As A Bollywood Film With A Different Lead Before Becoming A Tamil Classic!

C. Prem Kumar directed the critically acclaimed film 96, which starred Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha Krishnan. For many of us, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Vijay Sethupathi portraying the role of Ram.

However, the character wasn’t originally written with him in mind. In fact, 96 wasn’t even conceived as a Tamil film initially; it was first envisioned as a Bollywood project, with Abhishek Bachchan in place of Vijay Sethupathi.

This revelation came directly from the director himself at the 7th edition of the Indian Screenwriters Conference (ISC), organized by the Screenwriters Association of India (SWA). But why didn’t 96 take shape as a Hindi film? According to C. Prem Kumar, it all came down to not having the right connections. He admitted, ‘I wanted to pitch it to Abhishek Bachchan, but I didn’t have the contacts.’