Two-time National Award-winning actor Dhanush's Vaathi has turned out to be a phenomenal success and continues to go strong in cinemas everywhere. The film also released in Telugu under the title Sir has been directed by Venky Atluri of Tholi Prema and Rang De fame, and features music by chartbuster composer G. V. Prakash Kumar, who himself won the National Award for Best Background Score in Suriya's Soorarai Pottru last year. With Vaathi witnessing a fantastic response at the box office, Venky Atluri and G. V. Prakash sat down for a heart-to-heart conversation with National Award-winning film critic Baradwaj Rangan, the Editor-in-Chief of Galatta Plus, to talk about their film, while also giving an insight into the extensive work they had put in for the songs and the background score.
During the interview, G. V. Prakash opened up about the staggering feedback for the 'Vaa Vaathi' song on leading streaming channels. He said, "Vaa Vaathi is a blockbuster hit. You can't believe the streams it is doing. The digital world is shocked. All the digital platforms like Spotify are calling and telling me the digital numbers we are doing. They are saying it is not possible. It is doing one crore streams in Telugu. Two and a half to three crore streams in Tamil. Overall, we have four crore streams for the 'Vaa Vaathi' song. All of them are shocked by the unbelievable numbers of Vaathi's audio."
Filmmaker Venky Atluri then chimed in to say how Dhanush had predicted during filming Vaathi that the song would make actress Samyuktha a huge sensation among Tamil audiences. He said, "I still remember, when we were shooting that song, Dhanush sir was there and Samyuktha was walking. And, immediately he looks at her and says to her, 'You're a very lucky girl because this song will make you a star.' That's exactly what happened. We didn't know. Whatever said and done, she's my film's heroine, but the moment we slowly realized that the transformation of this actress into a star, I've seen it. When she was sitting in the theatre with her face covered up with a mask, the moment the 'Vaa Vaathi' song started, people are whistling, clapping, all the cell phones are up recording. It was like a concert. Everyone was recording and waving. And, after that, every time Samyuktha is walking in, they're clapping and yelling. The song made her a star." GV Prakash added, "The surprise is not coming from Tamil theatres. We had the same response in theatres in Andhra Pradesh for the Telugu version of the song 'Mastaaru Mastaaru'." Venky Atluri concluded by saying, "This recording is happening overseas as well."
Watch Venky Atluri and G. V. Prakash talk about the music of Vaathi with Baradwaj Rangan below: