Sundar C reveals Ajith Kumar's secret request, brave decision that shaped Unnai Thedi

Filmmaker Sundar C is now basking in the success of his latest directorial outing, "Aranmanai 4." The horror-comedy opened in cinemas earlier this week to mostly positive reviews and is performing well in terms of box office collection.

In light of his recent success, Sundar reflected on some of the best movies he has directed in his career so far. One of the films that cemented his position as a promising director was "Unnai Thedi," released in 1999.

"Unnai Thedi" remains the only film he collaborated on with Tamil superstar Ajith Kumar. However, Ajith was years away from achieving superstardom when he acted in "Unnai Thedi." Nonetheless, he showed all the signs of becoming a force to reckon with in the Tamil film industry at the time, according to Sundar.

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Sundar recalled an interesting conversation he had with Ajith while flying to New Zealand to shoot "Unnai Thedi." He noted that the producers had planned a 20-day shoot in the foreign location as they were supposed to shoot two songs and a few key scenes.

However, Sundar and Ajith had different plans. He revealed a secret request that Ajith made on their New Zealand-bound flight. "He (Ajith) was suffering from severe back pain. He told me that he needs to undergo surgery immediately because his doctor is going to retire soon and settle in some foreign country," the director recalled.

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Sundar noted that Ajith's legs had lost all sensation, and he was not feeling anything at the time. His condition was so critical that he was in serious pain even while standing. Ajith asked Sundar to complete the whole shoot within seven days so he could fly back to India and undergo the surgery. "He also informed me that it was a high-risk operation and it might go either way. If the operation was not successful, he may be bedridden his whole life. So he asked me to complete the whole shoot within this time. When he was shooting for the songs (in New Zealand) he was not even able to stand. We can't tell anything to producers because it might lead to some misunderstanding. He worked really hard during that schedule. Luckily, in New Zealand, we had sunlight for 22 hours a day. And we shot the film continuously," he recalled.

Ajith underwent the operation successfully, and "Unnai Thedi" also became a big hit upon its release at the box office.