Bhooloham

There are two rival factions of boxing in North Madras: Irumbu Manithar Rasamanickam and Nattu Marunthu Vaathiyar. The IMR boxer Mariappan's son is Arumugam, and the NMV boxer Munusamy's son is Bhooloham. Now, in the present, the IMR boxer is Arumugam (I. S. Rajesh), while the NMV boxer is Bhooloham (Jayam Ravi).

Bhooloham has a severe grudge against Arumugam because Mariappan had defeated Munusamy in a boxing match. Unable to bear this loss, Munusamy commits suicide. Bhooloham wants to avenge his father's death by killing Arumugam in the match. This rivalry is being used by Deepak Shah (Prakash Raj), a shrewd TV CEO for making money through his FSC (Future Sports Channel) Independent Boxing Cup. Deepak exploits the boxers' innocence and makes them fight to gain TRPs. In the inaugural Match of IBC, Bhooloham hits Arumugam to the extent that he goes into a coma.

Bhooloham later realizes his mistake and becomes a Saamiyar (saintly person). He gets a job in Sindhu's (Trisha Krishnan) (his love interest) college as a waiter. Meanwhile, Deepak, who is hell bent on fixing Bhooloham's match with Destroyer Gurudayal (Arpit Ranka), hatches a conspiracy. Bhooloham, who desperately needs money to fund Arumugam's operation, falls prey to Deepak's plan. As Bhooloham hits Dayal after the match is over, he loses the match. Unable to bear Bhooloham's loss, his coach Rathinam Master (Ponvannan) commits suicide.

Meanwhile, Deepak plans to bring Steven George (Nathan Jones) to kill Dayal as to increase TRPs of the channel. When Dayal tries to leave the tournament, Deepak threatens him that he will kill his family. Under pressure, Dayal lodges a complaint against Deepak in the Boxing Union. There, Bhooloham declares that he will fight against Steven, not to show his supremacy, but to expose Deepak's wrongdoings. He reveals that Rathinam was being pressured by Deepak for entering into the ring against Dayal, and when Bhooloham gets defeated, Deepak deceives him. The Union supports Bhooloham, and they make a plan that Steven will declare that he will fight against Bhooloham. The plan succeeds, and Deepak, though reluctant, has to go to the Union Office for signing Bhooloham for the fight.

The agreement which Deepak poses against Bhooloham is partially rejected by Bhooloham, and Bhooloham poses a counter-agreement against Deepak. Deepak, though reluctant, is forced to sign on the agreement created by Bhooloham and the Boxing Union. After signing the agreement, Deepak tells Steven that he will give Steven his lifetime earnings in a single match if he kills Bhooloham using a foul punch. Steven agrees to this condition and practices hard for the match.

The match happens, and surprisingly to Deepak's shock, Bhooloham wins the match as he does not stop the match when Steven hits the foul punch. After the match, Bhooloham exposes Deepak's wrongdoings. As a result, the Future Sports Channel is sealed for lifetime, and Deepak is jailed for his malpractices.

Jayam Ravi agreed terms to star in the film in August 2010, shortly after he had begun work for Engeyum Kadhal (2011) and Aadhi Baghavan (2013). During the making of the Peranmai (2009), an assistant director to S P Jananathan, Kalyanakrishnan, had narrated the story of the film and Jayam Ravi agreed to give priority dates for the film.[3] However delays in production of the former two films resulted in the postponement of the shoot of Bhooloham, as his character in Aadhi Bhagavan required him to sport a beard, stopping him from working on the films simultaneously.[4] In July 2011, it was reported that Jayam Ravi underwent a special training course in boxing for his role as a boxer with professional athlete, Prasad, overseeing his progress.[5][6]

Amala Paul was approached by the producers in March 2012 to play the leading female role, but could not allot dates for the film.[7] Subsequently, the team approached Nayantara to play the lead role but her unavailability saw the team agree terms with Trisha to play a role in the film.[8] The film is inspired from the life of a real life Asian boxing champion named Madhan.[9] The makers roped in the Australian actor of Troy fame, Nathan Jones, for a fight sequence.[10]

The film primarily shot in late 2012 and early 2013 and the makers worked towards a release date during the summer of 2013, but the film experienced further delays.[11] Producer Aascar Ravichandran was unhappy about the film having more than half an hour dedicated to boxing scenes and put the film on hold, in order to edit the film's content.[12] In early 2015, the Indian Overseas Bank's Sriram Nagar branch filed a petition in The Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), Chennai and requested to an interim stay on the film after Aascar Ravichandran failed to repay the loan amount he bought for the production expense of Bhooloham.[13]

Music was composed by Srikanth Deva, uniting with Jayam Ravi for the second time after M Kumaran S/O Mahalakshmi.

• "Bhoologam Adicha" - Aslam Mustafa, Sree Tamizh
• "Ivan Chennai" - Haricharan
• "Maasana Kollaiyila" - Mukesh
• "Tattoo Tattoo" - Vaishali, Chinmayi, Abhay Jodhpurkar
• "Vaangi Vantha" - Fefsi Doss
• "Vanakkam Vanakkam" - Naveen Madhav

The satellite rights of the film were sold to Jaya TV.[14] After about three years of delay, the film was scheduled and got released on 24 December 2015. A new trailer was also released on 15 December 2015.The film was later dubbed into Hindi as Bhaigiri 2 by Goldmines Telefims Pvt Ltd.

Indiaglitz rated the film 3 out of 5 and wrote, "All said, the movie is a good entertainer of sorts, watch it for Jayam Ravi's heavy duty thara local gimmicks and some guaranteed good boxing sequences."[15]

Deccan Chronicle rated the film 3 out of 5 and wrote, "The movie will definitely get your adrenaline glands flowing. Watch it for Jayam Ravi’s extraordinary effort!"[16]

• Bhooloham at IMDb