Citizen is a 2001 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Saravana Subbiah and produced by S. S. Chakravarthy. The film features Ajith Kumar in dual roles with Meena, Vasundhara Das and Nagma playing the supporting roles. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by Deva, and cinematography was handled by Ravi K. Chandran. The film was released theatrically on 8 June 2001 and became super hit at the box-office.Early indications suggested that the film directed by Saravana Subbiah was a remake of the 1973 English film The Day of the Jackal, but it proved to be untrue.[1] Ajith Kumar put on weight for the film, which would feature him in nine roles, and he claimed that he was inspired by Kamal Haasan's award-winning performances.[2] Sameera Reddy was originally a part of the cast but opted out due to conflicting commitments.[3][4][5] Subsequently, singer Vasundhara Das, who had earlier appeared in Hey Ram, was chosen to play the leading lady, while Nagma was selected to essay the role of a police officer.[6] A special feature on the making of the film was broadcast by Sun TV in May 2001.[7] Gemini Ganesan was also initially meant to play a role in the film, but his character was later altered in the script and replaced by Pandiyan.[8]After months of pre-production, shooting started on 28 December 2000 with Ajith and Vasundhara Das, with Ravi K. Chandran as cinematographer who had replaced P. C. Sriram in the project.[9][10] The location for the Athipatty scenes was an island situated on the outskirts of Chennai, and it took three hours for the team to travel from the city and then by boat to get there.[11][12] A scene filmed at Rajaji Hall featured five thousand of Ajith's fans as extras.[6] A song in the film was shot in Australia in mid 2000, delaying the proposed release date of 1 May.Upon release Citizen received positive reviews from critics and was successful and completed 100-day run at the box office, justifying a relatively large budget of ₹8 crore. The review from The Hindu labelled it as a "definite milestone in Ajit's acting career"[14][15]The film was later dubbed and released as Citizen in Telugu, to positive reviews.[16] The actor and director began to work on another project titled Itihasam, written by Sujatha and focusing on caste issues, but the production was shelved.
