Puthupettai, shortened in theatres

Selvaraghavan's much-awaited Tamil film Puthupettai released in theatres last week. But, at 2 hours and 55 minutes, it was too much for audiences to bear. The director has now cut portions of the film.

While the first half has been retained in full, the second half deletes entire fight sequences involving hero Dhanush, his raving and ranting as well as his begging before wife Selvi (Sonia Agarwal) to get back his newborn, who has been kidnapped by a rival gang.

Due to the editing, however, a scene in which a woman picks up the baby from a garbage heap and refuses to take the wads of currency near it -- which got thunderous applause from the front benches -- has been left out.

The Telugu dubbed version, Dhoolpet, opened to full houses but crashed the next day. The film is still running houseful in Tamil Nadu though, as youth want to have a look at Selvaraghavan's latest.