Mani Ratnam initially approached Superstar for Senapathi’s role in CCV

In the version that hit the screens, Senapathi’s son Varadharajan (played by Arvind Swami) plots his dad’s assassination to take control of his empire. Senapathi passes away in his sleep and his sons Varadan, Thyagu and Ethi (Arvind Swami, Arun Vijay and Simbu) fight with one another to take over their dad’s throne. However, we learned that what we saw was a tweaked version from the original that was narrated to Rajinikanth. The original was penned by Mani in a way that Superstar in the climax takes down his sons and builds his crime empire on his own. Rajini apparently felt that his role wouldn’t be prominent on screen turned down the project.