Baththa trailer: Vijay Sethupathi plays a feared rowdy with a gentle family side

The trailer for Baththa, the upcoming Tamil film starring Vijay Sethupathi and Lijomol Jose, is out now. It sets up a hero with two very different faces. Balaji Tharaneetharan wrote and directed the film. He is best known for Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom. Atlee is backing the project, and it opens in theatres worldwide on October 1.

The trailer opens with the legend around Baththa. Children swap wild stories about him and paint him as a man nobody dares to cross. In one tale, he reportedly broke the ribs of a man who challenged him and walked off with that man tucked under his arm. Another child claims he keeps a lion as a pet.

Behind that scary image is a caring husband and father, a side only his family gets to see. These scenes lean into comedy. In one moment, reports say, Baththa sings to his new wife on their wedding night and then tells her not to be scared of him. She replies that she will not be scared as long as he does not sing.

The last part of the trailer turns darker. A young girl asks her mother if her father will come back. The picture then cuts to Baththa inside a prison, banging a bucket against the prison doors. The trailer does not reveal how he got there, so his past stays a mystery for now. The film has a retro look, and reports place the story in the eighties.

Sai Abhyankkar has composed the music, and his score is getting noticed for lifting both the action and the emotional moments. Vijay Sethupathi's new look has also become a big talking point, with fans online saying he looks "completely different". Reports say the supporting cast includes Harikrishnan, Shanthi Balachandran, Arjun Chidambaram, Ajay Ghosh and Deepa Venkat. Selvakumar S.K. reportedly handles the cinematography and R. Kalaivanan the editing.