KV Anand had spent years behind the camera before he ever sat in the director’s chair for his film Ko. He worked as a freelance photojournalist in Chennai, his pictures appearing across more than 200 magazine covers and taking him within arm’s reach of multiple chief ministers. When he eventually turned to filmmaking, he carried those years with him. He built the story of a photojournalist caught in the middle of political conspiracy from his own memories, visited the newsroom in Bengaluru to understand how journalists actually worked, and spent six months writing the script before a single camera rolled.
Anand initially thought of casting Ajith Kumar or Karthi before eventually approaching Silambarasan, who accepted after being impressed with the script. Silambarasan came on board, did a photoshoot for the film and actually shot scenes. Then he left.
The actor opted out at the last moment, right when the crew was preparing to move for a major shoot schedule. With the production mid-flight and no lead actor, Anand went to Jiiva. He jumped on board immediately.
On this day, I remember my most favourite #KVAnand sir. I still remember the first phone call and the last message from you, sir. You were, you are, and you will always remain an ever-living genius. Thank you, sir.
Thank you all for the love showered on Ashwin and the others.… pic.twitter.com/4OlYa5GazX
— Jiiva (@JiivaOfficial) April 22, 2026
Anand reached out to photographers and asked them to send in their strongest work, using those images to build a three-and-a-half-minute title sequence designed to pull the audience into the world of the film before a single scene had played out. Around a 1000 photographs went into it.
Ko was also the first Tamil film to be shot in Norway. Anand had a very clear picture of what he did not want in a lead actress. He was not looking for someone glamorous or conventionally cinematic. He wanted someone who could pass for a real journalist, and when he watched Karthika Nair in the Telugu film Josh, he felt he had found her.
The 175 days
Ko released on April 22, 2011. It opened in nearly 230 theatres in Tamil Nadu, Jiiva’s biggest release to that point, and also released in multiplexes across Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Chandigarh and Lucknow with English subtitles.
The film completed a 175-day theatrical run, still the longest of Jiiva’s career. It was declared a blockbuster. Trade reports from the time placed Ko’s Malaysia opening weekend at $803,666, with what was described as the highest per-screen average for a Tamil film at that point. In the United Kingdom, it achieved the third-highest per-screen average for a Tamil film from 16 screens.
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The film, made on an overall cost of Rs 14 crore, collected Rs 25 crore as of October 2011 including non-theatrical revenue, going on to gross an estimated Rs 50 crore in total across its full run, according to trade analyst Sreedhar Pillai.
The music by Harris Jayaraj was a significant part of why the film stayed in theatres as long as it did. Ennamo Edho became one of those songs that people do not associate with a film so much as with a period of their lives. The twist built around Ajmal Ameer’s character was the kind of payoff that sends audiences out of cinemas still talking.
Rangam for Telugu states
Three weeks after Ko, the Telugu dubbed version Rangam arrived in Andhra Pradesh on May 13, 2011. Rangam collected Rs 20.95 crore at the box office and was declared a blockbuster. Distributors organised celebrations in Tirupati on its 100th day of theatrical run.
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Prakash Raj and Kota Srinivasa Rao in supporting roles gave Telugu audiences familiar faces to anchor themselves to. And the story, about a journalist trying to do the right thing inside a system that does not want him to, needed no translation at all.
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