On hindsight, it was a smart move by Surya to do Hari's Vel which turned out to be the Diwali winner. About 10 months back, when he decided to do the film, a section in the industry said it was a foolish move as basically he is a 'Multiplex and A-class hero', and his films had not worked in B & C.

Take a look at Surya's career graph, his biggest hits Khakka Khakka and Ghajani were super hits in urban areas mainly in 3 C's- Chennai city, Coimbatore and Chengalpet (area bordering Chennai city). The overseas and Kerala audiences also took a liking for him along with the elite city based media. All these factors worked to make him a star, though the trade felt that he had no penetration in B & C.

Now Vel has rectified it, as it is a bigger hit in B & C than in his traditional city strongholds. Says a leading Madurai based distributor: " Surya's slow but steady rise has been phenomenal and the family audiences like him because he has a good boy image and married happily to Jyothika all these factors are crucial in our area. Added to that take Vel DCR (Daily collection report) for Madurai area, you will find that the collections are better on 10th day of its release than on the second only because of family audiences."

Surya will now have a tight rope walk as he has to cater to his traditional and new found audiences. It looks like next year is going to be memorable for Surya as he has Gautham Menon's Vaaranum Aayiram, a film targeted at the youth and multiplex audiences and has also AVM's, K.V Anand directed film which will appeal to all classes of audiences.