Pudhupettai

Pudhupettai
Cover
Directed by	Selvaraghavan
Produced by	K Muralidharan V Swaminathan G Venugopal
Written by	Balakumaran (Dialogue) Selvaraghavan (Additional Dialogue)
Screenplay by	Selvaraghavan
Story by	Selvaraghavan
Starring	Dhanush Sneha Sonia Agarwal
Music by	Yuvan Shankar Raja
Cinematography	Arvind Krishna
Edited by	Kola Bhaskar
Production company	Lakshmi Movie Makers
Release date	26 May 2006 (2006-05-26)
Running time	170 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹10 crore (equivalent to ₹22 crore or US$3.3 million in 2016)
Box office	₹15 crore (equivalent to ₹34 crore or US$5.0 million in 2016)

Pudhupettai (Tamil: புதுப்பேட்டை English: New Hood/Area) is a 2006 Indian Tamil neo noir gangster film written and directed by Selvaraghavan, starring his brother Dhanush in the lead, whilst Sneha and Sonia Agarwal enact the lead female character roles. The film, with music scored by Yuvan Shankar Raja and cinematography by Arvind Krishna, Selvaraghavan's usual crew members, released on 26 May 2006, receiving universal critical acclaim for the music and picturisation. The film is characterized as a modern cult gangster. The film was dubbed into Telugu and released as Dhoolpeta.

The story is set in the backdrop of the slums of Pudhupettai in Chennai, as the title suggests, where a high school kid Kokki Kumar (Dhanush) sees his mom dead after he comes back from watching a film. His father, the murderer is also planning to kill his son Kumar. Kumar sensing danger runs away from home. Homeless and with no food Kumar resorts to begging until he is falsely arrested while standing by and watching a commotion on the street. In jail he befriends handymen of a local goon who take Kumar with them and give him petty jobs to do. In a confrontation with goons of another gang Kumar kills the brother of his enemy gang's head Murthy thus earning the respect of his gang and making enemies for himself both within his gang and outside. Krishnaveni (Sneha) is a prostitute who also works under Anbu. Kumar falls in love with Krishnaveni and challenge Anbu to release her. Anbu in return beats Krishnaveni and orders to kill Kumar. Kumar approaches Anbu and asks to pardon him but Anbu wonders if it would be possible cancel the order to kill Kumar. Kumar infuriated kills Anbu and approaches Thalaivar (Azhagam Perumal). Thalaivar says if he could survive until the next day morning from Anbu's goon, who is seeking revenge, he would be bestowed with Anbu's area for business. Kumar survives and Thalaivar keeps him in place of Anbu.