CHARACTERISATION
The protagonist character Arya/Kutty is a childish, innocent character who doesn’t take anything seriously. The character is childish, immature and fun loving.
Allu Arjun perfectly suited for that. He is good in childish, immature boy roles. Dhanush is superb in boy next door roles but he couldn’t crack that immature boy role. In movies like Thiruda Thirudi, Pudhukottaiyilirundhu Saravanan, Sullan, Dreams, Thiruvilayadal Aarambam, Polladhavan, Yaaradi Nee Mohini and Padikkadhavan, Dhanush would have acted as the happy go lucky guy who always spends his time with friends and keep on smoking or drinking. But his character wasn’t childish in those films. In Kutty, his character was childish and immature which didn’t suit him.
Maybe Jayam Ravi would suit the character as he portrayed a childish, immature boy role in Something Something superbly.
NEWBIE VS UP AND COMING ACTOR
Allu Arjun was a newbie during Arya time. He just had given 1 film before Arya which is Gangotri.
Dhanush was an up and coming actor during 2010 time when Kutty was released. His last 3 films before Kutty which were Polladhavan, Yaaradi Nee Mohini and Padikkadhavan all became commercial successes. So doing a role like Kutty felt off.
AASAL POSTPONEMENT IMPACT
Ajith’s Aasal was massively hyped during that purely due to Ajith’s look. It had Billa vibes. But it got postponed so Ajith fans and audience who wanted to watch a star film during Pongal time became dejected (like 2025 case when Vidaamuyarchi got postponed and 2026 case when Jana Nayagan got postponed). So fans lost interest in going to theatres. They don’t want to watch even Aayirathil Oruvan which was a superb hollywood level flick, so why do they bother watching Kutty.
Kutty was released in Pongal 2010 and flopped at the box office. But in the same year, Dhanush remade another Telugu film which was released in Diwali 2010. It became a commercial success.
It was Uthamaputhiran — remake of Ready.