Blockbuster Tamil director Venkat Prabhu issued a denial on late Monday evening about his plans to direct a pan-Indian film starring Ajith Kumar and 'Thalapathy Vijay. The news first came to the fore after the filmmaker-actor's father Gangai Amaran had earlier during an interaction with media persons said that the Maanaadu director has come up with a story for Vijay and Ajith. He informed that discussions were currently underway with the Tamil cinema superstars while adding that an announcement would be made soon in the days ahead regarding the project. Reacting to the news that blew up social media, Venkat Prabhu responded in quick time on Twitter with a gif image of popular American actor-comedian Kevin Hart looking baffled and surprised. Check out the tweet below:
— venkat prabhu (@vp_offl) June 20, 2022
The news of a film featuring both 'Thalapathy' Vijay and Ajith Kumar has appeared on a number of occasions with Venkat Prabhu's name as well popping up several times. Recently, a couple of months back, the Chennai 600028 films director during an event at the Saveetha Medical College in Chennai, spoke about his original plans to cast both the stars in Mankatha 2. Venkat Prabhu had revealed that he had initially planned for Ajith and Vijay to appear together in the sequel of the 2011 box office blockbuster Mankatha. He stated that he held discussions about the project with the superstars at the time while adding that it did not materialize. It is to be noted that Vijay and Ajith have appeared together on the big screen in one film, Rajavin Parvaiyile, in 1995, which featured them as best friends. Later, the duo almost reunited for Nerrukku Ner in 1997, with Suriya eventually replacing Ajith, and thus making it his acting debut in Tamil cinema alongside Vijay.
As for their upcoming projects, Vijay is currently working on his Thalapathy 66, which has been announced for a Pongal 2023 release opposite Rashmika Mandanna, and is being directed by Maharshi and Thozha fame Vamshi Paidipally under Dil Raju's Sri Venkateswara Creations. Vijay will also be teaming up with Lokesh Kanagaraj for the second time after their Master in 2021 and the excitement is sky-high for Thalapathy 67 (official announcement yet to be made), especially after the young filmmaker hit the bullseye recently with his action thriller Vikram starring Kamal Haasan, Vijay Sethupathi, Fahadh Faasil, and Suriya. Coming to Ajith, he is filming the tentatively titled AK 61, which marks his third consecutive collaboration with director H. Vinoth and producer Boney Kapoor after their Nerkonda Paarvai (2019) and Valimai (2022). The Viswasam actor will then be teaming up for the first time with director Vignesh Shivan under the Lyca Productions banner for the tentatively titled AK 62, which will feature music by Anirudh Ravichander. On the other hand, Venkat Prabhu will be making his directorial debut in Telugu cinema in Naga Chaitanya's tentatively titled NC22, which will also be coming out in Tamil.
