Maniratnam signs up Vijay for a commercial film

Ilayathalapathy Vijay is celebrating his 37th birthday on 22nd June. He was planning to release his upcoming film ‘Velayudham’ to coincide with his birthday as it would be a ‘perfect’ way of celebration of his birthday by his fans. It now appears that his plan has run into some hiccups and ‘Velayudham’ might not be releasing on the D-Day.

Sources close to Vijay say that as he is simultaneously shooting for Shankar’s ‘Nanban’ too, Vijay’s call-sheet dates reportedly clashed and as a result, a song sequence and a major stunt sequence for ‘Velayudham’ remain to be canned. This and the post-production work as well as the audio launch might push the film to be released either by June-end or early July, it is learnt.

Vijay’s long-standing dream of working with directors like Shankar and Maniratnam is finally coming true. Though Vijay’s much-publicised project ‘Ponniyin Selvan’ with Maniratnam has been called off due to financial and other constraints, it now turns out that the ace director’s next film is most likely to feature Vijay in the lead role.

Mani is said to have sounded whether Vijay was willing to take on an ‘action role’ on the same call-sheet dates that he had given for ‘Ponniyin Selvan’. Vijay immediately nodded in agreement and the film has now been planned to be made with a budget of Rs.25 crores.

An official announcement in this regard might be made on the eve of his birthday next month, it is further reported. Stay tuned with us for further updates.