The Greatest of All Time is an upcoming Indian Tamil-language science fiction action film directed by Venkat Prabhu and produced by AGS Entertainment. The film stars Vijay in dual roles, leading an ensemble cast that includes Prashanth, Prabhu Deva and Meenakshi Chaudhary.
| The Greatest of All Time | |
|---|---|
Poster
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| Directed by | Venkat Prabhu |
| Written by | Venkat Prabhu Viji (dialogues) |
| Screenplay by | Venkat Prabhu K. Chandru (additional) Ezhilarasu Gunasekaran (additional) |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Siddhartha Nuni |
| Edited by | Venkat Raajen |
| Music by | Yuvan Shankar Raja |
Production | |
| Country | India |
| Language | Tamil |
Initially, Atlee was reported to direct the project, but subsequently, Prabhu was brought on board. The film was announced in May 2023 under the tentative title Thalapathy 68, as it is Vijay's 68th film in a leading role, and the official title was announced in December 2023. Principal photography commenced in October 2023, and filming locations include Chennai, Thailand, Hyderabad, Pondicherry and Thiruvananthapuram. The film has music composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematography handled by Siddhartha Nuni and editing by Venkat Raajen.
In late November 2021, Vijay, who had collaborated with director Atlee for three successful films, was reported to collaborate again with the latter for his 68th film as the lead actor.[2] Marking their collaboration after Theri (2016), Mersal (2017), and Bigil (2019), the project's production process was set to begin after the director completes his commitments for his debut Hindi film, Jawan (2023).[3][4] In the meantime, Vijay would work on two projects, Varisu and Leo (2023).[5] On 24 December, Yuvan Shankar Raja, through X (formerly Twitter), posted a picture of himself and Vijay.[6] It was speculated by reports and netizens to hint a reunion in the near future, and possibly for the actor's 68th film, after Pudhiya Geethai (2003).[7] Reports of the collaboration between Vijay and Atlee continued throughout 2022.[8] That December, it was reported that filming was set to commence in June 2023, as Atlee by then had completed Jawan, as the initial film's release date was 2 June 2023; but was postponed.[9]
However, in the following May, Atlee was confirmed to not direct the project, as he had signed another Hindi film, which became Baby John, which is the remake of Theri.[10] The same month, sources claimed that Vijay had listened to multiple scripts for his 68th film, which included from directors Venkat Prabhu, Gopichand Malineni, and Karthik Subbaraj.[11][12] On 21 May, Vijay, through his social media pages, announced that his 68th film would be helmed by Prabhu, tentatively titled Thalapathy 68.[13] AGS Entertainment, headed by Kalpathi S. Aghoram, Kalpathi S. Ganesh and Kalpathi S. Suresh, was revealed to produce the film.[14] On the day after, Prabhu revealed that he had met Vijay ten months before the announcement, when the latter was filming for Varisu and the former was for Custody (2023), and narrated a one-liner, which Vijay requested to develop. The director completed the development in early May, and met the actor again in mid-May and narrated the script. Vijay then 'okayed' him to collaborate for the film.[15]
Yuvan Shankar Raja was confirmed as the music composer, in his third consecutive film with the director after they had done a total of ten films.[16] Siddhartha Nuni was chosen for the cinematography, while Venkat Raajen was chosen as the film's editor.[17] Prabhu had co-written the dialogues for the film with Viji, with additional screenplay and dialogues written by K. Chandru and Ezhilarasu Gunasekaran. Production designer Rajeevan Nanbiyar, stunt choreographer Dhilip Subbarayan, art directors Sekar and Surya Rajeevan, costume designers Vasuki Bhaskar and Pallavi Singh and choreographers Raju Sundaram and Sathish Krishnan were chosen to work on the film.[18]
Multiple reports stated that Vijay would receive a remuneration of ₹200 crore (US$24 million), which would make him the highest-paid film actor in India.[19][20] In August, the team left for Los Angeles to use visual effects scanning to create the look of one of Vijay's characters; this technique was previously used for Fan (2016) and Indian 2.[21]Amuhurat puja was held on 2 October 2023 at Prasad LabsinChennai with the presence of the film's cast and crew, the video of which was released by the production house on 24 October.[22][23] The first look revealing the title, The Greatest of All Time, was released on 31 December 2023.[18] A second promotional poster was released on 1 January 2024 hinting at the film being a science fiction film.[24]
Vijay would be seen in a dual role as an elderly man and a younger man.[25][26] The venture marks the actor's sixth film in a dual role. One of the characters would reportedly be played as a RAW agent.[27] He would sport a clean-shaven look for one of them, marking the first time he made a full-flegged appearance without his trademark moustache.[28] Meenakshi Chaudhary was cast as the female lead paired opposite the younger Vijay's character,[29] in her maiden collaboration with Vijay as well as in her third Tamil film.[30] Sneha was cast to play the role opposite the older Vijay after Jyothika and Simran reportedly declined.[31][32] Prabhu Deva, Prashanth, Laila, Vaibhav, Mohan, Jayaram and Ajmal Ameer were confirmed to be a part of the cast, as they were present at the muhurat puja.[33][34][35]
On 24 October 2023, further cast members were announced, including Yogi Babu, VTV Ganesh, and Prabhu's frequent collaborators Premgi Amaren, Aravind Akash and Ajay Raj.[17] Later that month, Ivana was reported to play the role of Vijay's son character's sister.[36] Ramya Krishnan was reportedly approached in late December to play a cameo appearance in the film.[37] Ganja Karuppu, during an interview in mid December, revealed that he was a part of the cast. A few days later, Sudeepa and Malvika Sharma were reported to play important roles in the film respectively.[38] In January, Parvati Nair said she was part of the cast.[39]
Principal photography commenced with the first schedule on 3 October 2023 in Chennai.[40] The schedule began with a song sequence choreographed by Raju Sundaram, which concluded by 9 October.[41] While most of the team moved to Thailand for the second schedule at the end of the month,[42] Vijay joined them on 3 November.[43] Most of the portions there were being filmed in Bangkok.[44] Within 10 days, Vijay and the makers completed filming the portions and returned to Chennai.[45] After scouting for locations, the third schedule began in late November at a film city in Hyderabad.[46] Reportedly, the director had united a major cast to film important sequences before the schedule ended by 27 December.[47]
After a short break, filming continued on 7 January 2024 in Sri Lanka.[48][49] On 2 February, Vijay announced his entry into politics after completing one more film, making this his penultimate film.[50] By then, filming was halfway complete.[51] Soon after the announcement, a short schedule began in Pondicherry.[52] During this schedule, footage of Vijay, Prashanth and Deva was leaked and went viral. This led to the film's official technology security partner to warn social media users from sharing the leaked content or they would be deleted.[53][54]Anitem number sequence featuring Trisha was reportedly shot in early-March at a film studio in Chennai.[55][56] Initially, the makers planned to film the next schedule in Sri Lanka and Morocco; however due to reasons unknown, it was instead finalised in Kerala.[57] The fifth schedule began on 18 March in Greenfield International Stadium, Thiruvananthapuram.[58][59]
In early March 2024, Prabhu confirmed that visual effects and CG works for the film had begun, simultaneously with filming, in Chennai and Los Angeles. He further that the works would be done by five companies.[60]
The soundtrack and film score will be composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, in his second collaboration with Vijay after Pudhiya Geethai, and tenth with Prabhu.[61] The audio rights were bought by T-Series.[62] Yuvan said the first single would be a dappankuthu number.[63] Venkat Prabhu's father Gangai Amaran, along with Madhan Karky, Kabilan Vairamuthu and Arivu were revealed to write the lyrics for the films' track.[64]
The streaming rights were reportedly acquired by Netflix for ₹125 crore (US$15 million).[65][66] The film is to be released in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi languages.[67]
