Vijay-starrer Beast has added several new cast members. Filmmaker Selvaraghavan, Malayalam actors Shine Tom Chacko and Aparna Das, as well as Yogi Babu, VTV Ganesh, Ankur Ajit Vikal, and Liliput Faruqui have all joined the cast of the upcoming film produced by Sun Pictures.
The production house made the announcement on Saturday in a series of tweets.
Beast is Vijay’s 65th film, and it is written and directed by filmmaker Nelson Dilipkumar, who is best known for his directorial debut Kolamavu Kokila.
Actor Pooja Hegde has been cast opposite Vijay in the film. Beast marks her comeback to the Tamil film industry after nearly a decade. Her last Tamil film, which was also her acting debut, was the 2012 superhero drama film Mugamoodi, starring Jiiva and directed by Mysskin.
Selvaraghavan, who is known for making films such as Kadhal Kondein, Pudhupettai, Aayirathil Oruvan, and several others, is set to make his acting debut with a film titled Saani Kaayidham, directed by Arun Matheswaran. While that film is currently under production, Beast will mark the filmmaker’s second acting venture.
The film also marks Yogi Babu’s second collaboaration with Vijay. Babu, who was last seen in the Netflix anthology Navarasa, earlier worked with Vijay on Bigil.
Meanwhile, Malayalam actor Shine, who was last seen in Wolf, will be making his full-fledged debut in Tamil with Beast. The actor had previously appeared in a brief role in the Dhanush-starrer Venghai in 2012.
Speaking to Silverscreen India earlier, Shine said he was approached for this project in early May and had then come to Chennai to meet the team for further discussion. He also said his portion was initially scheduled to be shot in Chennai in May, but was delayed due to the surge in Covid-19 cases.
Shine recently joined the third schedule of the film, which is currently being filmed along Chennai’s East Coast Road (ECR). Aside from Beast, Shine will also feature in some upcoming Malayalam films, including Dulquer Salmaan-starrer Kurup, Prithviraj Sukumaran starrer Kuruthi, and Soubin Shahir-starrer Dijinn.
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Beast, which has music by Anirudh Ravichander and cinematography by Manoj Paramahamsa, was launched by Sun Pictures on March 31. The team went to Georgia in April to shoot the film’s first schedule, which was followed by the second schedule in Gokulam Film City.
Vijay, who was last seen in the action-drama Master, is also set to collaborate with filmmaker Vamshi Paidipally for an upcoming pan-Indian film. The yet-to-be-titled film, which will mark Vijay’s Telugu debut, will be produced by Dil Raju under Sri Venkateswara Creations and will also be released in Tamil.