Actor Vijay Sethupathi will play a significant role in director Vetrimaaran‘s next project, an upcoming Tamil film based on a short story. The film already has actor and comedian Soori in the lead cast.
A source close to the film told Silverscreen India that the team is currently shooting in the Sathyamangalam forest in Erode, Tamil Nadu.
Shooting began in December last year, and is expected to complete by February. The team took a break during the Pongal festival, but have resumed shooting now, said the source.
The team is yet to make an official announcement about the rest of the cast.
The film, which has no title as yet, is based on a short story titled “Thunaivan,” written by Tamil and Malayalam writer Bahulehan Jeyamohan. The story was published in the Tamil weekly magazine Ananda Vikatan in 1992.
This is not the first time that Vetrimaaran will be directing an onscreen adaptation of a literary text. His 2019 action drama film, Asuran, which touched upon issues of caste oppression and the futility of violence, was based on a novel called Vekkai by the Sahitya Akademy award-winning Tamil novelist, Poomani.
The film marks the first collaboration between Sethupathi and Vetrimaaran. Sethupathi was supposed to play a pivotal role in Vetrimaaran’s 2018 Tamil action crime film Vada Chennai (which starred actor Dhanush). However, Sethupathi subsequently opted out due to shooting schedule issues and other commitments.
Sethupathi and Soori have worked together on a number of films in the past, such as Sundarapandian (2012), Rummy (2014), and Sangathamizhan (2019).
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Vetrimaaran, who last acted in the Netflix Tamil anthology film Paava Kadhaigal, will start shooting for Vaadi Vaasal with actor Suriya, after wrapping up this film with Soori.
According to some reports, as yet unconfirmed by Silverscreen India, veteran filmmaker Bharathiraja will be also seen in the film.