Lokesh Kanagaraj on his growing influence with superstars: ‘Vijay’s Thalapathy 67 will be 100 per cent my film’

Lokesh Kanagaraj noted that he had to make adjustments to his working style to accommodate the commercial elements of a Vijay film. “The producer (of Master) at the time wanted to do a proper action film. When I thought about what difference I could make in this film, I decided let’s make it 50 per cent Vijay film and 50 per cent my film. Because with previous films I worked on the script for a year. With this film, the time was limited,” he added.

Master went on to become a big hit at the box office, increasing Lokesh’s clout in the industry. He next landed the opportunity to direct Kamal Haasan.

“After completing Master, there was the Covid outbreak. And during the pandemic, I got time to write. Otherwise, I’d have ended up with a usual time constraint. When Kamal sir asked me to do a film for him, I took about 8 months to work on the script. Now I’ve enough goodwill with the stars to ask them for more time to make better scripts. The next film (Thalapathy 67) is not going to be 50:50. It’s 100 per cent my film,” he said.

Kamal Haasan’s Vikram became one of the highest-grossing films of 2022. And it also launched a cinematic multiverse.

Thalapathy 67 was launched earlier this month in Chennai. The event was kept away from the public and media gaze. The makers are, for reasons best known to them, waiting for the right time to officially announce the film. It could be a strategic decision to not drive away the attention from Vijay’s upcoming movie Varisu, which is due in cinemas in January.