Thalapathy 67: Director Lokesh Kanagaraj On Vijay’s Gangster Thriller

The renowned director Lokesh Kanagaraj has made some fascinating revelations about Thalapathy 67, his forthcoming feature starring Thalapathy Vijay.  He is a successful director in South Indian film industry, after the massive success of Master and Vikram. Lokesh has already established a cinematic universe in the Tamil film industry, which is now fondly called LCU aka Lokesh Cinematic Universe, by the cine-goers. He is currently busy with the making of his highly anticipated fifth directorial venture.

The Official launch of Thalapathy 67 will be in January and the formal release of the film would take place in January 2023, Lokesh Kanagaraj finally announced during the Tamil Cinema Roundtable moderated by Galatta Plus. After being prompted to share more about his ambitious project by the host and other guests, the filmmaker made the major announcement. Lokesh, who was very careful not to give away too much information about the Thalapathy Vijay movie, said he will talk about the gangster movie after its formal debut. However, it is clear from the director’s statements that the movie’s title has already been decided.

Thalapathy 67 will be 100% Lokesh Kanagaraj Flim and it’s interesting to note that Lokesh Kanagaraj once again earned admirers with his self-assurance when he declared during the Galatta Plus Roundtable that Thalapathy 67 will be ‘100%’ his film. For the uninitiated, the director previously revealed that when they collaborated on Master, he compromised on his signature aesthetic in order to merge it with Thalapathy Vijay’s regular success formula (which includes songs and a splash of romance). He even referred to it as a 50-50 movie because it combined Vijay and his own aesthetic. But he is fully creating the movie in his own style with Thalapathy 67.

Actor-director Gautham Vasudev Menon’s involvement in Thalapathy 67 was confirmed by Lokesh Kanagaraj. When the Vendhu Thanindhathu Kaadu director asked for his permission to speak openly about the Thalapathy Vijay-starring movie and his part in it, the talented filmmaker made the incredibly thrilling announcement during a lighthearted talk. Gautham Menon responded to Lokesh Kanagaraj’s request for him to continue and discuss their relationship by saying: “I’m in his movie. I just ran into him, and he gave me the go-ahead to confirm this here.”

Lokesh Cinematic Universe is continuing in Thalapathy 67. According to Lokesh Kanagaraj, who participated in the Galatta Plus Tamil Roundtable, Thalapathy 67 is a part of the Lokesh Cinematic Universe, just as his three most well-known films, Maanagaram, Kaithi, and Vikram. When asked about building a cinematic universe so early in his career, Lokesh responded that it is both thrilling and terrifying because sometimes he is unsure of how to proceed. Notably, he included his next film Thalapathy 67 along with Kaithi 2, Vikram 2, and the Rolex spin-off as LCU movies.

A fresh writer will collaborate with Lokesh on Thalapathy 67. He is very keen about penning the script on his own for the projects he directs. However, the director began composing the dialogues together with his longtime friend and collaborator Rathna Kumar from Master, and they later collaborated once more for Vikram. Rathna Kumar is an integral member of the Thalapathy 67 squad, but he and Lokesh wanted a younger member to join their group. In order to co-write the dialogue for Vijay’s film, they have enlisted Dheeraj Vaidhi, a young writer-director who is best known for directing the 2016 movie Jil Jung Juk.

Anirudh Ravichander will do music composing in the film as Lokesh Kanagaraj acknowledged that it is quite challenging for him to conceptualize and shoot song sequences in his films when the guests addressed the significance of movie songs. The director did, however, disclose that there will be a few songs in Thalapathy 67, and they have already finished two of them. The songs’ lyrics were written by Lokesh Kanagaraj’s longtime assistant Vishnu Edavan, and Anirudh Ravichander composed the music. For the uninitiated, Lokesh and Anirudh previously worked together on the movies Master and Vikram.

The interesting thing about Lokesh’s admission was that he felt a lot of pressure when creating Master because he had a “time constraint” for scripting, shooting, and distributing the movie. When it comes to Thalapathy 67, things are different for the skilled filmmaker. He affirmed that there is no “time limit” on the Thalapathy Vijay starrer’s production, and the team’s main objective is to put in a lot of effort to finish the movie in all its splendour. According to Lokesh, giving the scriptwriting and pre-production time will greatly benefit the movie.