Vijay and director Atlee’s third collaboration, after the successful Theri and Mersal, has been titled Bigil (meaning ‘whistle’ in colloquial Tamil). Atlee released the look on Twitter terming it his "birthday gift to Vijay anna."
The film features Vijay in dual roles, expected to be that of father and son, as is evident from the first look. An older Vijay with speckles of grey in his hair sports a menacing look with an ‘aruval’ at his feet, while the youngster avatar is seen behind him tossing a Manchester United football casually.
Before the first-look was released at 6 p.m. on Friday evening, five of the top trends in India on Twitter were about Vijay, including #HBDEminentVijay and #Thalapathy63FLDay.
The film was tentatively called ‘Thalapathy 63’ after its announcement, and fans waited for Vijay’s birthday week (as has become the practice for all his films) for more information on the title and the first-look.
Archana Kalpathi of AGS Cinemas had revealed that the first-look of the film would be revealed on June 21, and that the second look would come out at 12 a.m. on June 22, which is Vijay’s birthday.
The film is said to be a sports drama, in which Vijay plays a football coach, with a supporting cast of Nayantara, Vivek, Kathir of Pariyerum Perumal fame, Yogi Babu and Robo Shankar. AR Rahman will be composing music for the film and the cinematographer is KG Vishnu. The film is produced by AGS Entertainment, and is set for a Deepavali release.
Meanwhile, several theatres across Tamil Nadu have taken to screening the actor’s earlier films such as Mersal, Theri, and Sarkar during his birthday week, with some shows exclusively for women and children.