The latest speculation doing the rounds in the industry is that Vijay will be seen playing a professor character with grey shades in his next with director Lokesh Kanagaraj, tentatively titled Thalapathy 64. Earlier, the film showed a silhouette of Vijay - sporting a hoodie - walking afar in an alley. Also, the poster suggested a dark tone, in contrast to other recent entertainers of the actor.

It may be noted that several sources state that the project will be a completely new attempt for the actor and it will be a genre-centric film.

Also, just like how we had speculated on our earlier articles on Thalapathy 64, Malavika Mohanan has indeed been roped in as the female lead. The announcement came in today, three hours after the update that Shanthnu Bhagyaraj is also a part of the film. After making her debut with Malayalam films, Malavika gained worldwide recognition for playing the lead in director Majid Majidi's Indian drama film, Beyond the Clouds (2017).

Malavika made her Tamil debut this year with Rajinikanth's Petta, which incidentally starred Vijay Sethupathi, who plays the antagonist in Thalapathy 64. The Lokesh Kanagaraj directorial will also mark the Tamil debut of Angamaly Diaries-fame Antony Varghese.

With Anirudh Ravichander roped in as the composer of this project, Thalapathy 64 will mark the second time the composer is working with Vijay. Lokesh has retained most of his technical crew of Kaithi for Thalapathy 64. While Sathyan Sooryan is in charge of cinematography, Stunt Silva will be the stunt choreographer. 

Thalapathy 64 is scheduled for release in April 2020.