Arun Vijay played the antagonist opposite Ajith Kumar in Gautham Vasudev Menon's 2015 film Yennai Arindhaal, unlike his usual hero roles up until then. The actor spoke about it in a recent interview with Sudhir Srinivasan. "That was something which got me into surprise," said Arun about the chance to play the villain in the Ajith starrer. The actor added that many people advised him against playing the villain for fear of him getting typecast. However, his next Tamil film, 2017's Kuttram 23, starred him as a police officer in pursuit of solving crimes in the medical field. The actor revealed in the interview that the commercial success of Kuttram 23 gave him "a great deal of confidence" to take on more roles. "After that (Kuttram 23), I was thinking about doing a grey-shaded character, but I did not get the right script. I did not wish to do it for the sake of it; rather, the character should be apt for the narrative and move the story forward."

Arun Vijay said that he got one such character in Idli Kadai, his upcoming film with writer-director-producer-actor Dhanush. The recently released trailer suggests that the film, releasing tomorrow, follows a conflict between Arun's antagonist character and Dhanush's protagonist.

Arun Vijay's upcoming films also include Retta Thala, which marks director Kris Thirukumaran's comeback after a long time. Retta Thala stars him in a dual role. In a recent interview with CE, Arun described as "a stylised gangster film with plenty of action and a strong emotional core." The actor also said that it would be more in the vein of Ajith's Billa than his own Thadam, where he also played a dual role.