South Indian film industry comes together to launch the audio of Vishal's 25th film, Sandakozhi 2

Festivities, fun, and frolic highlighted the audio launch of director Lingusamy's next film, Sandakozhi 2, which incidentally is actor Vishal's 25^th film in Tamil cinema. 

Less of an audio release and more of a look-back at Vishal's 14-year film career that began with Chellamae in 2004, the event was attended by some of the biggest names in South Indian cinema, including Malayalam Superstar Mohanlal, 'Rocking Star' Yash from Kannada cinema and director Shankar. While Yash praised the growing camaraderie between Tamil and Kannada cinema, Shankar lauded the improving screen presence and acting capabilities of Vishal and Keerthy Suresh. Speaking about composer Yuvan Shankar Raja, the 2.0 director said, "Yuvan's consistency is brilliant. His High on Love song from Pyaar Prema Kaadhal is a favourite of mine."

Along the lines of Kamal 50, a show to mark actor Kamal Haasan's 50 years in Indian cinema, this Vishal 25 event saw many technicians and artists who worked with Vishal taking the stage to relive their experiences with the Nadigar Sangam General Secretary.   

The event began with Vishal apologising to the invitees for not receiving them with bouquets and shawls. "I used that money to fund the education of a few students on your behalf," explained Vishal who handed the cheques on the stage to the children. The philanthropy measures continued as the actor invited farmers to the stage to provide them with cash assistance from the ticket sales of PS Mithran-directed Irumbuthirai.

The event had its share of revelry too that began with the assembly of some dance choreographers who worked with Vishal in various stages of his career. While they spoke about his improving dancing ability, the stunt choreographers spoke about the risks taken by the actor to provide authenticity to the action sequences in all his films. 

A number of Vishal's co-stars including actors Prabhu, Arjun, Vivek, Urvashi, Nasser, Arjun, and Lal took the revelry up a notch and shared their memories of working with the Sandakozhi actor.

Talking about his student, Arjun said, "He started off as an assistant in the directing department. When I asked him to act out scenes in the rehearsals, he did very well. So I advised his father GK Reddy to push him into acting."

It was then the turn of Vishal's directors, including Pandiraj, Suseenthiran, Mysskin, Bhoopathy Pandian and Lingusamy to come on stage. Talking about the actor, the Psycho director said that Vishal's presence in his life made it more meaningful and revealed that they were soon going to announce the sequel to Thupparivalan. 

Yuvan pointed out an interesting coincidence and said, "My 125^th film was the Vishal-starrer Irumbuthirai and I'm extremely pleased to have now worked in Vishal's milestone film directed by Lingusamy, with whom I have a successful combination." 

Keerthy revealed that she was nervous to fill in the shoes of Meera Jasmine from the first part, but added that the well-written role gave her the confidence to pull it off. 

Sharing his experience of working with Lingusamy, Vishal said, "Sandakozhi was written keeping Suriya in mind and he was generous enough to sign me when I approached him. I trusted this Saami (Lingusamy) more than the Saami (God) in my prayer room.”

Talking about the female leads in Sandakozhi 2, the actor said that he has immense respect for Keerthy after watching her role as Savithri in Mahanati/Nadigaiyar Thilagam. Referring to Varalaxmi Sarathkumar's Pechi character, Vishal said that her role would be the most impactful among the bevy of characters in the film. 

With Mohanlal, Shankar, and Yash releasing the audio CD, Sandakozhi 2 and its Telugu version, Pandem Kodi 2, are both set to hit the screens on October 18.