It has been one year since the release of director C Premkumar's Meiyazhagan, starring Karthi and Arvind Swamy in the lead roles. However, the filmmaker is already looking ahead, having completed the screenplay for his sequel to '96, his 2018 film starring Trisha and Vijay Sethupathi. In a conversation with Galatta Plus, the filmmaker shared that the screenplay boasts his "best writing" so far in his career. "Even I had some fear while writing a sequel to such a film. Many people told me to drop it, which is a general fear because many sequels do not work. However, the sequels I know have turned out to be good. So I had that eagerness to write it. The unanimous feedback I got after completing the script is that 'It is far better than '96, we did not expect this.'" The filmmaker confidently shared that he expected this feedback for the '96 sequel screenplay.
Premkumar also revealed that he then narrated the screenplay to the film's producer Vels Film International's Ishari K Ganesh, only to receive no feedback soon afterwards. "He was expressionless on the first day," said Premkumar. However, Ishari K Ganesh called the filmmaker on the day after his script narration and gave him a hero's welcome. A camera person shot his entry the moment he walked into the Vels Film International office, and the producer greeted him with a bouquet and an expensive gold chain. He added that a producer generally does this only when a film becomes a hit but not after listening to a screenplay narration.
Vijay Sethupathi and Trisha are expected to come back for the '96 sequel, reprising their roles as Ram and Janu, respectively. However, the film's makers are yet to officially confirm the same.
Premkumar also has a film with Fahadh Faasil in the pipeline that is reportedly an action thriller.
