(This article is authored by Alar) 

The antagonists used to get equally prominence like the heroes in Lokesh Kanagaraj's films. Just to name a few: Arjun Das in Kaithi, Vijay Sethupathi in Master, and Vikram, and there's no need to bring up the Rolex effect on fans after witnessing Suriya in Vikram, in which Kamal Haasan played the lead role. 

With a stupendous success from Vikram, Lokesh Kanagaraj is all set to direct Vijay in his next project, which is tentatively titled Thalapathy 67 and it has a slew of antagonists. The actors who play those baddies were the most exciting talk of the town. Sources claim that Lokesh wanted to cast veteran actor Karthik, who is a popular thespian in 80s, in Thalapathy67, but the actor politely turned it down. 

Fans were perplexed by this news, as his brilliant villainy in Anegan had left them bewildered. Even though he liked the antagonist role clashing with Thalapathy Vijay, the veteran kindly rejected the offer, and director Mysskin is now playing the part. There has been no official confirmation either from Karthik or from Lokesh over the former's decision to not act in the project. However, our sources assert that Karthik has decided to forgo this big project owing to his health condition. 

It has come to light that Karthik has been hospitalized multiple times over the past couple of years due to a severe leg pain. According to the sources, he is in so much pain that he requires regular physiotherapy and has trouble standing for more than an hour at a time. It must be noted that Karthik was also at the centre of the rumors recently that he was offered a role alongside Kamal Haasan in Indian 2. 

All these hearsays were later subdued and now, he had decided to give up from Thalapathy 67 due to his health issues. The 62-year-old actor's most recent film was Dev, starring Karthi Sivakumar. His next film, Andhagan, starring Prashanth, is a remake of the Hindi film Andhadhun. Actor Karthik's son Gautham Karthik had recently tied knot with actress Manjima Mohan in Chennai. Numerous movie stars were present at the wedding to congratulate the bride and groom, and Karthik was there after a hiatus.