(This article is authored by Alar) 

In what has become a huge buzz in Kollywood, actor Suriya will most likely join hands with director Shankar for the first time as the latter is going to helm a historical project that would be an adaption of an iconic novel 'Velpari' authored by Madurai MP and writer Su Venkatesan. As titbit suggests, Suriya might be playing the lead role in this mega-budget movie. However, there are also speculations that it would be starred by KGF fame Yash.

After the pandemic era, the 2022 film season is considerably more intense and classy and the trend has been slowly evolving into big-budget dramas with recent releases including Pushpa, KGF, and RRR. Particularly, the post- Bahubali film industry has undergone a remarkable transformation as more directors are experimenting with the new periodic/historical drama genre.

The effect is being seen in recent movies like Manirathnam's Ponniyin Selvan, Siruthai Siva's recently announced Suriya42, and the latest of all is veteran director Shankar's upcoming project where he is working on a well-liked historical series and in keeping with Shankar's magnificent making, the movie has an unbelievable budget and it has been reported that the budget would be Rs 1000 crore and had it become official, it would be the highest valued movie in the history of Tamil cinema. 

The buzz on the internet is that Suriya intends to collaborate with Shankar for the first time. While speaking at the audio launch of Viruman that was held in Madurai, Suriya opened up about his 'interesting new journey' with Su Venkatesan, who also attended the event. Though Suriya didn't reveal further, he said that a new announcement will be made soon on a different stage and his speech strongly implied that something unique is going to come up from the actor.

Suriya's speech was later tweeted by Venkatesan and it sparked speculations about whether Suriya is going to act in Venkatesan's adaptation. Another rumour circulating around is that the adaptation's lead role will be played by KGF star Yash, while Suriya will be presenting the movie under his banner 2D Entertainment. The official confirmation is yet to come from any of the artists and if it becomes official, it will be another key adaptation in the Tamil cinema industry in line with Ponniyin Selvan.

Velpari, 'Veera Yuga Nayagan Velpari' is a Tamil literary novel about a real-life Tamil king written by Su Venkatesan. It is pertinent to note that Venkatesan's previous novel 'Kaaval Kottam' was also made into a movie 'Aravaan' directed by Vasanthabalan. Currently, Shankar is simultaneously helming Ram Charan's RC 15 and Kamal Haasan's Indian 2. On the other hand, Suriya has some interesting projects in his pipeline - Vanangaan directed by Bala, Vetrimaaran's Vaadivasal, and Siruthai Siva's Suriya 42.