Official: Vijay's Thalapathy66 will be a Pongal 2023 release - Times of India

It's official. Vijay's next film #Thalapathy66, which will see him pairing up with Rashmika Mandanna for the first time, will be hitting screens for Pongal 2023. The makers of the film revealed this with a set of posters that announced the addition to senior actors Sarath Kumar, Prabhu and Prakash Raj to the cast of this Vamshi Paidipally directorial.

This will be Vijay's first Pongal release since 2017's Bairavaa. The star has delivered memorable hit films like Friends, Pokkiri, and Nanban, which were also released during the Pongal festive period. So far, 13 of his 65 films have been Pongal releases.
While the involvement on Sarath Kumar in this project is already known, after the actor was spotted in the photographs from the film's puja that were released by the makers, the news of Prabhu, who has previously acted with Vijay in Puli and Theri, and Prakash Raj, who has worked with the actor in blockbusters like Ghilli and Pokkiri, is new information.
For Sarath Kumar, this will be the first time that he will be sharing screen space with Thalapathy. In a recent interview with us, the actor had this to say about being part of this project and working with Vijay: "We will be shooting from May till August. The subject has to be told by the director as we have all signed NDAs. All I can say is that it's a very powerful script where the importance of me being part of it was necessary. It's a subject that will get the attention of all kinds of audiences. I'm happy that I'll be working with Vijay. During the film's muhurat, we spoke about how we had met during the 250th day function of Suriya Vamsam at Kamala Theatre, and how I'd predicted on stage that he'd be the next superstar. He, too, remembered that. And I'm happy I was right."