According to the production houses of Vijay’s Theri and Suriya’s 24, both films will be clashing at the box office on April 14th this year, the Tamil New Year day.
Directed by Atlee, Theri is said to be a typical cop commercial entertainer starring Vijay, while Vikram Kumar’s 24 is touted to be an ambitious sci-fi film with Suriya in a triple role.
Interestingly, Samantha Ruth Prabhu happens to be the main female lead in both films. While AR Rahman is the music composer of 24, his nephew GV Prakash Kumar is composing for Theri, which will be his 50th album. Apparently both Vijay and Suriya graduated from Loyola college in Chennai and often refer to each other as each other as Maman-Machan meaning ‘buddies’.
Despite the heavy competition in the film industry, Suriya and Vijay are good friends and never miss the opportunity to compliment each other at award functions and public events. If we look at their history of clashes at the box office, Vijay and Suriya starrer films have locked horns on three previous occasions.
2003: Pithamagan vs Thirumalai
On Diwali in 2003, Vijay’s Thirumalai and Suriya’s Pithamagan were competing at the box office. Interestingly both films were winners and got good collections. Pithamagan unleashed the comic side of Suriya while Vijay got his current mass hero image in Thirumalai.
2007: Vel vs Azhagiya Tamizh Magan
Four years later, on Diwali of 2007, Vijay’s Azhagiya Tamizh Magan and Suriya’s Vel clashed at the box office. While Azhagiya Tamizh Magan faced harsh criticism, Vel was lapped up by the masses and eventually ended up as a big success at the box office.
2011: Velayudham vs 7aam Arivu
Diwali of 2011 brought yet another box office clash between Suriya and Vijay. Directed by AR Murugadoss, audiences had high expectations from 7aam Arivu and many predicted that it will definitely win over Velayutham. But surprisingly, the latter became the box office favourite. 7aam Arivu had a sci-fi element, which neither appealed to the masses, nor the critics. On the other hand, Velayutham got decent reviews being a commercial film, and made good money.
Apart from these clashes, Vijay and Suriya have also shared screen space in two hit films, Nerukku Ner (1997) and Friends (2001). Here’s a fun fact about the two actors that you probably didn’t know- Vijay was the first choice for Suriya’s super hit film Unnai Ninaithu while Vijay’s hit film Nanban had been offered to Suriya first!
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