Silambarasan rules out Pongal for Arasan; Diwali gets a glimpse instead

Arasan will not release for Pongal 2027. Silambarasan said so himself, to a hall of college students in Chennai, and the clip did a second lap on Friday, which happened to be Vetrimaaran’s birthday. “Many of you were expecting Arasan this Pongal. Unfortunately, the film will not release then,” he said. “We could rush it out, but if it does not come out right, that would be embarrassing. We could tighten it and bring it in shorter, and that would be a big mistake. It would hurt the film.” So the team is taking its time. “I promised all of you a film you would be proud of. Arasan will keep that promise.”

What fans get this Diwali is not the film but a look inside it. The World of Arasan, a video cut from the footage shot so far, will play exclusively in theatres, a walk through the world Vetrimaaran has built rather than a trailer. It is a consolation, and Silambarasan did not dress it up as anything else; “this is disappointing for fans,” he said, before pitching the video.

Worth remembering where Diwali sat six months ago. In March the plan was a release by the end of this year; by May the makers were talking about a worldwide Diwali release and a shoot wrapped inside three months. Diwali has since become the date for a glimpse, Pongal has been struck off, and nobody has named a new one. None of this is out of character. Vetrimaaran’s films have a habit of arriving later than announced, Vada Chennai and both Viduthalai films included, and Silambarasan gave the reason without being asked: “You all know Vetri sir. He wants everything to be complete.”

The line that travelled furthest was the comparison. “Just as Dhurandhar made the whole country turn and look at Hindi cinema, this film will make people turn and look at Tamil cinema,” he said, describing Arasan as a realistic film shot across several real locations, with his character followed from youth to old age through several get-ups. The comparison is about reach, not content; Dhurandhar is Ranveer Singh’s spy epic, whose second half, The Revenge, arrived in March. Vetrimaaran, at the Neelira trailer launch that same month, was complaining that hundreds of crores were being chased by lifting up violence and hate. He named no film. His leading man has now named one as the benchmark.

Arasan sits inside the Vada Chennai universe, with Andrea Jeremiah, Samuthirakani, Kishore and Ameer carrying their characters over, Vijay Sethupathi joining as a police officer and Priyanka Mohan opposite Silambarasan. Kalaipuli S Thanu produces for V Creations, Anirudh Ravichander scores, Velraj shoots, Ramar edits and Peter Hein handles the action. The World of Arasan reaches theatres at Diwali; the film itself has no date.