Initially, Atlee was reported to direct the project, but subsequently, Prabhu was brought on board. The film was announced in May 2023 under the tentative title Thalapathy 68, as it is Vijay's 68th film in a leading role, and the official title was announced in December 2023. Principal photography commenced in October 2023 in Chennai followed with a schedule in Thailand along with one in Hyderabad, which was again followed with another schedule in the former location. Yuvan Shankar Raja will compose the music. The cinematography and editing will be handled by Siddhartha Nuni and Venkat Raajen respectively.
In late November 2021, Vijay, who had previously collaborated with director Atlee, was reported to collaborate for the fourth time with the latter for his 68th film in a lead role. They had previously collaborated on the films Theri (2016), Mersal (2017) and Bigil (2019). It was to begin production after Atlee had finished the works of his debut Hindi film Jawan (2023).[1] In May 2023 however, it was confirmed that Atlee would not be directing the film, as he had already committed to another project with actor Varun Dhawan.[2] That month, there were multiple reports that either Venkat Prabhu or Gopichand Malineni would direct the film.[3][4]
Prabhu had met Vijay in mid May and narrated a story to him, by which the latter was impressed. He also asked Prabhu to develop the full script. In an earlier interview, Prabhu expressed his interest in doing a time loop film with Vijay.[5] On 21 May, the film was officially announced by Vijay through his social media pages under the working titleThalapathy 68, with Prabhu confirmed as the director.[6] Kalpathi S. Aghoram, Kalpathi S. Ganesh and Kalpathi S. Suresh were revealed to produce the film under AGS Entertainment.[7]
Pre-production
Yuvan Shankar Raja was confirmed as the music composer, in his third consecutive film with the director after they had done a total of ten films.[8]This also marked his first film with Vijay since Pudhiya Geethai in 2003.Siddhartha Nuni was chosen for the cinematography, while Venkat Raajen was chosen as the film's editor.[7] Prabhu had co-written the dialogues for the film with Viji, with additional screenplay and dialogues written by K. Chandru and Ezhilarasu Gunasekaran. Production designer Rajeevan Nanbiyar, stunt choreographer Dhilip Subbarayan, art directors Sekar and Surya Rajeevan, costume designers Vasuki Bhaskar and Pallavi Singh and choreographers Raju Sundaram and Sathish Krishnan were chosen to work on the film.[9]
Prabhu and Vijay's collaboration had been in talks for about ten months.[10][11] Multiple reports stated that Vijay would receive a remuneration of ₹200 crore (US$25 million), which would make him the highest-paid film actor in India.[12][13] In August, the team left for Los Angeles to use visual effects scanning to create the look of one of Vijay's characters; this technique was previously used for Fan (2016) and Indian 2.[14] A muhurat puja was held on 2 October 2023 at Prasad Labs in Chennai with the presence of the film's cast and crew, the video of which was released by the production house on 24 October.[15][16] The first look revealing the title, The Greatest of All Time, was released on 31 December 2023.[9] A second promotional poster was released on 1 January 2024 hinting at the film being a science fiction film.[17]A third promotional poster showcasing Vijay and introducing the characters of Prabhu Deva, Prashanth and Ajmal Ameer against a battlefield backdrop was released on 15 January 2024, on the occasion of Pongal.[18]
Casting
After being reported to do so, Vijay would be seen in a dual role as a father and son, which he previously did in Bigil.[19][20] One of the characters' would be seen as a RAW agent, as hinted in the third promotional poster.[21]Sneha was cast to play one of the lead actress role,[22] paired opposite the father character of Vijay; reuniting with the latter after the 2003 film Vaseegara.[23]Meenakshi Chaudhary was also cast, paired opposite the latter character,[24] in her maiden collaboration with Vijay as well as in her third Tamil film.[25]Prabhu Deva, Prashanth, Laila, Vaibhav, Mohan, Jayaram and Ajmal Ameer were confirmed to be a part of the cast, as they were present at the muhurat puja.[26][27][28]
On 24 October 2023, further cast members were announced, including Yogi Babu, VTV Ganesh, and Prabhu's frequent collaborators Premgi Amaren, Aravind Akash and Ajay Raj.[7] Later that month, Ivana was reported to play the role of Vijay's son character's sister.[29]Ramya Krishnan was reportedly approached in late December to play a cameo appearance in the film.[30]Ganja Karuppu, during an interview in mid December, revealed that he was a part of the cast. A few days later, Sudeepa and Malvika Sharma were reported to play important roles in the film respectively.[31] In January, Parvati Nair said she was part of the cast.[32]
Filming
Principal photography commenced with the first schedule on 3 October 2023 in Chennai.[33] The schedule began with a song sequence choreographed by Raju Sundaram, which concluded by 9 October.[34] While most of the team moved to Thailand for the second schedule at the end of the month,[35] Vijay joined them on 3 November.[36] Most of the portions there were being filmed in Bangkok.[37] Within 10 days, Vijay and the makers completed filming the portions and returned back to Chennai.[38] After scouting for locations, the third schedule began in late November at a film city in Hyderabad.[39] Reportedly, the director had united a major cast to film important sequences before the schedule ended by 27 December.[40] After a short break, filming continued on 7 January 2024 in Chennai.[41]
Music
The soundtrack and film score will be composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, in his second collaboration with Vijay after Pudhiya Geethai, and tenth with Prabhu.[42] The audio rights were bought by T-Series, in their second collaboration for a Vijay film after Varisu.[43] Yuvan said the first single would be a dappankuthu number.[44] Venkat Prabhu's father Gangai Amaran, along with Madhan Karky, Kabilan Vairamuthu and Arivu were revealed to write the lyrics for the films' track.[45]
Release
The streaming rights were reportedly acquired by Netflix.[46] The film is to be released in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi languages.[47]
