Vijay 61: SJ Surya to play a baddie in Atlee-Ilayathalapathy's film

The cast of Vijay's forthcoming movie with Atlee is growing bigger and better. After signing Jyothika, Samantha and Kajal Aggarwal for the female leads, the makers have now roped in a popular director and actor to play the role of antagonist. Well, it is none other than SJ Surya.

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As per the buzz, SJ Surya was recently approached and signed to play the villain's role in the forthcoming movie, which is being presently referred to as Vijay 61. It is the role of a deadly villain and more details about his character will be revealed in the months to come.

SJ Surya is a close friend of Vijay and had directed the actor in blockbuster Kushi. The duo had also shared screen space in Shankar's Nanban, which was the remake of Bollywood movie 3 Idiots. It will be interesting to see them together on-screen again.

Coming to Vijay 61, after a lot of speculations, it was recently revealed that Jyothika, who had earlier romanced Ilayathalapathy in hit movies like Kushi and Thirumalai, Samantha, who teamed up with the actor in Kaththi and Theri and Kajal Aggarwal, who was part of the hero's Thuppakki and Jilla, are the three leading ladies of the movie.

The movie marks the reunion of Vijay and Atlee after blockbuster Theri. The working title of the flick is said to be Theri 2, although it is not a sequel. The film's name is likely to be changed later.

Vijay 61 is funded by Sri Thenandal Films. The shooting will commence in February 2017 and the movie is likely to be released during the Navaratri festival in September 2017.