With Tamil superstar Rajinikanth’s latest release ‘Jailer’ setting box office on fire and announcing his comeback in a big way in Kollywood. Similarly, his colleague and arch rival Kamal Haasan also scored a massive hit with ‘Vikram’ last year. Both ageing stars proved that they are still in the business and are going to give young generation heroes like Vijay, Suriya and Karthi a run for their money. “Both the films were record-shattering hits and the senior stars proved that they are still in the reckoning. They always had a mass following but they needed the right script. Once they found the right one, they struck a chord with the masses and fans alike to deliver money-spinners,” says Tamil producer-distributor Sakthi Velan.
Apart from scoring blockbusters, both the 60-plus stars shared another common thing–multiple heroes in both the winners. If Fahadh Faasil and Vijay Sethupathi were special attractions in ‘Vikram’, it was Mohan Lal, Shivaraj Kumar and Jacki Shroff in Rajinikanth’s action thriller. “It is true that both Rajnikanth and Kamal Haassan allowed more screen space to other language actors in their respective films but in their own way. The Kamal film ‘Vikram’ gave equal enough space to Malayalam actor Fahadh Faasil and Tamil star Vijay Sethupathi whose performances were major attractions of the film and helped the story to move forward. Hence it carried a good report and also set the box office on fire,” says Sakhti Velan.
However, he has a different take on Rajinikanth film.“Even 'Jailer' boasted of superstars like Mohan Lal, Shivaraj Kumar and Jackie Shroff but their immense talent wasn’t properly utilized. Eventually, it turned out to be a one-man show of Rajinikanth till the end. Invariably, it carried a mixed report but it has all possibility to surpass Vikram box office collections in the days to come,” he concludes.
