Venkat Prabhu Reveals Missed Opportunity To Direct Superstar Rajinikanth

Thalapathy Vijay’s GOAT is one of the most anticipated releases of the year, being directed by Venkat Prabhu, an illustrious South cinema filmmaker. In a recent media interaction, the actor made a shocking revelation, talking about a missed opportunity to direct superstar Rajinikanth. Here are all the details of the conversation.

As per the reports, the director shared in the interview that he met with the superstar and narrated the project’s story to him. He stated, “I narrated a story to Rajini sir and he liked the story. I was confident that I would direct Rajinikanth. But Nelson grabbed the opportunity at the last moment.” Speaking further, he added, “Though I am upset that I missed the opportunity to direct Rajinikanth, I am happy that Nelson got the opportunity.”

The filmmaker is busy with the work on The Greatest Of All Time, led by Thalapathy Vijay. The film also stars an ensemble cast of Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Ajmal Ameer, Meenakshi Chaudhary, Mohan and Jayaram among others. It is being produced by Kalpathi S Aghoram, Kalpathi S Ganesh and Kalpathi S Suresh under the banner of AGS Entertainment. The music is handled by Yuvan Shankar Raja and the cinematographer is Siddhartha Nuni while Venkat Raajen is the editor. The film will have its theatrical release on September 5, this year.

Venkat Prabhu ventured into directing through the film Chennai 600028, released in 2007. It starred Jai, Shiva, Premji, Nithin Sathya, Aravind Akash and Vijay Vasanth, along with several others. The film was backed by S P B Charan and J K Saravana, under the Capital Film Works banner. The film opened to positive reviews from the audience as well as critical acclaim. In the following years, the filmmaker went on to direct releases like Saroja, Goa, Mankatha, Maanaadu and Manmadha Leelai.

Venkat’s last directorial was the film Custody, which was released in May 2023. It starred Naga Chaitanya, Aravind Swamy, Krithi Shetty and Priyamani. It is bankrolled by the Srinivasaa Silver Screen and Anji Industries banners.