24 was originally planned with Vikram, reveals director Vikram Kumar
Suriya’s ’24’ is an unique film that explored the concept of time travel. Releasing in 2016, it was probably the first time the genre was attempted on such a big scale in Tamil. Vikram Kumar directed the film that had Suriya in a triple role. Upon release, the film emerged as a box office success and also found critical acclaim. It even won a couple of awards at the National level for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design.
However, not many know that ’24’ was originally planned with Chiyaan Vikram in the lead. Director Vikram Kumar made this interesting revelation in a recent interview. Apparently, Vikram was the first choice for the role and they even started shoot with him. Ileana D’Cruz was the heroine then and Harris Jayaraj was the composer. However, due to some unknown reasons, the project got dropped at the initial stage itself.
During this time, Suirya got to watch Vikram Kumar’s Telugu film ‘Manam’ and loved it. He expressed his wish to remake the film in Tamil with Karthi, Jyothika and Sivakumar. The director instead wanted Suriya to listen to the script of ’24’. The actor was highly impressed by the script that he not just agreed to play the lead but also produce the film. Nithya Menen and Samantha were later signed as the female leads. Maestro AR Rahman was brought on board as the music director.
Vikram Kumar is currently working on a second part to ’24’. The film has the potential for both a prequel and a sequel. It will be interesting to see what the director comes up.
