Greatest of All Time

 

The Greatest of All Time (also marketed as GOAT) is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language science fiction action film directed by Venkat Prabhu and produced by AGS Entertainment. The film stars Vijay in dual roles, alongside Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan, Ajmal Ameer, Jayaram, Sneha, Laila, Meenakshi Chaudhary, Vaibhav, Yogi Babu, Premgi Amaren, Yugendran and VTV Ganesh. It is the twenty-fifth production of the studio and the penultimate film of Vijay before his political entry. The film follows Gandhi, former leader of a special anti-terrorism squad, who reconciles with his squad members to address the problems which were stemmed from their previous actions.

The film was officially announced in May 2023 under the tentative title Thalapathy 68, as it is Vijay's 68th film as a leading actor, and the official title was announced that December. Principal photography commenced in October 2023 and wrapped by late June 2024. Filming locations included Chennai, Thailand, Hyderabad, Sri Lanka, Pondicherry, Thiruvananthapuram, Russia and United States. The film has music composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, cinematography handled by Siddhartha Nuni and editing by Venkat Raajen. Made on a production budget of ₹400 crore, it is AGS' most expensive film and one of the most expensive Indian films.

Plot

2008: In Kenya, the Special Anti-Terrorism Squad (SATS), consisting of Gandhi, Sunil, Kalyan, and Ajay, intercepts their former chief, Rajiv Menon, who was on the run after being charged with treason. They retrieve stolen uranium from Menon and destroy the train he was on, believing everyone on board, including Menon, to have died. Back in Delhi, the team lives undercover as employees of India Tourism Development Corporation, a tourism company, hiding their real jobs from their families. Gandhi lives with his wife, Anuradha "Anu", who is pregnant, and their five-year-old son, Jeevan.

Gandhi takes his family along to alleviate Anu's suspicions of infidelity when he is assigned a new mission in Bangkok. After completing the mission, Gandhi and his family are attacked, leading to Anu going into labor, and Jeevan mysteriously disappearing. The police find a charred body they believe to be Jeevan’s, leaving Gandhi devastated. Anu delivers a baby girl but stops speaking to Gandhi out of grief.

2024: Gandhi has left the squad and works as an immigration officer at Chennai International Airport. He and Anu live separately, and their daughter Jeevitha lives with Anu. Nazeer, Gandhi's former boss, asks him to go to Moscow to train new officers at the reopened Indian Embassy. Though reluctant, Gandhi agrees, but during his time there, the embassy is attacked by a gang. Gandhi fights them off and is shocked to see one of the attackers, who looks like a younger version of himself. He realizes it’s Jeevan and confirms this when Jeevan helps him fend off the attackers. They return to Chennai, and the family reunites, with Anu starting to speak to Gandhi again. However, Nazeer calls Gandhi for an urgent meeting but is attacked by a masked man. Gandhi arrives just in time to fight off the attacker, but Nazeer is killed by the masked figure, who is revealed to be Jeevan

2008: Menon survived the train explosion but lost his family in the incident. Seeking revenge, Menon tracked Gandhi to Bangkok, kidnapped Jeevan, and placed him in a juvenile facility, instilling fear in him. Menon then “rescued” Jeevan from the facility, earning his trust and renaming him Sanjay. Jeevan, manipulated by Menon, comes to believe Gandhi is responsible for the deaths of his family. Fueled by this hatred, Jeevan dedicates his life to Menon and revenge.

2024: Jeevan kills Ajay and Sunil's daughter, Srinidhi, and it is revealed that Kalyan had been working with Menon all along, helping him with Jeevan's kidnapping and Srinidhi's murder. While tracking down Sha, Jeevan's accomplice, Gandhi coincidentally finds Jeevan and arrests him. During an interrogation, Jeevan seizes Sunil’s gun, seemingly kills him, and forces Gandhi to escort him out, allowing Jeevan to escape. Sunil is revealed to be alive and kills Kalyan. Jeevan’s final plan is to detonate bombs at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, intending to kill the audience. Gandhi, with the help of his brother-in-law Seenu and Jeevitha, manages to get hold of the bomb detonators and confronts Jeevan, killing him atop the stadium.

In a mid-credits scene, it is revealed that the Jeevan killed by Gandhi was actually a clone, and the real Jeevan, now a scientist specializing in cloning, is still alive and begins creating more clones to continue his plans.

Cast

• Vijay in dual roles as

• M. S. Gandhi

• Jeevan Gandhi / Sanjay Menon

• S. J. Akhilan as childhood Jeevan

• Prashanth as Sunil Thiagarajan

• Prabhu Deva as Kalyan Sundaram

• Mohan as Rajiv Menon

• Jayaram as Nazeer

• Ajmal Ameer as Ajay Govindharaj

• Vaibhav as Sha

• Yogi Babu as Diamond Babu

• Premgi Amaren as Seenu

• Sneha as Anuradha "Anu" Gandhi (Voice dubbed by Savitha Reddy)

• Laila as Dr. Radhika Sunil (also dubbed by Reddy)

• Meenakshi Chaudhary as Srinidhi Sunil (Voice dubbed by M. M. Manasi)

• Abhyukta Manikandan as Jeevitha Gandhi

• Subbu Panchu as SI Rajendran

• VTV Ganesh as Raghavan

• Yugendran as Abdul

• Parvati Nair as Parvati

• Aravind Akash as Aravind

• Ajay Raj as Ajay

• Komal Sharma as Juvenile caregiver

• Anjena Kirti as a Juvenile warden

• Subramanian Gopalakrishnan as a SATS officer

• Dileepan as Dhilip

• T. Siva as an Indian Embassy officer

• Irfan Zaini an Indian Embassy officer

• Omar Lateef as Omar

• Sivakarthikeyan as himself (cameo appearance)

• Trisha Krishnan in a special appearance as a dancer in the song "Matta"

• Y. G. Mahendran as RAW officer (cameo appearance)

• Kaniha as Abi Menon (cameo appearance)

Additionally, late actor-politician Vijayakanth was featured in the film using artificial intelligence as a tribute to him; his voice was dubbed by K. Manikandan. MS Dhoni, Ravindra Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane along with Archana Kalpathi and Aishwarya Kalpathi, appear from archived footages in an IPL game featuring Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians.

Production

In late November 2021, Vijay, who had collaborated with director Atlee for three successful films, was reported to collaborate again with the latter for his 68th film as the lead actor.[9] Marking their collaboration after Theri (2016), Mersal (2017), and Bigil (2019), the production process was set to begin after the director completed his commitments for his debut Hindi film, Jawan (2023). In the meantime, Vijay would work on two projects, Varisu and Leo (both 2023). On 24 December, Yuvan Shankar Raja, through X, posted a picture of himself and Vijay, which was speculated to hint a reunion in the near future after Pudhiya Geethai (2003). Reports of the collaboration between Vijay and Atlee continued throughout 2022. That December, it was reported that filming was set to commence in June 2023, as Atlee by then had completed Jawan, as the initial film's release date was 2 June 2023; but was postponed.

The following May, however, Atlee was confirmed to not direct the project, as he had signed another Hindi film, which became Baby John (2024). Vijay had reportedly listened to multiple scripts, which included from directors Venkat Prabhu and Gopichand Malineni. On 21 May, Vijay, through his social media pages, announced that his 68th film would be helmed by Prabhu, tentatively titled Thalapathy 68. AGS Entertainment would produce the film, while Archana Kalpathi and Aishwarya Kalapathi served as creative producers. It is the production house's most expensive and 25th film production.  The film was made on a budget of ₹400 crore, with Vijay having received a remuneration of ₹200 crore (US$24 million) making him the highest-paid actor in India. In the following 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 (2024).The film's official title, The Greatest of All Time, was announced on 31 December 2023.

Casting

Vijay plays dual roles. De-aging technology was used for the younger version. Initially Prabhu's first choices for Vijay's characters were Rajinikanth and Dhanush. Meenakshi Chaudhary and Sneha were cast as female leads, with the former being paired opposite the younger Vijay, in her first collaboration with the actor, and the latter opposite the older Vijay, reuniting with the actor after Vaseegara (2003). Prabhu Deva joined the casting in an important role, teaming up for the maiden time with Vijay as an actor after having directed two films, whilst Prashanth was cast further in an important role, collaborating with the latter for the first time.

Laila, Vaibhav, Mohan, Jayaram, and Ajmal Ameer, Yogi Babu, VTV Ganesh, Prabhu's frequent collaborators Premgi Amaren,Aravind Akash, and Ajay Raj were announced to play prominent roles. With Babu and Ganesh making their first collaboration with Prabhu, all of their inclusion was confirmed during their presence at the muhurat puja. Ganja Karuppu revealed that he was a part of the cast in mid December, while Parvati Nair did the same the following month. Yugendran was present at the film's preliminary shooting, confirming his presence; he would act with Vijay after Thirupaachi (2005).Premalatha, the wife of late Vijayakanth, confirmed that the latter would be featured in a scene for the film with the use of artificial intelligence (AI). Y. G. Mahendran stated that he would also make a cameo appearance, during an interview with Filmibeat.

Music

Main article: The Greatest of All Time (soundtrack)

The soundtrack is composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja, in his second collaboration with Vijay after Pudhiya Geethai (2003) and tenth with Prabhu. An audio launch was intended to be held, but was later canceled due to reasons unknown. The album featuring four songs, "Whistle Podu", "Chinna Chinna Kangal", "Spark" and "Matta" — was released on 3 September 2024, two days before the film's release.

Marketing

The film's first look poster was released on 31 December 2023, revealing the film's title. The teaser trailer was released on 22 June, coinciding the occasion of Vijay's 50th birthday. The official merchandise of the film was launched by Filmydice, Meesakar, ColourCrafts and Namma Tribe on 25 August 2024.

On 29 July 2024, the film's creative producer, Archana Kalpathi, announced that updates for the film would be released from the following month. Official announcement posters for the third single, which released on 1 and 2 August, both received a negative response from fans and general audience, with them mostly being criticised for Vijay's de-aged look. A promotional IMAX poster, which was released on 8 August 2024, confirmed the film's status of being released in the format. The Singapore Book of Records awarded the members of the Singapore Thalapathy Vijay Fans Club, for having the largest human figure standee (of Vijay) in front of Carnival Cinemas, with a height of 5.1 meter. The film's posters were showcased on the Leicester Square Screen in the UK, becoming the first South Indian film to have ever done so.

The film's final trailer was released in August 2024. Vijay's de-aged looks in the trailer were positively received, being regarded as an improvement over his de-aged looks in previous promotional material. Venkat Prabhu confirmed this was in response to past criticism.

Box office

The Greatest of All Time grossed ₹100.5 crore (US$12 million) worldwide on its opening day, which was the second highest first day gross for a Tamil film, with over ₹53 crore (US$6.4 million) from India. The film became Vijay's second film to gross over ₹100 crore on its opening day after Leo (2023). The film crossed ₹200 crore (US$24 million) within four days, making Vijay the first Tamil actor to have eight consecutive films that has crossed the milestone.

The Greatest of All Time debuted at the second place at the UK and Ireland box office, behind Beetlejuice Beetlejuice on its opening weekend. It grossed an estimated ₹288 crore (US$35 million) worldwide from its opening weekend of four days. The film reached the ₹100 crore (US$12 million) mark in Tamil Nadu on its opening weekend, becoming the second fastest film to reach so after Leo, beating Ponniyin Selvan: I (2022). It also became the second Tamil film to enter the global weekend chart of Comscore, the other being Leo, emerging as the number nine film of the global box-office weekend. On its first Monday, it grossed ₹13.50 crore (US$1.6 million) in Tamil Nadu only, beating Vikram (2022) which previously held the record of highest-grossing on its first Monday in the state.

The film crossed the ₹300 crore (US$36 million) mark worldwide within six days, becoming the fourth film of Vijay to reach the mark after Bigil (2019), Varisu (2023) and Leo.