Thunivu (2023) [Hindi-Tamil]

Thunivu (transl. Fortitude)[2] is a 2023 Indian Tamil-language action heist film written and directed by H. Vinoth, and produced by Boney Kapoor. It stars Ajith Kumar, Manju Warrier, Samuthirakani and Pavani Reddy with John Kokken, Mamathi Chari, Veera and Bagavathi Perumal in supporting roles. A gang forms a plan and robs a bank only to find that there’s already a criminal mastermind holding it for ransom, but his identities and motives behind the heist remains mysterious. As they plan to collect the bounty and disappear without a trace, their crimes and their past slowly catches upto them.

The film was announced with the tentative title AK61 (Ajith’s 61st film in a leading role) in February 2022, with the official title announced that September. Principal photography commenced in April and ended in that October, taking place in Hyderabad and Bangkok. Post-production works began in late-October and were completed that December.

Ajith Kumar’s 60th film, Valimai (2022) under the direction of H. Vinoth and produced by Boney Kapoor, faced several production delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[9][10] In March 2021, Kapoor hinted on collaborating for the actor’s 61st film and Vinoth directing the film,[11] which would mark their third consecutive collaboration following Nerkonda Paarvai (2019) and Valimai,[11] which was later confirmed on September 2021.[12] Sources reported that Kapoor suffered financial problems following the protracted production of Valimai, which necessitated a third collaboration between the actor and director, though he denied such claims in an interview before Valimai’s release.[13] Initially Ajith planned for collaborating with a different director, but agreed to join with Vinoth after watching the rough edit of Valimai.[14]

On 15 February 2022, the project was officially announced under the working title AK 61, and pre-production works for the film began the same time.[15] Kapoor also shared a still featuring Ajith in a long beard with coolers in a monochrome format, which would be the looks for his film.[16][17] As a part of the film’s shoot, a huge set resembling Mount Road in Chennai would be erected at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad, where much of the film’s shoot would take place.[18][19] Vinoth recruited cinematographer Nirav Shah and editor Vijay Velukutty, who worked on Valimai, while music composer Ghibran and art director Milan, were signed on.[19] Supreme Sundar was hired to choreograph the action sequences.[20] The official title Thunivu was announced on 21 September 2022.[21][22]

In December 2022, Vinoth revealed in an interview to The Times of India, saying in response that the film is a heist film, that the film blends multiple genres and cannot be slotted under the particular genre. Vinoth said he narrated a single scene, The following month, Kapoor said in an interview that 36 days of film’s shooting has been completed and the film would be wrapped entirely during July–August 2022.[42] A unit from the film had shot few sequences from Mount Road in Chennai, instead of the set production in Hyderabad.[43] On 10 June 2022, the film’s first schedule was completed,[44] and the team later took a schedule break as Ajith went on a family vacation to United Kingdom.[45] Few sequences, without the actor had been shot, with Manju Warrier also joining Thunivu was released theatrically on 11 January 2023, in the week of Pongal.