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Watch: Archana Kalpathi interview: ‘GOAT will feature vintage Vijay’
In 2019, a week before the release of Vijay’s Bigil, its producer, Archana Kalpathi of AGS productions, was proud of the way it had turned out.
Cut to September 2024, and Archana has another film with Vijay on the cards. Even as The Greatest of All Time hits screens on September 5, Archana, a self-confessed Vijay fan-turned-producer, is both anxious and excited about the film.
“It’s like awaiting your board exam results,” smiles Archana, “You have worked hard for a project and are now waiting to see how it will be received.”
The Greatest of All Time (GOAT), directed by Venkat Prabhu, is among 2024’s biggest Tamil films. How did it all start?
Vijay in a still from GOAT; and Archana Kalpathi
“After Bigil, AGS and Vijay sir wanted to do a film together again. Venkat Prabhu had pitched five storylines to us, and after his Maanadu became a blockbuster, we wanted him to helm Sivakarthikeyan’s 24th film. Parallelly, when I met Vijay sir, we spoke about one of Venkat Prabhu’s ideas. It was a technically tough subject but we decided to embark on it. GOAT is a complete Vijay film with respect to story, screenplay and scale. We have done a few things that audiences will least expect and if those things click, the film will be a massive success,” she says, confidently.
What Archana is referring to is not just the project’s futuristic attempts — GOAT uses de-ageing techniques to portray Vijay as a 23-year-old — but also its references to other iconic moments from the actor’s discography. The trailer, in fact, features Vijay delivering a popular comedy dialogue that he performed in Ghilli, his 2004 superhit flick. “I felt that the last few films starring Vijay were missing the light-hearted moments that we grew up watching. GOAT will have those.”
The AI wave
GOAT, which has a run-time of almost three hours, is a multi-starrer that boasts actors including Prashanth, Prabhu Deva, Mohan, Jayaram, Sneha and Laila. It has also used artificial intelligence extensively; late Tamil actor Vijayakanth appears in a sequence and late singer Bhavatharini has crooned a song, both thanks to AI. “AI…well, it will be a game-changer, surely,” explains Archana, “From the movie-making side, the possibilities are endless. We can bring back so many actors to the big screen. But on the flip side, it will take away jobs, which we need to address.”
Vijay in a still from ‘The Greatest of All Time’ (GOAT)
Vijay’s foray into Tamil Nadu politics and a likelihood of his quitting acting has already garnered attention. His political party, Tamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam’s (TVK) flag anthem was released recently. However, this is not the best news for someone like Archana who is not just a fan but also a theatre-owner. “His is the tent-pole film of the year because it will help us tide over three bad months of box-office collections. He has a guaranteed opening and collection. That revenue is what we use to deal with our slower months, so it will be a big vacuum. We will all miss him in the movies.”
Breaking the mould
As a production house, AGS is known to back content-oriented films; it has given audiences films such as Santhosh Subramaniam, Madrasapattinam, Thani Oruvan and more recently, Love Today. While Tamil cinema continues to patronise new filmmakers, production is not in the “most healthy space”, agrees Archana. “As producers, we are going through turbulent times. Till the pandemic, the bet was on the film to do well as theatricals. Then there was the satellite and digital business, but the whole game changed after that. Now, there has to be some kind of balance where we make films that will run in theatres and later.” For that, marketing is key. She singles out the recent Mari Selvaraj-directed Vazhaias an example of a film doing well despite not having big commercial elements. “If you have a good trailer and market the film innovatively, audiences will come.”
While she has a lot of hope pinned on GOAT at the moment, Archana will soon move on to her next project Dragon, directed by Ashwath Marimuthu starring Pradeep Ranganathan of Love Today fame in the lead. “The success of Love Today taught us that script is the superstar. The current generation of filmmakers and audiences are watching films and listening to music from across the world, unlike me, who at their age, watched Tamil and English films and only a smattering of other language movies. With AI coming in, it’s an exciting space for Indian cinema to be in and break the mould. This generation is going to help us do that.”
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