Thala Ajith had acted in the movie Billa directed by Vishnuvardhan in 2007, and this movie was the official remake of the Superstar Rajnikanth starrer Billa released in the 80s. Billa 2007 was a blockbuster and a milestone in Ajith's career.

Now it has been revealed that even before Billa, Ajith wanted to act in remake of another Rajnikanth movie and it was none other than Johnny directed by classic movie maker Mahehdran.

Mahendran's son John, the director of Vijay's Sachien revealed in a latest interview that Ajith had met Mahendran once and had expressed his wish to remake Johnny and that he was also willing to produce the movie if Mahendran accepted. John also said that Mahendran had told Ajith will be apt for the remake of Johnny, but Ajith wanted Mahendran only to remake the movie and as Mahendran was not interested in remaking movies, the Johnny remake didn't workout.