Director Shankar's blockbuster film Mudhalvan (1999) has remained one of the landmark films of Tamil cinema and starred Arjun and Manisha Koirala in the lead. However, a number of leading actors were approached to play the male lead in the film back then, Vijay being one of them.

Shankar has apparently revealed the reason behind Vijay rejecting the role in the film, according to reports. It has been mentioned that Shankar's associate initially approached Vijay's father S.A.Chandrasekar with the script of the political thriller, but negotiations regarding the call sheet did not work out between the two. Shankar later worked with Vijay in 'Nanban,' a remake of Bollywood blockbuster '3 Idiots,' starring Aamir Khan in the lead. Reports were recently doing the rounds that Vijay would be collaborating with Shankar for the sequel of Mudhalvan, although there has been no official confirmation. An announcement regarding the same is not expected anytime soon either as Vijay is currently looking forward to the release of Lokesh Kanagaraj's Master, while Shankar is busy with work on the sequel of his 1996 movie 'Indian,' starring Kamal Haasan.

Meanwhile, fans of Vijay are eagerly awaiting the release of Master, which is expected to happen as soon as the pandemic situation comes under control and the nationwide lockdown is fully lifted. Bankrolled by Xavier Britto under the XB creaters banner, Master will feature Vijay Sethupathi as the antagonist and Malavika Mohanan as the female lead. Shanthanu, Arjun Das, and Andrea will also be playing significant roles in the film.