Director Nelson Dilipkumar has carved a niche for himself as a dark humour specialist in Tamil cinema with his three films 'Kolamavu Kokila', 'Doctor' and 'Beast'. Among the three films though Thalapathy Vijay's 'Beast' has attracted family audiences the reviews have been mixed with the director receiving a lot of flak for disappointing Vijay fans.

Rumours started flying high that Superstar Rajinikanth and Sun Pictures heads after watching 'Beast' together were disappointed and are contemplating changing the director of their next 'Thalaivar 169'. The same reports suggested that Desing Periyasamy and Atlee are the front runners to helm the project.

Nelson has coolly replied to the rumours by changing the profile details of his Twitter page. Earlier in the description field he had written that he is the director of 'Kolamavu Kokila' , 'Doctor' and 'Beast'. Now he has added 'Thalaivar 169' making it clear that he is indeed the helmer of the much awaited project.

'Thalaivar 169', according to our sources will go on floors in July and release worldwide on Pongal 2023. The film has music by Anirudh and Sivakarthikeyan, Priyanka Arul Mohan and Vadivelu are said to be a part of the ensemble cast.