How Suriya is planning clashes with Vijay and Ajith's films this year to test his box office potential

The massive clash between Suriya’s NGK and Vijay’s Sarkar was averted in 2018 due to the delay in the post-production works of the former. Interestingly, both the films were political action thrillers so everyone anticipated the clash at the box office. Now, trade buzz says that Suriya’s action drama _Soorarai Pottru_ will be clashing with Vijay’s gangster action thriller _Master_ on 9 April. A section also tells us that the Suriya-starrer is likely to be postponed to 1 May and the clash will be averted once again but as of now, there is no official confirmation regarding the postponement. While the release plans of Soorarai Pottru created a lot of confusion in the trade, the actor surprised everyone with his move to compete against Ajith’s cop thriller Valimai , with upcoming film Aruvaa. Boney Kapoor, the producer of Valimai, announced long back that his team is targeting Diwali 2020 release and the film’s director Vinoth is also working hard to complete the film on time. Just when everyone thought that there is no potential competition for Valimai, producer Gnanavel Raja announced that his upcoming rural family entertainer Aruvaa starring Suriya will hit the screens for Diwali 2020. [caption id=“attachment_7873441” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Suriya in a still from Soorarai Pottru. Image from YouTube[/caption] Director Hari who made Vel, Aaru and three parts of the Singham franchise with Suriya will direct Aruvaa. The shoot of the film will begin in April and the team is planning to complete it in one go. Producer Gnanavel Raja says that unlike the Singham franchise, this film will be an emotional action drama depicting the relationship between two brothers in a rural town in South Tamil Nadu. Imman will be composing the music for Aruvaa which is his maiden partnership with both Suriya and Hari. More recently, competition has helped the biggies reap gold at the box office. The clash between Ajith’s _Viswasam_ and Rajinikanth’s _Petta_ on Pongal 2019 followed by the Diwali battle between Vijay’s Bigil and Karthi’s Kaithi have given the courage to producers to clash with an equivalent biggie during festival weekends. The four Pongal and Diwali releases in 2019 provided 780 to 800 crore revenue to the Tamil film industry last year so the producers of Suriya’s Soorarai Pottru and Aruvaa are planning to clash with Vijay’s Master and Ajith’s Valimai for Summer and Diwali holidays. If we’re being honest, Suriya’s market has been diminishing over the years with the lackluster performance of his recent films at the box office but the actor is quite confident about his upcoming films, especially Soorarai Pottru, as the teaser also looks very promising. Suriya’s last proper hit in Tamil cinema was Singam II (2013) so the trade is also looking forward to his upcoming films this year. Suriya has also recently confirmed that he will be teaming up with National Award-winning director Vetrimaaran with Vaadi Vaasal, a film based on Tamil traditional sport Jallikattu. Vaadi Vaasal is the film adaptation of Chellapa’s classic Tamil novel with the same name. To be produced by Vetrimaaran’s Asuran producer Kalaipuli S Thanu, the director procured the rights of the novel long back. It is worth mentioning here that Vetrimaaran’s previous blockbuster Asuran is also based on a novel Vekkai written by Poomani. Besides these three films, Suriya will also be teaming up with director Siva of _Viswasam-_fame later this year and the project will be bankrolled by Gnanavel Raja. The actor also recently expressed his interest to team up with his good friend Gautham Menon, the duo worked together in classics like Kaakha Kaakha and Vaaranam Aayiram. They had a creative difference during Dhruva Natchathiram but both of them reportedly buried the hatched recently. Gautham has revealed in many interactions that he is planning to narrate a romantic musical drama to Suriya; the story is about two musicians who meet and fall in love and the entire film is set in London. Sources close to Suriya tell us that the actor is planning to deliver two films each year, one will be a gallery pleasing mass entertainer and the other one will be a content-driven film. Starting from this year, Suriya is planning to follow this formula to get back his lost form.