Udhayanidhi's Old Vijay Date-Asking Interview Resurfaces Amid Rivalry

The clip is old but the timing isn't. As Vijay and Udhayanidhi Stalin square off across the Tamil Nadu assembly aisle, a throwback interview of Udhayanidhi recalling how he first landed a film with Vijay has started doing the rounds again, per Filmibeat Tamil.

In the interview, Udhayanidhi says he knew Vijay from before his own production career began and that he went up to him directly. "I told Vijay anna, give me a date," he recalls saying. Vijay's reported response was blunt: go do a film with Vishal first, then come back to him. Udhayanidhi says he refused to budge. He wanted his first production to be with Vijay and no one else. That insistence is how Kuruvi happened, he says.

The clip wouldn't mean much on its own. What's giving it fresh legs is where the two men stand today. Filmibeat Tamil's report describes Vijay as Tamil Nadu's chief minister and Udhayanidhi as Leader of the Opposition, a role that fell to him after his father M.K. Stalin lost his own Kolathur seat even as his campaign there was, by most accounts, a strong one. The report says DMK loyalists are still struggling to explain that defeat, with some even directing their frustration at Kolathur's voters. Vijay's party, per the same report, won 108 seats and formed a minority government with backing from parties that had been part of the DMK-led alliance before the polls.