The pictures landed on timelines within minutes. Vijay and Ajith Kumar, standing together on the sidelines of the Michelin Le Mans Cup at Silverstone, both grinning, both clearly enjoying the racing more than the attention their meeting was about to generate.

Ajith races competitively and has for years. Vijay, who now serves as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, was there as a spectator, according to The Hindu's report on the meeting. Neither man has said anything publicly about what was discussed track-side. Fans have filled that silence with theories, memes and a fair amount of nostalgia.

This is not new territory for either star. Vijay and Ajith go back to 1995, when they shared screen space in Rajavin Parvaiyile, long before either became the box office force he is today. Their public meetings since then have been rare enough that each one gets logged and re-shared.

One of the earliest came in September 2005, at the pooja ceremony for Ajith's Thirupathi. Photos from that day show Vijay laughing with Ajith, his wife at the time Shalini, and the film's female lead Sadha. Two years later, at the 2007 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, Vijay and Ajith sat next to each other alongside Vikram and Suriya, a lineup that would be unthinkable to assemble deliberately today.

In November 2008, both actors showed up for a dawn-to-dusk fast organised by the South Indian Artistes Association, standing with the industry in solidarity with Tamils in Sri Lanka during the civil war there. It was one of the few times the two men were photographed together for a cause rather than a film or an award.

The meeting fans still bring up first, though, is January 2011. Vijay was shooting Velayudham when he dropped by the Mankatha set at Binny Mills in Perambur, where Ajith was filming with director Venkat Prabhu. Pictures from that visit show Vijay handing Ajith a watch. Venkat Prabhu, who has directed both actors across his career, later said Vijay had asked why he wasn't considered for the ACP Prithviraj role that eventually went to Arjun Sarja in the finished film.

What happens after Silverstone is anybody's guess. The two have never needed a film together to keep the internet interested, and social media reaction to the Le Mans pictures suggests that hasn't changed. Fan pages on both sides have been circulating the photos through the day, less concerned with what was said between the two men than with the fact that it happened at all.

No joint project has been announced, and neither camp has indicated one is in the works. For now, it's just two men at a race track, and a fanbase doing the rest.