Topic summary
Bigil

Bigil (transl. Whistle) is a 2019 Indian Tamil-language sportsaction drama film directed and co-written by Atlee and produced by AGS Entertainment. The film stars Vijay in the main dual lead role as father and son, alongside an ensemble cast of Nayanthara, Jackie Shroff, Vivek, Kathir, Daniel Balaji, Anandaraj, Yogi Babu, I. M. Vijayan, Arjan Bajwa, Indhuja Ravichandran, Reba Monica John, Amritha Aiyer, and Varsha Bollamma. It is the third collaboration of Vijay with Atlee after Theri (2016) and Mersal (2017). The film follows Michael "Bigil" Rayappan, a former footballer give up his dream and turned into a gangster after his father's death but ends up as coach of a women's football team after his friend is injured.
The film was officially announced in November 2018 under the tentative title Thalapathy 63, as it is Vijay's 63rd film and the official title was announced in June 2019.Principal photography commenced in January 2019. It was predominantly shot in Chennai, with a minor schedule in Delhi, and wrapped by mid-August. The film has music composed by A. R. Rahman, cinematography handled by G. K. Vishnu and editing by Ruben.
Bigil was released on 25 October 2019, coinciding with the occasion of Diwali, and received mixed to fairly positive reviews from critics. The film emerged as the highest-grossing Tamil film of 2019 and the second highest grossing South Indian film of 2019 after Saaho, collecting around ₹285−300 crore upon its release. It further became one of the highest-grossing Tamil films and the highest-grossing film of Vijay's career at that time until it was surpassed by Varisu and Leo (both 2023). The film won two awards each at the Zee Cine Awards Tamil, Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards, three Edison Awards and a SIIMA Award.