28 years after Thalapathi, Santosh Sivan set to work with Rajinikanth

Ace cinematographer Santosh Sivan has bagged a biggie. The multifaceted talent has been signed as the director of the photography for Rajinikanth's upcoming Tamil movie, which is written and directed by AR Murugadoss.

Santosh Sivan had previously worked with the Tamil superstar in Mani Ratnam's blockbuster Thalapathi, which was released 28 years ago. Sharing his excitement, the cinematographer tweeted, "Finally very excited to work with Rajini Sir after Thalapathy . [sic]"

His work in Thalapathi was one of the major highlights in the movie. Although it is said that Santosh had offers to work in Rajinikanth movies on a few occasions, due to date issues he could not take up.

Being the favourite cinematographer of AR Murugadoss, people had expected him to work on this project. Santosh Sivan had earlier worked in the director's films like Thuppakki and Spyder.

Welcoming him on board, Murugadoss tweeted the below:

The shooting of the forthcoming film, which is presently referred to as Thalaivar 166, will commence in March. The hunt for the cast and crew is on. It is rumoured that Keerthy Suresh has been approached to play an important role in the flick. Whereas the names of other technical team are yet to be revealed.

The Rajinikanth-starrer is said to be a political thriller, similar to the director's previous works like Kaththi and Sarkar. Lyca Productions is reportedly producing the Tamil flick.