Actor Suriya has been making rapid progress as a star in Kollywood in the past few years. Ever since he starred in director Bala’s Nandha and Pithamagan, Suriya appears to have discovered the winning formula and is repeating it in various films in the recent past. Slowly but surely he looks all set to overtake Ilayathalapathy Vijay as the leading hero of Kollywood after the likes of superstar Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan.
Though they haven’t made it public, there is a ‘hide-and-seek’ game played by these two. Suriya’s ambition appears to be to take on Vijay at every possible opportunity and come out on top. Suriya was the clear winner when the last time these two ‘clashed’ on Deepavali when Suriya’s 7aum Arivu and Vijay’s Velayudham clashed at the box-office. Critics hold that content-wise and performance-wise, the Suriya-starrer was leagues ahead.
For his upcoming film Maatraan directed by K.V. Anand, Suriya has reportedly secured the distribution and release rights of the film’s Telugu version as well. This has taken his total fee for the film to just over Rs.18 crore, a sum which has never been touched by the likes of Vijay and Ajith. In the past, Suriya had taken on many projects rejected by Vijay and had come out triumphs each time, much to the dismay of the latter.
The latest round when Suriya managed to beat many of his contemporaries is the hosting of a reality game show in Vijay TV. The game-show, on the lines of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan’s Kaun Banega Crorepati, would be hosted by Suriya. Actually, it was Vijay who was first approached by the channel to host the game show for a hefty fee. For reasons known best to him, Vijay opted out of the show.
Suriya, who has recently returned from Italy after a long schedule of shooting of Maatraan, has returned to Chennai and has reportedly been shooting at present for the game show. Suriya is said to have been paid a whopping amount of 1 Crore per day of his call sheet to shoot for the show.
Industry-watchers predict that the show, to be relayed on Vijay TV would surely be another jewel in Suriya’s crown!
