The production rights of Vijay's 65th movie as lead actor were acquired by Sun Pictures in early January 2020. It was titled "Thalapathy 65". The movie was set to be written and directed by AR Murugadoss. However, the producers ousted Murugadoss from the movie in October 2020, after he refused to cut his renumeration. Nelson was later hired and he wrote a new script for the movie.