Mani Ratnam's Inji Vellam will open in theatres worldwide on 29 January 2027. Vijay Sethupathi shared the date on his official X account on 11 November 2026 in a short "save the date" post, and Madras Talkies and Lyca Productions put out the same announcement on their own X handles at about 5 PM IST that day, a few hours after teasing an update.
Vijay Sethupathi and Sai Pallavi play the leads, and actor Chaithra J Achar is the newest name in the cast. She was tagged in the release-date posts from Lyca Productions and Vijay Sethupathi, and media reports on the announcement said she had joined the film. Mani Ratnam has written and directed the drama.
Who is making it
The official posts present the film under Subaskaran's name, with Lyca Productions and Mani Ratnam's Madras Talkies as the two banners. Media reports add that Mani Ratnam is producing with Siva Ananth on the Madras Talkies side.
A R Rahman is composing the songs and score. The rest of the core crew named in the posts and in media reports includes cinematographer Avik Mukhopadhyay, editor Sreekar Prasad, art director Sharmishta Roy and action choreographer Dhilip Subbarayan.
Media reports published on 11 November said Netflix has taken the streaming rights and Sony Music the audio rights. The Madras Talkies post tagged both companies' accounts, but it did not spell out any rights deal, so these details rest on media reports for now.
The motion poster released with the date shows the two leads with two young girls in a crowded street. Media reports read this as a couple and their children, though the makers have not described the characters.
Background
Madras Talkies revealed the title and the first look on 7 September 2026. That poster placed Vijay Sethupathi and Sai Pallavi in the rain with Kolkata's Howrah Bridge behind them, and earlier reports noted the project had been known as Madras Talkies Production No. 23 until then.
This is the first time Vijay Sethupathi and Sai Pallavi share the screen. It is also Sai Pallavi's first film with Mani Ratnam, while Vijay Sethupathi returns to the director after the 2018 gangster drama Chekka Chivantha Vaanam. At the audio launch of Amaran in October 2024, Mani Ratnam had publicly told Sai Pallavi, "I am a big fan."
Inji Vellam takes Mani Ratnam back to the kind of relationship drama he explored in Mouna Ragam, Alai Payuthey and OK Kanmani. It is his first film since Thug Life, the Kamal Haasan gangster saga that reached theatres on 5 June 2025 and was produced by Raaj Kamal Films International and Madras Talkies.
The director's link with Rahman goes back to Roja in 1992, the composer's debut feature, and continued through films such as Bombay, Dil Se, Guru and Raavan. Media reports describe Inji Vellam as their 19th film together. Lyca Productions, meanwhile, first teamed up with Madras Talkies on Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, and the two banners went on to back Ponniyin Selvan.
Both leads have releases before January. Vijay Sethupathi's Train, directed by Mysskin, is due on 4 December 2026, and Thiagarajan Kumararaja's Pocket Novel is set for Pongal on 14 January 2027. Sai Pallavi's next release is Om – Chapter 1, directed by Rajkumar Periyasamy, which opens on 20 November 2026.
