Tamil director Shankar Shanmugam, who was once regarded as the trailblazer for big-budget films, has now been labelled as a spent force after dishing out back-to-back disasters with Indian 2 and Game Changer. He received widespread criticism for taking audiences for granted and failing to deliver minimum content expected from his calibre.

While critics and moviegoers have started writing him off, Shankar seems to be undeterred with the recent flop streak and feels that he is still game for larger-than-life scripts. At a time when there is hardly any discussion on his immediate next project after Game Changer, Shankar himself announced that he is in plans to revive his dream project. He confirmed that his upcoming film will be based on Velpari novel.

During his speech in a recent event as chief guest for the novel Velpari, which sold one lakh copies, Shankar said, “ Rajinikanth’s Enthiran was my dream project once. Now, my dream project is Velpari. Whenever a big-budget movie is made, people say it would be a grand venture like Chandralekha, but truly, Velpari will be as big, if not bigger, than that.” He further stated that the film based on Velpari merits to introduce new technologies to Indian cinema which will be on par with the standards of Hollywood biggies like Game of Thrones and Avatar.

Velpari is reportedly based on Veera Yuga Nayagan Vel Pari, a historical novel penned by Su Venkatesan. The story centres around the mighty ruler Vel Pari and the opposition he faced from the three mighty Tamil dynasties – Chera, Chola, and Pandya.

Superstar Rajinikanth also attended this event as one of the chief guests. He praised Shankar’s impact on the growth of Tamil cinema in the 1990s. He recollected their successful collaborations and revealed that he is eagerly waiting for Shankar’s take on Velpari.