Ilaiyaraaja out, GV Prakash Kumar in: ‘Pocket Novel’ turns a new page

We had earlier reported that Tamil filmmaker Thiagarajan Kumararaja has reunited with his Super Deluxe star Vijay Sethupathi for an upcoming film titled Pocket Novel. The film, currently in production, was set to have music composed by maestro Ilaiyaraaja. However, it is now known that the legendary composer has opted out of the project.

A source close to the production has confirmed to The Hindu that Ilaiyaraaja has exited the project and that GV Prakash Kumar has been roped in as the music composer. The reason for this change remains unknown at the moment.

Pocket Novel, also starring Kannada star Raj B Shetty, Kishore and Malavika Mohanan, marks Kumararaja’s return to feature film direction after seven long years.

With a story and screenplay written by Andrew Louis (Leelai, Kolaigaaran, Vadhandhi: The Mystery of Mani), the upcoming film has cinematography by Nirav Shah and editing by Sathyaraj Natarajan. Pocket Novel is produced by Kumararaja and SD Ezhilmathy under the Tyler Durden and Kino Fest production banner.

Kumararaja, known for helming 2010’s Aaranya Kaandam and 2019’s Super Deluxe, is widely considered one of the finest modern Tamil filmmakers. Notably, Kumararaja and Ilaiyaraaja previously collaborated on the 2023 anthology series Modern Love: Chennai, in which Kumararaja served as the creator (the segments Ilaiyaraaja composed music for include Ninaivo Oru Paravai, which was directed by Kumararaja himself).