Earlier this year, on the occasion of New Year, ace Tamil film director Selvaraghavan dropped the massive announcement that he would be teaming up with his brother and two-time National Award-winning actor Dhanush to bring us the long-awaited sequel to his cult 2010 action-adventure film, Aayirathil Oruvan. Titled Aayirathil Oruvan 2, a special poster was also officially unveiled by Selvaraghavan, which carried the announcement of Dhanush in the lead role, with the film's 2024 release plans. Having said that, a leading news daily on Sunday reported stating that the makers of Aayirathil Oruvan 2 or AO2 have arrived at the decision to halt work on the ambitious project for an indefinite period of time, while adding that the venture could possibly be shelved. 

According to the report, the Aayirathil Oruvan 2 team has spent crores on the film already for research and pre-production purposes considering it is a big-budget venture and are a little hesitant now to proceed forward as the money involved might go beyond the estimated figures as planned initially. Responding to the report, Selvaraghavan took to social media and questioned the daily as to when the pre-production had taken place and also requested for information on the "mysterious producer", while adding that they ought to check with their sources. He tweeted asking, "???? With all due respect can u tell us when the mysterious preproduction happen? And who is the mysterious producer?  Pls kindly check your sources!" 

Selvaraghavan had shared the news of Aayirathil Oruvan 2 along with a concept art poster and wrote on New Year's Day, "All those affectionate hearts who have asked me and waited so long, here it is in front of you - AO2 with @dhanushkraja". Retweeting Selvaraghavan's tweet, Dhanush too expressed his excitement for AO2 and said, "A magnum opus !! The pre production alone will take us a year. But a dream film from the master @selvaraghavan  ! The wait will be long. But we will give our best to make it all worth it. AO2 ..The Prince returns  in 2024". It is to be noted that Dhanush and Selvaraghavan will be teaming up once again before work on Aayirathil Oruvan 2 for the upcoming Naane Varuven being produced under Kalaipuli S. Thanu's V Creations banner featuring music by Yuvan Shankar Raja and cinematography by Arvind Krishna. Naane Varuven is scheduled to go on floors on August 20 and will be a reunion for Selvaraghavan and Dhanush after almost a decade when they last worked together in the blockbuster, Mayakkam Enna in 2011.