Malayalam film 2018 was recently selected as India's official entry for the 2024 Academy Awards and director Jude Anthany Joseph met 'Superstar' Rajinikanth on Sunday, October 8, to seek his blessings ahead of the awards campaign. The filmmaker-actor met the iconic Tamil actor, who is currently in Trivandrum filming his upcoming project, the tentatively titled Thalaivar 170, and gave a glimpse of their interaction by posting pictures on Instagram. In his first post, Jude, in a printed white shirt and denim, and Rajinikanth dressed in a short black kurta and veshti, are seen holding each other, while posing for the camera. He wrote in the caption: "What a wonderful day to start. Can't stop posting the excitement. More photos soon ❤️❤️😍😍😍😍" (sic).
Jude, in his second post, shared photos of himself along with a few of his associates, speaking to Rajinikanth, with the last picture showing them all posing together for the camera. The Malayalam star shared what the Tamil actor had told him ahead of the Oscars 2024 campaign in his blessings. Jude wrote, "Thalaiver said 'What a film Jude, how did you shoot? Amazing work'. And then we sought his blessings for the Oscar journey. Thalaiver said, 'Poyi Oscar kondu vaa, my blessings and prayers'. Thank you, God, for this unforgettable opportunity. And thank you my dear friend Soundharya for making this happen ❤️❤️😍😍🙏🏻" (sic).
In his third and final post for the day, Jude shared photos of himself seeking blessings from Rajinikanth as he bowed down to touch his feet. He captioned the post: "Blessed." (sic)
2018, also known as 2018: Everyone is a Hero, opened in cinemas in May this year and grossed over 200 crores in worldwide box office collections making it the highest-grossing film in Malayalam cinema. The epic survival drama film about the severe 2018 Kerala floods starred Tovino Thomas, Kunchako Boban, Vineeth Sreenivasan, Asif Ali, Tanvi Ram, Aparna Balamurali, Narain, Lal, among others, and was unanimously chosen to represent India in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 96th Academy Awards to be held in March 2024.
