Rajadurai (1993) is a Tamil language action drama starring later actor Vijayakanth in dual roles of father and son. The movie's story was penned by Shobha Chandrasekhar, and had screenplay and direction by SA Chandrasekhar (SAC). Rajadurai released in theaters on September 11,1993. 

31 years later, SAC and Shobha's star actor son Vijay had a release titled The Greatest of All Time (The GOAT) on September 5, 2024. The action thriller written and directed by Venkat Prabhu, starred 'Thalapathy' Vijay in dual roles of father and son as well.

Ironically, The GOAT paid tribute to Vijayakanth by featuring an AI version of the late actor, politician as a cameo, and also had Venkat Prabhu's father Gangai Amaren for lyrics, who had penned for the songs in Rajadurai too.  The Tamil cine audience however did not miss that not just the father-son angle, but the entire plot of The GOAT looked eerily similar to Rajadurai. 

Rajadurai (1993) Synopsis: Rajadurai, a police officer, succeeds in capturing Mayandi, a gangster, and sends him to jail. Later, Mayandi kidnaps Rajadurai's son Vijay, and raises him to become a criminal.

Intha movie lyrics gangai amaran f/o @vp_offl vera level 👌

— BB seigai (@Biggbosstamil00) September 12, 2024

The GOAT (2024) Synopsis: Gandhi a field agent, and spy working for the Special Anti-Terrorist Squad (SATS), succeeds in attacking Menon, a traitor who is on the run. Later, Menon kidnaps Gandhi's son Sanjay, and raises him to become a criminal. 

 

The GOAT director Venkat Prabhu, and Rajadurai director SA Chandrasekhar were recently spotted together at a public event. Venkat Prabhu acknowledged the comparison between the two movies for the first time on a public forum, and said,

"Truly, only after I did 'The GOAT' movie and it released did I know that the story of the film is that of his (SAC's) film (Rajadurai). Only after it was pointed out on social media did I even know there was such a film, and I saw it. Had I known before, I would have seen (Rajadurai) prior (to GOAT). I could have taken the film even better.

Father Vs son is a universal script...We had seen many movies (in that genre) and only did (The GOAT). It was very a upsetting thing for me that I missed this (Rajadurai) film. But this (GOAT Vs Rajadurai) is an example that I learned only from watching cinema. 

Cinema teaches a lot of things. Like Sir (SAC) said, we get movies from certain scenes in a story..I very much like the story of how 'Kaadhal (2004)' came about. The director made the movie after listening the a train passenger about the story of his wife..Like Sir (SA Chandrasekhar) said, inspiration can come from anywhere (for a movie)." 

 

SAC who has worked as an actor under Venkat Prabhu's direction in Maanaadu (2021), didn't seem to mind that his film served as an inspiration for his son Vijay's penultimate movie. Notably, actor Vijay who is soon leaving the films to become a full time politician, has publicly maintained distance from his parents SAC and Shobha, for a few years now.