General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

The Greatest of All Time

The Greatest of All Time (also known as GOAT) is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language action film directed by Venkat Prabhu and produced by AGS Entertainment, starring Vijay in dual roles as an anti-terrorism agent and his son.¹^•² Released on 5 September 2024, it is Vijay's penultimate film before his entry into politics, and it became the highest-grossing Tamil film of 2024.³^•⁴

Key fact	Detail
Director / production	Venkat Prabhu; AGS Entertainment (producers Kalpathi S. Aghoram, Kalpathi S. Ganesh, Kalpathi S. Suresh)¹
Release	5 September 2024, in 2D and IMAX formats; certificate U/A; runtime 3 hours 3 minutes¹^•⁵
Lead roles	Vijay as M. S. Gandhi and Jeevan/Sanjay (dual role, de-aged for the son's part)²^•⁶
Music and crew	Music by Yuvan Shankar Raja; cinematography by Siddhartha Nuni; editing by Venkat Raajen⁷
Box office	₹4.571 billion (₹457.12 crore) worldwide gross (India net ₹2.527 billion (₹252.71 crore), overseas ₹1.603 billion (₹160.25 crore)), verdict Hit per Sacnilk⁷
2024 standing	One of only two Tamil films of 2024 to gross over ₹2.5 billion (₹250 crore; ₹2.66 billion (₹266 crore) Tamil-version gross, Ormax), the other being Amaran⁴^•¹⁵
Critical reception	40% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (10 reviews); 62% Popcornmeter from 100+ verified ratings⁸

Spoilers

Plot

Gandhi is a hostage negotiator, field agent, and spy working for the Special Anti-Terrorist Squad (SATS) alongside three colleagues. Years later, problems stemming from the squad's previous actions resurface, and they must confront them.⁸ BookMyShow's synopsis frames the same premise as the consequences of an unknown past haunting the squad's present.¹⁰ Reviewers noted the film's debt to globe-trotting espionage thrillers; Nowrunning called it "a convoluted Mission: Impossible clone that entertains purely because of its lead."

Production

The film was officially announced in May 2023 under the tentative title Thalapathy 68, marking Vijay's 68th film as a leading actor; the official title was announced that December.⁷ Principal photography ran from October 2023 to late June 2024, with shooting in Chennai, Thailand, Hyderabad, Sri Lanka, Pondicherry, Thiruvananthapuram, Russia, and the United States.⁷ In a September 2024 interview, Venkat Prabhu said he had originally intended to cast Rajinikanth as the father and Dhanush as the son.⁹

Cast. Vijay plays M. S. Gandhi and, in the dual role, Jeevan/Sanjay; IMDb notes the actor was de-aged for the son's part.²^•⁶ The ensemble includes Prabhu Deva as Kalyan, Meenakshi Chaudhary as Srinidhi, Sneha as Gandhi's wife Anuradha, Prashanth as Sunil, Jayaram as Naseer, Ajmal Ameer as Ajay Govindharaj, Mohan as Menon, Laila as Dr. Radhika Sunil, Vaibhav Reddy, Premgi Amaren, and Yogi Babu as Diamond Babu.²

Release and box office

The film opened worldwide on 5 September 2024 in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi versions (FilmiBeat also lists a Kannada version), in both 2D and IMAX formats.⁵^•² Its opening day net in the Tamil version was ₹391.5 million (₹39.15 crore), and the Tamil version's total net reached ₹2.25 billion (₹225.01 crore).⁷

Reported totals differ by source. Sacnilk compiles a worldwide gross of ₹4.571 billion (₹457.12 crore), with ₹2.969 billion (₹296.87 crore) India gross and ₹1.603 billion (₹160.25 crore) overseas, and assigns a Hit verdict.⁷ Business Standard reported ₹4.13 billion (₹413 crore) in the first 13 days, while also quoting a distributor-side figure that subtracted ₹2.88 billion (₹288 crore) from the lifetime collection to argue the film's run was weaker than headline numbers suggested.¹¹ Ormax, reporting Tamil-version gross only, put the film at ₹2.66 billion (₹266 crore) and noted it was the sole Tamil release of 2024 above ₹2.5 billion (₹250 crore); across all languages it was one of six Indian films of the year to gross above ₹3 billion (₹300 crore), alongside Pushpa 2: The Rule, Kalki 2898 AD, Stree 2, Devara: Part 1, and Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3.⁴^•¹⁶ The producers stated a budget of ₹4 billion (₹400 crore).⁷ In reported dollar terms, one database lists a $36.0 million production budget against $47.7 million worldwide.¹² The film also became the highest-grossing movie in Tamil Nadu to that point.⁷

Reception

Critical response was mixed. On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds 40% on the Tomatometer from 10 reviews, against 62% on the audience Popcornmeter.⁸ Simon Abrams of RogerEbert.com gave 3.5/4, writing that Vijay "celebrates himself in very literal and often amusing ways"; Gopinath Rajendran of The Hindu wrote that the film "might let you down if you're expecting a globe-trotting espionage thriller," but is "a celebration of everything fans have ever loved about Vijay."⁸ On BookMyShow the film scored 7.9/10 from 270.5 thousand votes, with the most common viewer tags being #Blockbuster and #GreatActing.¹⁰ Business Standard noted that the film received bad reviews from critics and even some fans despite its commercial performance.¹¹

Political context and legacy

GOAT was made against the backdrop of Vijay's move into politics. In February 2024, while the film was still shooting, he announced the formation of his party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (Tamil Nadu Victory Federation).³ The Hollywood Reporter India read the film as fan service designed for that transition, a "scaffolding for Vijay's imminent career swerve" from film studios to politics; Venkat Prabhu, for his part, told The Indian Express there were no political references in the film.³^•¹³

The film's commercial result fed directly into that transition. In the 2026 Tamil Nadu assembly election, TVK won 108 of 234 seats, and Vijay was sworn in as head of government of the state on May 10.¹⁴ The film later streamed on Netflix.⁸

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026