Vijay 61 retitled Mersal, marks Vijay's rise as 'Thalapathy'

The first look of Vijay's upcoming film with director Atlee is out. Titled Mersal, the first look has Vijay sporting a beard in a rural get up with bulls in the background.

The first look was released by Vijay on his Twitter account on Wednesday. While the title and the first look were released at 6pm, the actor released a second picture at around 11pm, just an hour before ringing in his birthday.

The second still had a more urbane touch to it. Sources now disclose that the actor will be playing three roles in the film and that the two stills depict the two different roles that the actor plays in the film.

The first look poster also caught everybody's attention for a different reason. It addressed Vijay as 'Thalapathy' (General) instead of 'Ilayathalapathy' (Young General), a title that fans and those in the film industry, had until now used to refer to him.

The title and first look poster took social networking sites by storm as the topic began trending world wide on Twitter. It was on the Number 5 spot in the list.

The first look poster has also given rise to speculation if the film will be on farmers' issues and on Jallikattu.