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        With the rush for Sivaji slowly tapering off, the expectations are soaring high for Ajith's Kireedom.

        Produced by Suresh Balajee (jointly with Adlabs), Kireedom is touted to be the next big release after Sivaji. According to Suresh Balaji, the film will hit the screens on 20 July, a month after Sivaji saw light of the day.

        Kireedom is based on the Malayalam film of the same name, directed by Sibi Malayil. The Tamil version was supposed to be released on 1 May (to coincide with Ajith's birthday). But it got delayed as there was uncertainty over the release of Sivaji.

        Trisha plays Ajith's heroine, and Raj Kiran and Saranya are in the cast. Ajith badly needs a hit as Aalwar flopped.

        The actor is confident that debutant director Vijay, former assistant of Priyadarshan, would be able to recreate the magic of the Malayalam version.

        'I am fortunate to get a good production team, an excellent star cast and talented technicians for my maiden directorial venture,' says Vijay.

        'It was a delight to works with an actor like Ajith for my first directorial venture. He was extremely co-operative. The producers - Suresh Balajee and Adlabs — gave me enough freedom,' he adds.

        'Rajkiran is a rare talent in Tamil cinema and he needs to be preserved. He has come up with a lively performance playing Ajith's father in the movie'. On his part, Suresh Balajee says, 'it was a conscious decision by my father (veteran actor - producer Balajee) to stay away from producing Tamil films for a while. But when we came across Adlabs and a talented director like Vijay, we chose to go back on our decision'.

        G V Prakash Kumar, who has composed the tunes, says, 'Vijay has a great penchant for music and he extracted the best from me.'

        Lyricist Na Muthukumar has turned into dialogue writer with Kireedom.

        He says, 'the emotional saga between a father and son has been brought out well on the screen'.