Gautham Vasudev Menon, known for his stylish filmmaking, has surprisingly roped in Isaignani Ilayaraja for his next trilingual — the Tamil version is titled Neethane En Ponvasantham.

NEP, a romantic musical, was touted to have hotshot composer A.R. Rahman on board, but he could not accommodate the dates due to his prior commitments.

Very few know that Gautham is an ardent fan of Ilayaraja and when he started his production Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai, he has gone on record to DC that ‘it was the Ilayaraja factor that was a compelling point to produce the film’. ASK changed hands later, which is a different story.

Now, coming back to Neethane…, the title takes its name from the first line of one of Raja's popular songs from Ninaivellam Nithya.

To be made in Telugu and Hindi as well, Neethane… has Jiiva playing the lead in Tamil, Nani in Tollywood and Adhitya Roy Kapoor (Assi Nabey Poore Sau) in B’town with the filmmaker’s latest muse Samantha playing the female lead in all three languages.

Interestingly, Gautham revealed his Telugu title recently, which is also a hit number’s first line — Yeto Velli Poyinidhi Manasu from the Nagarjuna starrer Ninne Pelladutha.

Though Gautham has not officially made an announcement about maestro Ilayaraja’s addition to the romantic trilingual, Jiiva has confirmed it in an interview.