'Son of Thanjai': Chennai Studio Announces Action-Adventure Game Set in Chola Empire, Written by Madhan Karky

Ayelet Studio, a Chennai-based 30-person game studio, has announced Son of Thanjai, a Tamil action-adventure video game set in the ancient Chola Empire, coming to Xbox Series X|S and PS5. A gameplay reveal trailer has been released alongside the announcement.

The game's story, screenplay, dialogues, and songs are written by Madhan Karky, the Tamil lyricist and writer behind films such as Endhiran, Baahubali, Mersal, and Vikram. With credits spanning over 400 films and 1,000 songs across a career in Tamil cinema, Son of Thanjai marks his first foray into gaming.

The game is stated to be the first major video game to release in Tamil audio with English subtitles, a first for the language in the gaming space. The creators have shared that the game intends to offer players outside Tamil Nadu an opportunity to engage with Tamil land, language, and culture through the medium.

On the gameplay side, Son of Thanjai introduces the Surul Vaal, a flexible whip-sword rooted in South Indian martial tradition as its primary weapon, which the developers say has not appeared in a video game before. The game’s form of combat is Kalaripayattu, a martial art with origins in Kerala and parts of Tamil Nadu, considered one of the oldest codified fighting systems in the world. Both the weapon and the combat form are drawn from real historical and cultural sources and appear to be central to how the game frames its Chola Empire setting.

The game has been developed entirely out of Chennai, at a time when large-scale action-adventure titles of this kind have historically come out of studios in Europe, North America, or Japan. Independent Indian game development has been a growing space, but a project of this scope is a first for the industry.

No release date has been announced yet. The gameplay reveal trailer is currently available on YouTube.