With merely days to go before Ajith’s Veeram and Vijay’s Jilla take over screens across South India, hardly any one finds it strange that neither of the A-list actors have done much in the way of publicising their high-budget films.

Where Ajith has kept a marked distance from audio launches, success meets or premieres for a while now, Vijay has also adopted the low-key route for the last year.

This is in sharp contrast to Bollywood actors who have now taken to global publicity tours ahead of their films release. Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Hrithik Roshan, Aamir Khan, Abhishek Bachchan and Katrina Kaif all came calling on Chennai to promote Chennai Express, Krrish 3 and Dhoom 3 – and these publicity runs have doubtless contributed to the films earning over `300 crore in box-office gross.

Even Jilla’s producer, industry veteran R B Choudary admitted, “We are seeing the reverse trend in Kollywood. If heroes do more publicity work then producers will save some money on costs. That’s why Bollywood films are making `300 crore and more.”

Sources close to Vijay explained that the actors was keeping a low-profile ever since his last release Thalaivaa was not allowed to release in Tamil Nadu for trivial reasons, leading to heavy losses for the producers. “He doesn’t want to jeopardise the release of Jilla by talking before the films release. Hence he will only participate in the film’s success meet, post release,” he said.

Jilla is slated to release on over 1,000 screens globally including 69 screens in the USA alone.

Despite the lack of hero-generated buzz, fan clubs of both stars are going overboard to build up anticipation for both films – making them sure fire box-office pullers for the rather long Pongal weekend beginning January 10.

Minor clashes between fans have been observed every time their films release on the same day – the last occasion being when Vijay’s Pokkiri and Ajith’s Alwar hit screens in 2007.