The hit Tamil filmmaker Atlee Kumar to take the plunge into Bollywood with Jawan

By Jyothi Venkatesh

37-year-old Atlee, who is all set to make his debut in Hindi films with Jawaan, starring Shah Rukh Khan, is a director, screenwriter and producer best known for his work in Tamil films. It was with S. Shankar’s Enthiran that he made his debut as an assistant director when he was just 19-year-old and then followed it up with Nanban (2012) a remake of 3 Idiots as an assistant.

Atlee who is actually Arun Kumar went on to make his directorial debut with Raja Rani, a romantic comedy film, produced by AR Murugadoss, Fox star studios and Next Big Films, starring Arya, Jai, Nayanthara, Nazriya Nazim and Sathyaraj made his directorial debut with the film Raja Rani starring Nayanthara, produced by Fox Star Studios. After its release, fans noticed the similarities between Raja Rani and Mani Ratnam’s Mouna Ragam. The story is about Regina and John who were forced into marriage and led troubled lives. As a director, he has to his credit films like Theri (2016), Mersal (2017) and Bigil (2019), all featuring actor Vijay.

His short film Mugaputhagam (2011) received a massive response from the public and throughout various media platforms.  Atlee went on to direct his next hit film Theri (2016) an emotional action thriller, produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu, starring Vijay, Samantha and Amy Jackson in the lead roles. Here, Atlee was accused of copying Vijaykanth’s film Chatriyan.

In 2017, Atlee went on to direct Mersal, an action film, produced by Thenandal Studio Ltd. starring Vijay, and Nithya Menen while S. J. Surya, Sathyaraj, Vadivelu, Hareesh Peradi, Kajal Aggarwal, Samantha Ruth Prabhu and Kovai Sarala appear in pivotal supporting roles. The filmmaker was once again accused of copying the story of the Rajinikanth starrer Moondru Mugam. Mersal was Atlee’s second collaboration with Vijay. The story was about a doctor who gets falsely arrested for the murder of his colleague.

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Atlee soon directed his next film Bigil, an action film, produced by Kalpathi S. Aghoram under the banner AGS Entertainment. The film had Vijay in the titular role along with Nayanthara, Jackie Shroff, Vivek and Kathir in other prominent roles. The film marked the third collaboration of Vijay and Atlee after Theri and Mersal. The plot of the film revolves around an aggressive young man who gives up on his dream of becoming a footballer after his father is killed. It was said that Bigil’s story was copied from Shiva’s short film based on a women’s football team. Shiva had also filed a complaint with the Writer’s Association.

He also ventured into producing films. In 2017, Atlee along with his actress-wife Priya Atlee, started their own production house called ” A for Apple Production “and jointly produced their first film with Fox Star Studios-Sangili Bungili Kadhava Thorae, a horror comedy film starring not his favourite Vijay but Jiiva, Sri Divya, and Soori in the lead roles with Radha Ravi, Raadhika Sarathkumar, and Thambi Ramaiah in supporting roles.

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In 2020, A for Apple productions produced yet another film Andhaghaaram, a supernatural horror thriller film written and directed by V. Vignarajan. The film is produced by Priya Atlee, alongside Sudhan Sundaram and Jayaram under their banner Passion Studios and K. Poornachandra’s O2 Pictures. The film starred Arjun Das, Vinoth Kishan, and Kumar Natarajan in lead roles along with Pooja Ramachandran and Misha Ghoshal in supporting roles. It was streamed on Netflix on 24 November 2020.

The film Jawaan marks the first collaboration of SRK and the Tamil director and also stars Nayanthara and Vijay Sethupathi, besides Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone in lead roles. After the trailer release, cinema buffs noticed multiple similarities between Shah Rukh Khan’s looks and shots in Jawan and iconic films like Dark Knight, Valimai, Baahubali, and Aparichit. Those who have followed Atlee’s work in Tamil would definitely have a deja vu feeling while watching Jawan.