Atlee (director)

Arun Kumar (born 21 September 1986), known professionally as Atlee, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and film producer best known for his work in Tamil cinema. He initially worked as an assistant director under S. Shankar in the films Enthiran (2010) and Nanban (2012). He made his directorial debut with the film Raja Rani (2013), produced by Fox Star Studios, for which he was awarded Best Debut Director by the Vijay Award and the Tamil Nadu State award for best dialogue writer.

Atlee
Atlee Kumar during the shoot of Raja Rani (2013).
Born	Arun Kumar (1986-09-21) 21 September 1986 (age 38) Thiruparankundram, Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation	Film director Screenwriter Film producer
Years active	2010–present
Spouse	Krishna Priya ​ (m. 2014)​ [1]
Children	1

Atlee has directed and written films like Theri, Mersal, and Bigil all featuring Thalapathy Vijay.

Atlee made his debut in Hindi cinema with Jawan (2023), starring Shah Rukh Khan, which became an all-time blockbuster at the box office. He is currently working on several upcoming projects, including a film with Vijay and Shah Rukh Khan, a Hollywood debut, a "killer" movie with Ajith Kumar, a large-scale action film with Salman Khan, and a period drama with Allu Arjun. Additionally, he is collaborating with Allu Arjun and Sai Abhyankkar in AA22.

Career

Atlee did a degree in visual communications and made the short film En Mel Vizhundha Mazhaithuli, which won two national level awards. He then appealed to Mani Rathnam, S. Shankar and Gautham Vasudev Menon in search of work and Shankar agreed for him to work under him.^[2] He began his career at the age of 25, as an assistant director for the films Enthiran (2010) and Nanban (2012), a remake of the Hindi film 3 Idiots. Another one of his short films, Mugaputhagam (2011), received a massive response from the public and across various media platforms. In 2013, Atlee went on to make his directorial debut with Raja Rani, a rom com produced by A. R. Murugadoss. It starred Arya, Jai, Nayanthara, Nazriya Nazim, and Sathyaraj. It earned over ₹50 crores at the box office and won him the Best Debut Director award at the Vijay Awards.^[3][4]

Following the success of Raja Rani, Atlee went on to direct his next film, Theri (2016), an emotional action thriller, produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu, starring Vijay, Samantha, and Amy Jackson in the lead roles. It received positive reviews from the critics who praised the performances of the cast, soundtrack, score, cinematography, production design, and action sequences. Grossing over ₹150 crores at the box office, it emerged as a huge commercial success and became the second highest grossing Tamil of 2016.^[5]

In 2017, Atlee went on to direct Mersal, an action thriller, produced by Thenandal Studio Limited. Again starring Vijay, it also had Nithya Menen, Kajal Aggarwal, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, S. J. Suryah, Sathyaraj, Vadivelu, Hareesh Peradi, and Kovai Sarala appear in pivotal supporting roles. It was a commercial success, becoming one of the highest-grossing films in Tamil cinema, grossing more than ₹260 crores worldwide. Best director award for the film Mersal in SIIMA awards in 2018. The film became the recipient of various accolades. The film was released on 6 December 2018 in China by HGC Entertainment. Due to demand, the film was screened at the largest cinema theatre in Europe Grand Rex, France. The film was screened at the Hainan International Film Festival in Hainan, China and at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea.^[6]

Atlee directed his next film, Bigil (2019), a sports action drama, produced by AGS Entertainment. He reunited for the third and second time with Vijay and Nayanthara, respectively. It also starred Jackie Shroff, Vivek and Kathir in other prominent roles. The music was composed by A. R. Rahman. Upon release, it received fairly positive reviews and emerged as the highest-grossing Tamil film of 2019, collecting ₹305 crore upon its release. It also became one of the highest-grossing Tamil films of all-time and one of the highest-grossing film of Vijay's career.^[7]

He also ventured into producing films. In 2017, Atlee and his wife, Priya Atlee, started their own production house, A for Apple Productions. They jointly produced their first film with Fox Star Studios, Sangili Bungili Kadhava Thorae, a horror comedy, written and directed by Ike. It starred Jiiva, Sri Divya, and Soori in the lead roles.^[8]

In 2020, Atlee and Priya produced their second film, Andhaghaaram, a supernatural horror thriller film, written and directed by V. Vignarajan. It was produced by Priya Atlee, alongside Sudhan Sundaram, and Jayaram, under their banner, Passion Studio and K. Poornachandra's O2 Pictures. It starred Arjun Das, Vinoth Kishan, and Kumar Natarajan in the lead roles along with Pooja Ramachandran and Meesha Ghoshal in supporting roles. It was released directly on Netflix for streaming, on 24 November 2020.^[9]

Atlee made his debut in Hindi cinema with Jawan,^[10] starring Shah Rukh Khan, Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupathi, Priyamani, Sanya Malhotra, Riddhi Dogra, along with others. Deepika Padukone and Sanjay Dutt made a special appearance and cameo appearance, respectively, in the film. It was produced by Khan's wife, Gauri Khan, and Gaurav Verma, under Red Chillies Entertainment. The music was composed by Anirudh Ravichander. It released on 7 September 2023 to generally positive reviews from both the critics and audience, alike. It set the record for a Hindi film grossing ₹129 crores (US$12.9 million) on its opening day. It grossed ₹520.79 crores worldwide in its opening weekend. It made about ₹1150 crores worldwide in its entire run and become an all-time blockbuster at the box office.

Atlee and Priya produced their third film in Hindi with Baby John starring Varun Dhawan, Keerthy Suresh, and Wamiqa Gabbi; its remake of his Tamil film Theri (2016). The music was composed by Thaman S.^[11][12] He will be collaborating with Allu Arjun and Sai Abhyankkar in AA22, which is being produced by Kalanithi Maran, under Sun Pictures.^[13][14]

Personal life

Atlee married actress Krishna Priya on 9 November 2014.^[15] Their son was born on 13 January 2023.^[16]

Filmography

As director

Year	Title	Language	Notes
2011	Mugaputhagam	Tamil	Short Film
2013	Raja Rani
2016	Theri
2017	Mersal
2019	Bigil		[17]
2023	Jawan	Hindi
TBA	AA22xA6 †	Telugu	|Tamil-Hindi	Announced[18]

As producer

Year	Title	Language	Notes
2017	Sangili Bungili Kadhava Thorae	Tamil
2020	Andhaghaaram		Shot in 2014; Delayed release
2024	Baby John	Hindi	Remake of Theri Co-producer

As actor

List of guest appearances by Atlee in film

Year	Title	Role	Languages	Notes
2012	Nanban	Film Director	Tamil	In the song "Asku Laska"
2019	Bigil	Football Player	Tamil	In the song "Singappenney"
2023	Jawan	Dancer	Hindi	In the song "Zinda Banda"

Recurring collaborations

Editor Ruben, art director T. Muthuraj and actor Sai Dheena have worked on five of Atlee's films. Shobi and Yogi Babu has worked on four of his films. This list only concerns Atlee's directorial films.

Films	Ruben	T. Muthuraj	Sai Dheena	Shobi	Yogi Babu	Vijay	Nayanthara	G. K. Vishnu	Vivek (lyricist)	Manobala	Rajendran	Samantha Ruth Prabhu	Amritha Aiyer
Raja Rani (2013)	Y	Y	Y				Y			Y	Y
Theri (2016)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Ydeleted scene	Y				Y	Y	Y	Yuncredited
Mersal (2017)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y	Y		Y	Y
Bigil (2019)	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y			Y
Jawan (2023)	Y	Y	Y	Y	YTamil version		Y	Y	Y Tamil version

Plagiarism allegations and criticism

Atlee's films, though commercially successful, but have been criticized for having overly-familiar stories that have been done-to-death, starting from the 1980s of Tamil cinema. Raja Rani was described as an upgraded version of Mouna Ragam (1986), while Theri was described as having been highly inspired by Chatriyan (1990). Chatriyan was produced by veteran filmmaker Mani Ratnam, while Mouna Ragam was the latter's own directional film.^[19] Mersal was described as an upgraded version of Apoorva Sagodharargal (1989) as well as Moondru Mugam (1982).^[20] Bigil was described as "Chak De! India on steroids".^[21] Atlee has countered that, despite having been sued for plagiarism numerous times, his films were commercially successful and blockbusters.^[22]

Accolades

Film	Award	Category	Result	Ref
Raja Rani	Tamil Nadu State Film Awards 2013	Best Dialogue Writer	Won	[23]
	Edison Awards	Best Debut Director	Won
	8th Vijay Awards	Best Debut Director	Won	[24]
		Best Story, Screenplay Writer	Nominated
		Best Dialogue	Nominated
	3rd SIIMA Awards	Best Debut Director	Nominated
Theri	2nd IIFA Utsavam	Best Director – Tamil	Won	[25]
	6th SIIMA Awards	Best Director – Tamil	Won	[26]
	64th Filmfare Awards South	Best Director – Tamil	Nominated	[27]
Mersal	Edison Awards 2018	Best Director	Won	[28]
	65th Filmfare Awards South	Best Director – Tamil	Nominated	[29]
	7th SIIMA Awards	Best Director	Won	[30]
	10th Vijay Awards	Favourite Director	Won	[31] [32]
		Best Dialogue	Nominated