Dhanush filmography

Dhanush is an Indian actor, film producer, screenwriter and film director known for his work in Tamil cinema. He has also appeared in some Hindi, English and Telugu films. He made his acting debut in 2002 with the coming of age drama, Thulluvadho Ilamai, directed by his father Kasthuri Raja.^[1] His role as a mentally-disturbed man in Kaadhal Kondein (2003)—directed by his brother Selvaraghavan—won him critical acclaim. The following year, he starred in Subramaniam Siva's Thiruda Thirudi, a commercial success.^[2] This was followed by a series of commercial failures—Pudhukottaiyilirundhu Saravanan (2004), Sullan (2004) and Dreams (2004).^[3] He had two releases in 2005—Devathaiyai Kanden and Adhu Oru Kana Kaalam.

Dhanush in 2017

In 2006, Dhanush starred in the gangster film Pudhupettai, which was critically acclaimed and moderately successful at the box-office.^[2] He next collaborated with debutant director Vetrimaaran in Polladhavan (2007).^[4] It was critically acclaimed and commercially successful.^[5][6] His subsequent releases—Yaaradi Nee Mohini (2008) and Padikkadavan—were box-office successes.^[2] He collaborated with Vetrimaaran for the second time in Aadukalam (2011). His role as a rooster fight jockey in the film won him that year's National Film Award for Best Actor and the Best Tamil Actor Award at the 60th Filmfare Awards South.^[7] In 2012, he received international attention with the song "Why This Kolaveri Di", which was recorded for Aishwarya R. Dhanush's directorial debut 3.^[8] His role as a man who is suffering from bipolar disorder in the film won him his second Filmfare Award.^[9]

Dhanush made his Bollywood debut with Aanand L. Rai's Raanjhanaa (2013). His performance as an obsessive one-sided lover in the film won him the Best Male Debut Award and earned a Best Actor nomination at the 59th Filmfare Awards.^[10][11][12] The same year he was seen in the survival film Maryan, which won him Best Actor Award (Critics) at the 61st Filmfare Awards South.^[13] In 2014, he produced and starred in cinematographer R. Velraj's directorial debut, Velaiilla Pattadhari,^[14] which was critically acclaimed as well as a box-office success.^[15] His performance as an unemployed graduate won a third Filmfare Award in the Best Tamil Actor category.^[16]

In 2015, Dhanush co-starred with Amitabh Bachchan in R. Balki's Shamitabh, where he played a mute superstar.^[17] The following year Dhanush played three roles in K. V. Anand's romantic thriller Anegan (2015) and a gangster in Balaji Mohan's Maari (2015), both becoming moderately success at the box office. He collaborated with Velraj's Thanga Magan (2015), which did not perform well at the box office when compared to his previous film.^[18] Dhanush had two releases in 2016—Prabhu Solomon's Thodari, a critical and commercial failure;^[19] and the political drama Kodi, where he played dual roles. The latter earned him a Best Tamil Actor nomination at the 64th Filmfare Awards South.^[20] The following year, he made his directorial debut with Pa Paandi.^[21] In 2018, Dhanush made his first international film appearance with the English-language French film The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir.^[22] For his performance in Asuran (2019), he won his second National Film Award for Best Actor.^[23]

As actor

Key

†	Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released

• All films are in Tamil, unless mentioned otherwise.

List of Dhanush film credits as director

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2002	Thulluvadho Ilamai	Mahesh		[24]
2003	Kaadhal Kondein	Vinod		[25]
	Thiruda Thirudi	Vasudevan		[26]
2004	Pudhukottaiyilirundhu Saravanan	Saravanan		[27]
	Sullan	Subramani (Sullan)[a]		[28]
	Dreams	Sakthi		[29]
2005	Devathaiyai Kanden	Babu		[30]
	Adhu Oru Kana Kaalam	Srinivasan		[31]
2006	Pudhupettai	Kokki Kumar		[32]
	Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam	Thiru Kumaran		[33]
2007	Parattai Engira Azhagu Sundaram	Azhagu Sundaram alias Parattai[a]		[34]
	Polladhavan	Prabhu Shankar		[35] [36]
2008	Yaaradi Nee Mohini	Vasudevan		[37]
	Kuselan	Himself	Guest appearance in the song "Cinema Cinema"	[38]
2009	Padikkadavan	Radhakrishnan "Rocky"[a]		[39]
2010	Kutty	Kutty		[40]
	Uthamaputhiran	Siva Ramakrishnan		[41]
2011	Aadukalam	K. P. Karuppu		[42]
	Seedan	Saravanan	Cameo	[43]
	Mappillai	Saravanan		[44]
	Venghai	Selvam		[45]
	Mayakkam Enna	Karthik Swaminathan		[46]
2012	3	Ramachandran "Ram"		[47]
2013	Proprietors: Kammath & Kammath	Himself	Malayalam film; guest appearance	[48]
	Ethir Neechal	Soup Boy	Guest appearance in the song "Local Boys"	[49] [50]
	Raanjhanaa	Kundan Shankar	Hindi film	[51]
	Maryan	Maryan		[52]
	Naiyaandi	Chinna Vandu		[53]
2014	Velaiilla Pattadhari	Raghuvaran "Raghu"	25th film	[54]
2015	Shamitabh	Danish alias "Shamitabh"	Hindi film	[55]
	Anegan	Ashwin, Murugappa, Kaali[b]		[56]
	Vai Raja Vai	Kokki Kumar	Cameo	[57]
	Maari	Maari		[58]
	Thanga Magan	Thamizh		[59]
2016	Thodari	Poochiyappan		[60]
	Kodi	Kodi, Anbu[c]		[61]
2017	Pa Paandi	Pandian Palanisamy[d]	Also director and screenwriter	[21]
	Velaiilla Pattadhari 2	Raghuvaran "Raghu"	Also screenwriter[e]	[65]
2018	The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir	Ajatashatru Lavash Patel	English film	[66]
	Vada Chennai	Anbu		[67]
	Maari 2	Maariyappan "Maari"		[68]
2019	Asuran	Sivasaamy		[69]
	Enai Noki Paayum Thota	Raghu		[70]
2020	Pattas	Sakthi alias "Pattas", Dhiraviyaperumal[c]		[71]
2021	Karnan	Karnan		[72]
	Jagame Thandhiram	Suruli		[73]
	Atrangi Re	S. Venkatesh Vishwanath "Vishu" Iyer	Hindi film	[74]
2022	Maaran	Mathimaaran "Maaran" Sathyamoorthy		[75]
	The Gray Man	Avik San alias "Lone Wolf"[a]	English film	[76]
	Thiruchitrambalam	Thiruchitrambalam Jr. alias "Pazham"[a]		[77]
	Naane Varuvean	Kathir, Prabhu[c]	Also screenwriter	[78]
2023	Vaathi	Balamurugan "Bala" / Bal Gangadhar Tilak "Balu"	Bilingual film in Tamil and Telugu	[79]
	Sir
2024	Captain Miller	Analeesan "Easa" / Captain Miller[a]		[80]
	Raayan	Kathavaraayan "Raayan"	50th film; Also writer and director	[81]
2025	Kuberaa †	Kuberan	Trilingual film in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi	[82][83]
	Idly Kadai †	Selvan	Also writer, director and producer	[84]
	Tere Ishk Mein †	Shankar Gurrukkal	Hindi film	[85]
TBA	Dhanush 56 †			[86]

As producer

• All films are in Tamil, unless mentioned otherwise.

List of Dhanush film credits as producer

Year	Title	Notes	Ref.
2012	3		[87]
2013	Ethir Neechal		[88]
2014	Velaiilla Pattadhari		[54]
2015	Kaaki Sattai		[89]
	Kaaka Muttai		[90]
	Maari		[91]
	Naanum Rowdy Dhaan		[92]
	Thanga Magan		[93]
2016	Visaranai		[94]
	Amma Kanakku		[95]
2017	Cinema Veeran		[96]
	Pa Paandi		[21]
	Velaiilla Pattadhari 2		[97]
	Tharangam	Malayalam film	[98]
2018	Kaala		[99]
	Vada Chennai		[100]
	Maari 2		[101]
2025	Nilavaku En Mel Ennadi Kobam		[102]
	Idly Kadai †		[103]

As director

List of Dhanush film credits as director

Year	Title	notes
2017	Pa Paandi	[21]
2024	Raayan	[81]
2025	Nilavaku En Mel Ennadi Kobam	[102]
	Idly Kadai †

See also

• Wunderbar Films
• List of awards and nominations received by Dhanush

Notes

1. Dhanush plays a character with two names.
2. Dhanush plays three characters.
3. Dhanush plays two characters.
4. Dhanush plays the younger version of the title character played by Rajkiran.^[62]
5. Some of Dhanush's scenes were reshot in Telugu while the other actors only shot the film in Tamil.^[63][64]