14 times Tamil cinema witnessed unexpected director-hero collaborations

Tamil cinema through the years have given us some memorable movies but most importantly it has given us more than memorable stars who are imprinted into our minds. One cannot even try and forget about them even if they wanted to given their immense star power and the mighty impact they have made on the film industry. Many aspiring filmmakers venture into this field to do what they love and work with whom they love. While some have not been so lucky in achieving this, some who are just a few films into their careers have successfully collaborated with star actors after they have put their trust in them and taken the time and effort to work with them. Let us look at some of these promising collaborations of Tamil cinema that took us by surprise (in no particular order of importance):

1) AJITH - VIGNESH SHIVAN:

Ajith Kumar, who recently delivered a commercially successful film in the form of Valimai, has recently announced that he will be collaborating with director-producer-lyricist Vignesh Shivan, who is only 4 feature films into his career, for his next project temporarily titled AK62. Vignesh Shivan, having known for his light-hearted comedy entertainers, in a limited scale, is all set to expand the scale with the Ajith film that has already got high expectations. 

2) RAJINIKANTH - PA RANJITH:

This was one of the biggest surprises of all time. Superstar Rajinikanth put his trust into 2-films-old director-producer Pa. Ranjith by working with him in not just one, but two consecutive films of his - first in the gangster film Kabali and next in the sociopolitical Kaala. 

3) VIJAY - LOKESH KANAGARAJ:

Thalapathy Vijay took some time off of working with big filmmakers and instead placed his trust into the hands of new-gen director Lokesh Kanagaraj, who at the time had only made 2 movies, by acting in his action film Master. While announcing Master as Thalapathy 64, Lokesh had done only one film - Maanagaram, and his second film, Kaithi was in the making.  

4) VIJAY - NELSON DILIPKUMAR:  

Thalapathy Vijay yet again went out of his way to collaborate with writer-director Nelson Dilipkumar in the highly anticipated upcoming film Beast which is all set to hit the screens on 13 April 2022. With just Kolamaavu Kokila to his credit, Vijay placed his trust on Nelson and went ahead with Beast.  

5) AJITH - H. VINOTH: 

Just 2 films into his career, writer-director H. Vinoth was able to gain the trust of Ajith Kumar and the two collaborated on the legal drama Nerkonda Paarvai, a Tamil remake of the Hindi film Pink. This collaboration resulted in a grand success that the star actor worked with this new age director once again on the recent pan-Indian action thriller film Valimai. Ajith and Vinoth are working together for the third time with AK 61 that is set to go on floors soon. 

6) KARTHI - LOKESH KANAGARAJ: 

Karthi is always known for his gutsy decisions to work with just one film old directors and he has successfully triumphed with the decision through films like Madras (Pa Ranjith), Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru (H Vinoth) and more. While doing Madras or any other film, Karthi was around 10 films old and he was on his way to becoming a star. With Kaithi, he was a star to reckon with. Karthi had immense faith in Lokesh and agreed to a film that had no songs or no female lead. 

7) KAMAL HAASAN - GAUTHAM VASUDEV MENON: 

Kamal Haasan was kind enough to place his trust, time and effort to work with writer-director-producer-actor Gautham Vasudev Menon on Vettaiaadu Vilaiyaadu, who at the time was only 4 films old, out of which only 2 were Tamil films - Minnale and Kaakha Kaakha.

8) CHIYAAN VIKRAM - AJAY GNANAMUTHU: 

Chiyaan Vikram saw some scope and talent in writer-director R. Ajay Gnanamuthu, who is just 2 films old, and he signed up to work on his upcoming highly anticipated film Cobra. 

9) SIVAKARTHIKEYAN - KV ANUDEEP:  

After the success of the sleeper hit Telugu comedy-drama Jathi Ratnalu, actor-playback singer-film producer-lyricist Sivakarthikeyan put his trust into this 1-film-old director by signing up to work on his upcoming film temporarily titled SK20.

10) SIVAKARTHIKEYAN - R. RAVIKUMAR:

 
Sivakarthikeyan's attention was caught by writer-director R. Ravikumar, who has only worked on one film in the past, after hearing his high concept story for Tamil cinema's one of its kind alien film titled Ayalaan. 

11) DHANUSH - MARI SELVARAJ: 

Renowned actor-producer-lyricist-playback singer Dhanush was so impressed by the making and content of director Mari Selvaraj's debut film Pariyerum Perumal, that he teamed up with him to work on his second film Karnan, which turned out to be a success, both commercially and critically.

12) DHANUSH - ARUN MATHESWARAN: 

After the critically acclaimed success of Rocky, Dhanush put his trust in writer-director Arun Matheswaran and the two are all set to collaborate on a new film which remains untitled for now, under the production of Sathya Jyothi Films.

13) AJITH - VENKAT PRABHU: 

Venkat Prabhu managed to gain the trust of Ajith Kumar who agreed to work with him on this next film, the action-thriller mass hit Mankatha. This was an iconic collaboration as this was the first time the director got the opportunity to cast a top star in his film as the 3 other films before Mankatha only featured new actors with whom he made those other movies. Notably, Venkat Prabhu's previous venture before Mankatha, Goa, was a failure, and despite that, Ajith went ahead and tasted success with VP. 

14) VIJAY - ATLEE: 

Atlee got the big opportunity to work with Thalapathy Vijay on his very second film and there has been no look back since then. Keeping Raja Rani as the merit, Vijay gave his nod to work with Atlee. They collaborated together on the 2016 action thriller Theri. Their teamwork was so smooth that the actor yet again went to work with Atlee on two more films -- Mersal and Bigil. Interestingly, all three films of Vijay and Atlee were commercially successful at the box office.