Dhanush, who celebrates his 41st birthday on Monday, is a multi-hyphenated star who has won two National Awards for Best Actor today. However, when he started out, the actor-filmmaker-lyricist-producer-playback singer was not fond of acting and wanted to “run away” while making his first two films.
In a previous conversation with Film Companion in 2021, Dhanush spoke about his early days as an actor. “Acting just happened. In fact, during the first two films, I just wanted to run away. I didn't enjoy it. I was forced to do it,” he said.
If not acting, what was Dhanush’s dream career? “I actually wanted to be a chef. I thought cooking was one of the finest arts, the delight on people's faces when they like something,” he said. It is worth noting that in his third directorial, Nilavukku Enmel Ennadi Kobam, his nephew Pavish is featured as a chef.
With quite the discomfort and contempt for cinema and acting, it was only because of his brother Selvaraghavan and Kadhal Konden that Dhanush finally started developing a liking for the art. “My brother (Selvaraghavan) is a genius and helped me do a decent job in my second film, Kaadhal Konden. I kept doing films, but after speaking to certain people, I began to take acting seriously. Sometimes, you identify your calling; your calling might also identify you. I am just really lucky that the latter happened to me,” he mentioned in the same interview.
Dhanush made his acting debut with Kasthuri Raja’s Thulluvadho Ilamai in 2002. While his role as a mentally disturbed person in Kadhal Konden brought him acclaim, his career started picking up only after the commercial success of Thiruda Thirudi. Following this, Dhanush had a short period of box office failures until Pudhupettai in 2006, which was also helmed by Selvaraghavan. In 2013, Dhanush made his Bollywood debut with Raanjhanaa and later starred in The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir, which marked his first appearance in an international film. His Hollywood debut came with The Gray Man, helmed by the Russo brothers.
Dhanush won his first National Award for Best Actor in 2011 for the Vetrimaaran directorial, Aadukalam. Again, in 2019, he bagged his sophomore National Award for yet another Vetrimaaran film, Asuran.
On the work front, Dhanush has a number of films in the pipeline including Idly Kadai, Tere Ishk Mein, D54 with Vignesh Raja, D55 with Rajkumar Periyasamy, D56 with Mari Selvaraj, Kalam: The Missile Man of India, Vada Chennai 2 and another film with H Vinoth. Idly Kadai, his fourth directorial, will hit theatres on October 1.