Dhanush on his endeavours in the West and upcoming reunions with Aanand L Rai, R Balki
Avinash Lohana (MUMBAI MIRROR; July 27, 2017)

For award-winning Tamil actor-filmmaker Dhanush, who made his Bollywood acting debut with Aanand L Rai’s 2013 romantic-drama Raanjhanaa, and followed it up with R Balki’s Shamitabh, the stint has come a full circle with yet another collaboration with Rai.

The 33-year-old actor confirms the news, adding that he’d been waiting for something extraordinary to mark his return to Hindi films. “I just finished one English film (The Extraordinary Journey Of The Fakir) and I believe a script should convince me to take off from one industry to another and do complete justice to it. It should have meaning. I wanted to wait for something like Kundan (his character in Raanjhanaa) and Shamitabh,” he reveals.

Prod him if Balki has offered him something interesting and he says, “He has one idea which he is working on. So I might do a film with him later. He was discussing the idea with me in a lighter vein when I told him, ‘You dare not make this with anybody else’. But Aanand L Rai is definitely doing his next with me. We haven’t discussed things in detail yet; it’s just a verbal commitment that we will do the next one together,” informs Dhanush, adding that work on said project will kick off only after Rai is done filming the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer dwarf film.

Meanwhile, he’s also exploring Hollywood — he recently wrapped up his portions in Ken Scott’s The Extraordinary Journey Of The Fakir in Paris, which also features French actress Bérénice Bejo (of the Oscar-winning 2011 romcom-drama The Artist fame). “I play the lead character, Ajatashatru. He is a street magician. It’s his extraordinary journey as he ventures into the real world to figure it out. It’s told in a funny, entertaining way. The script has a lot of heart, humanity and so much to give to society. I have earlier said no to three-four English films but this film made me say ‘yes’,” says Dhanush, who is currently busy promoting his next,VIP 2, with Kajol and director, Soundarya Rajnikanth.

Dhanush argues that it’s the best time to do international films. “The world is shrinking and everyone is majorly interested in Indian films now. They are watching our films, they are hiring Indian stars and they like our song-and-dance format. If you notice they are even adapting them in their films. It’s a very healthy change and I think it’s the best time for me to do something like this,” he explains.

Does he have plans to produce Hollywood films, too? “I will be co-producing Hollywood films very soon. Talks are on. We are discussing a few scripts and collaborations but it’s at a very early stage right now,” Dhanush says.