Dhanush’s second directorial is a Tamil-Telugu bilingual featuring Nagarjuna, Sarathkumar, Aditi Rao Hydari

The multi-faceted Dhanush, who marked his debut as a director with the hit feel-good drama Pa. Paandi has started work on his sophomore directorial on Thursday in Tirunelveli district. Unlike Pa. Paandi, the untitled new film is being made at a massive budget and to make it commercially viable, Dhanush has announced the project as a bilingual in Tamil and Telugu. After sharing screen space with Karthi in the hit Tamil-Telugu bilingual Thozha/Oopiri, veteran Telugu actor Nagarjuna will be seen playing a pivotal role alongside Dhanush in the new film. Nagarjuna’s role was originally written for Superstar Rajinikanth but the latter couldn’t do the film because of various reasons including his prior commitment and political plans. [caption id=“attachment_4280225” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  Dhanush.[/caption] Touted to be a film set in the pre-independence era, Dhanush has also roped in SJ Suryah, Aditi Rao Hydari, Sarathkumar, and Srikanth to play important roles in the film. In Pa.Paandi, Dhanush appeared in a special cameo, the younger version of Rajkiran, but in his second directorial, he plays the main protagonist. Sri Thenandal Films, producers of actor Vijay’s blockbuster Mersal, is producing the film. The first-day shoot has commenced with an auspicious pooja event with the presence of the film’s producer Murali Ramasamy, art director Muthuraj of Ai fame, cinematographer Om Prakash, and music composer Sean Roldan. In an earlier interaction, Dhanush had revealed that the film was supposed to be made at a humongous budget of Rs 100cr but he had to reduce it by Rs 30 cr because of the limited theatrical revenue of his films. Sources say that Dhanush wants the budget invested on the film to appear on the screen so the actor has roped in talented technicians. Sources close to Dhanush say that the actor has researched for more than a year for the script and in the past six months, he also supervised the pre-production work. “When Dhanush was shooting for Maari 2 in Tirunelveli, he loved the scenic locales and decided to shoot the village portion in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu," added the source. After wrapping up the ongoing film, Dhanush has also signed three consecutive projects for Kabali producer Kalaipuli S Thanu. Mundasupatti director Ram will be directing one of the three films and the actor is also in talks with a couple of other young filmmakers. Dhanush and Thanu had earlier worked together in VIP 2. Besides his directorial project, two films of the actor are slated released within a gap of one month. Dhanush’s most anticipated first part of the gangster trilogy Vada Chennai will be hitting the screens on 17 October. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Vetrimaaran, Dhanush plays a carom player named Anbu in Vada Chennai but situations force him to become a leading gangster in North Madras (Vada Chennai in Tamil). Vada Chennai will be facing competition from Vishal’s Sandakozhi 2 and Jyothika’s Kaatrin Mozhi as both the films are scheduled to release on 18 October. Dhanush’s long-delayed romantic action thriller Enai Noki Paayum Thota with director Gautham Vasudev Menon will be releasing for this Diwali and thus, the film will clash with Vijay’s political action entertainer Sarkar. Dhanush’s Polladhavan (2007), Padikkathavan (2009) and Aadukalam (2011) had competed again Vijay’s Azhagiya Tamizh Magan, Villu, and Kaavalan respectively. Interestingly, in all the three occasions Dhanush had comfortably won the battle. The shoot of Dhanush’s other film Maari 2, sequel to the 2015 Tamil gangster entertainer, is also over but the team is yet to lock the release date.