Late 1990s–2007: Beginning directions While studying English literature at Loyola College, he undertook a course on television presentation, at the end of which he had to make a film. While making the film, he learned of his inclination towards filmmaking. Later, he attended a seminar organised by
Balu Mahendra, who at that time was a visiting professor at Loyola. Impressed by the veteran filmmaker, Vetrimaaran decided that he would learn filmmaking from him. Mahendra then accepted Vetrimaaran as one of his lead assistants. Following this, he faced the dilemma of choosing between studies and film. He opted for the latter, which meant he had to opt out of his course at Loyola. Mahendra expanded his duties for the Tamil serial
Kathai Neram (2000) and the Tamil films
En Iniya Ponnilave (2001),
Julie Ganapathy (2003), and
Adhu Oru Kana Kaalam (2005). Vetrimaaran has since credited Mahendra as his mentor and the one who encouraged him to follow his dream of becoming a director. Vetrimaaran also acted in a brief role as
Richard Rishi's assistant in
Kadhir's
Kadhal Virus (2002). It was during the making of
Adhu Oru Kana Kaalam where Vetrimaaran became acquainted with the lead actor of the film,
Dhanush. He prepared a script for Dhanush, who immediately accepted the offer after hearing the story. After he found trouble finding producers with A. M. Rathnam and Salem Chandrasekhar leaving the project after initial interest, Dhanush's sister Vimala Geetha agreed to produce the film, but she also dropped the film. Dhanush's father
Kasthuri Raja finally agreed to produce the film. However, after two days of shoot, the film was shelved, and Dhanush opted to pursue other films after the surprise success of his
Thiruvilaiyaadal Aarambam (2006). The film's collapse saw Vetrimaaran approach producer
S. Kathiresan and narrated to him the stories he had prepared. Kathiresan did not like
Desiya Nedunchaalai 47 but agreed to work on another project titled
Polladhavan (2007). Vetrimaaran has since described that he had "ample time" for the production works of
Polladhavan as "Dhanush had confidence in him". The film's story was inspired partly by the lost bike of his friend Andrew and the variety of experiences he had tracking down his vehicle. Vetrimaaran revealed that when he wrote the script, he made many changes to suit the visual medium and for Dhanush on his physical attributes while playing an action hero. The film opened in November 2007 to rave reviews, with the critic from
Sify stating that "Vetri has made his mentor proud, and his style of narration and takings are very similar to the ace director Balu Mahendra, labelling that the film had shades of
Vittorio De Sica's 1948 Italian film,
Bicycle Thieves. When questioned about its relevance to
Bicycle Thieves, he stated that it "is a disgrace to
Bicycle Thieves if it is compared with
Polladhavan".
2011–2015: Breakthrough and widespread acclaim Following the success of
Polladhavan, the entire team of that film (Vetrimaaran, actors Dhanush and
Kishore, producer Kathiresan, and composer
G. V. Prakash Kumar) collaborated once again for
Aadukalam (2011), which deals with the rivalry between
cockfighters in Madurai. During the
pre-production and scripting, Vetrimaaran spent two years in
Madurai to understand the local dialect and lifestyle of the people living there.
Aadukalam was the first film of Vetrimaaran to have a production office set up outside of
Chennai. Vetrimaaran took a year to complete the screenplay, script, and dialogues for
Aadukalam and held a bounded script for the venture, which is considered rare in Tamil films. Vetrimaaran narrated only half of the film's script to Dhanush before the latter was impressed with it and agreed to act in the film. The film was initially titled
Seval, but since the rights to the title were already taken by director
Hari for his
project with Bharath, Vetrimaaran decided to rename his film as
Aadukalam. The film languished in production hell for two years due to constant changing in cast, crew and location, but Vetrimaaran, Dhanush, Kishore, Kathiresan and Prakash Kumar remained on. Vetrimaaran introduced two newcomers who made their Tamil debuts: actress
Taapsee Pannu and
Sri Lankan Tamil writer and
political commentator V. I. S. Jayapalan, while future Vetrimaaran collaborators
Dinesh,
Murugadoss, and
Naren made their breakthroughs through this film. Upon release,
Aadukalam received critical acclaim and was a commercial success.
Sify called it "a gutsy and brilliant film" and mentioned that it " lives up to the expectation that the film carried and the credit goes to Vetrimaran whose research and hard work shows on screen". In 2012, Vetrimaaran launched his own production house called the Grass Root Film Company and launched his maiden project,
Udhayam NH4 (2013) with
Siddharth in the lead role and his associate
Manimaran as director. He wrote the dialogues of
Naan Rajavaga Pogiren (2013), directed by newcomer Prithvi Rajkumar. In 2014, his production
Poriyaalan, dubbed as a sort of sibling to
Polladhavan, was released to critical appreciation. In 2015, the Children's film
Kaaka Muttai (2015), directed by
Manikandan and jointly produced by Dhanush's
Wunderbar Films and Grassroot Film Company received critical acclaim from all around India and won the
Best Children's Film Award at the
62nd National Film Awards.
2016–present: Further success Vetrimaaran's third venture was the crime-thriller
Visaranai (2016) was based on M. Chandrakumar's novel
Lock Up. The film deals with the lives of a few Tamil laborers subject to horrific atrocities committed by the police from which they are unable to escape. Vetrimaaran chose to begin the film before the schedule for his other venture
Vada Chennai (2018) and reunited with actors Dinesh, Murugadoss, and Kishore, where the first two play the main Tamil laborers, while the latter plays an auditor. Though he had dubbed for Kishore in
Aadukalam,
Samuthirakani made this film his maiden acting collaboration with Vetrimaaran, portraying as a hard-nosed yet sympathetic police inspector, while Telugu film actor
Ajay Ghosh made his breakthrough as a Telugu soft-spoken yet "villainous" inspector in
Guntur. Upon release,
Visaranai received positive reviews.
Twitch Film viewed Visarnai as a top class film about reality comparable to
2012 Cannes favorite
Gangs of Wasseypur.
Baradwaj Rangan, then of
The Hindu wrote "Visaranai is beautifully filmed, though there isn't much room for beauty. The frames appear to have been snatched from the back alleys of life. The verité illusion is aided by the utterly lifelike performances—even if the word "performance" seems wrong."
Visaranai was India's official entry in the Foreign Language film category at the 2017 Academy Awards, but failed to get nominated. In India, the film also won three National Film awards -
Best Feature Film in Tamil,
Best Supporting Actor for Samuthirakani, and
Best Editing for
Kishore Te and G. B. Venkatesh and numerous awards at
Ananda Vikatan and
Filmfare South. Vetrimaaran also produced three films in a row:
Kodi (2016),
Lens (2017) and
Annanukku Jai (2018). His fourth directorial venture which he had been preparing for since 2009,
Vada Chennai saw him reunite with Dhanush, Samuthirakani, Kishore,
Daniel Balaji,
Pawan, cinematographer Velraj, art director
Jacki, and editor G. B. Venkatesh. The film is about a skilled carrom player who becomes a reluctant participant in a gang war between two rival gangsters. Like
Aadukalam, the film went through production and development hell over a period of nine years with huge changes in cast and crew and much scouting and research, yet Vetrimaaran made sure it was not shelved. The film ran into controversy from the fisherfolk community, because of a love-making scene between
Ameer and
Andrea Jeremiah filmed in a boat, which was considered to be offensive for the community. As a result, Vetrimaaran in a video statement, apologized to anyone who may have been hurt by the offensive scenes and agreed to remove them from the film. After a long delay,
Vada Chennai was released on 18 October 2018, opening to critical and commercial acclaim, with critics praising the story, screenplay and each of the actors' performance. Janani K, a critic from
India Today gave a rating of 4/5 stars and said that "
Vada Chennai has everything you look for in a gangster thriller. But Vetri Maaran's display of twists and turns will win you over."
Sowmya Rajendran, editor-in-chief of
The News Minute wrote "From the colourful curses of the street to each of the characters, the film gives us a very real glimpse of gang wars. Vetrimaaran-Dhanush delivers a brilliant gangster film."
Baradwaj Rangan of
Film Companion South wrote "Dhanush's ascent to stardom has come alongside his growth as an actor, and there’s not one scene where he makes us doubt his character's actions. With his outstanding cinematographer Velraj, Vetrimaaran unleashes one flamboyant scene after another." Vada Chennai earned at the worldwide box office, and Dhanush received numerous accolades for his role. Producer
Kalaipuli S. Thanu signed Vetrimaaran and Dhanush to a new film,
Asuran which saw the duo reunite with music director G. V. Prakash Kumar, cinematographer Velraj and actors Naren, Pawan and
Munnar Ramesh (who has featured in all of Vetrimaaran's feature films from
Polladhavan onwards). The film's plot is based on Poomani's novel
Vekkai () and is influenced by the real-life
Kilvenmani massacre that occurred in 1968. Dhanush plays a lower class farmer who has to protect his family when his youngest son murders a rich upper class landlord and is seen in two looks: one as a young man in a flashback and the second as a middle-aged man in the present. Upon release in October 2019, it received critical acclaim.
The Times of India, rated 3.5 out of 5 stars, stating that "Vetri Maaran delivers yet another solid action drama that keeps us engrossed from start to finish." S. Subhakeerthana from
The Indian Express rated the film 4 out of 5 and reviewed it as "With this Dhanush starrer, Vetrimaaran proves he's one of the finest directors in Indian cinema, yet again. Only a few filmmakers like him can pull off a mainstream cinema, balancing ‘realism’ and commercial elements." Commercially, the film became a blockbuster at the box office, entering the club and is currently the highest-grossing film of Vetrimaaran's career. It won numerous awards including two National Awards –
Best Feature Film in Tamil and
Best Actor for Dhanush. In the same year, Vetrimaaran collaborated with Suresh Kamatchi for their production,
Miga Miga Avasaram (2019). Vetrimaaran wrote and directed a segment,
Oor Iravu, for the anthology,
Paava Kadhaigal (2020), starring
Sai Pallavi and
Prakash Raj. Each of the short films of the anthology touch upon the issue of
honour killing. "Oor Iravu" received positive acclaim with Baradwaj Rangan of
Film Companion writing, "Vetri Maaran’s is the most powerful, most gut-churning installment. The house becomes a character of its own, with its clearly established geography...It may seem strange to say this, given Vetri Maaran’s terrific run of films, but Oor Iravu is his best-directed work." In 2023, Vetrimaaran directed
Viduthalai Part 1, based on the
Vachathi case. The film featured once comedian now a mass hero
Soori as a police constable, with him playing the lead role for the first time in his career, while
Vijay Sethupathi plays the leader of a separatist group. The film received positive reviews and became a success at the box office. Asked by Baradwaj Rangan , for the reasons why his films have political themes and social commentaries at The Huddle by The Hindu , the film maker replied that Man displays politics in every move of his life , say the way he dresses , talks and the stuff he reads . (Source The Hindu published May 10 , 2025 04:48 pm IST and updated May 18 , 2025 11:56 am IST , conversation with Baradwaj Rangan ) ==Filmography==