4 min readHyderabadApr 6, 2026 02:29 PM IST
There are professional relationships, and then there are the ones that shape who you become. For director Vignesh Shivan, Dhanush belongs to the second kind. In a recent interview with television anchor-journalist Gobinath, Vignesh opened up about the two-time National Award-winning actor with a warmth hard to miss and a sadness equally difficult to ignore.
“I like Dhanush a lot,” he said. “He was my biggest supporter in life. Today, I am here because of him.” The connection runs deeper than most people know. Vignesh recalled how Dhanush’s birthday, July 28, carries a particular weight for him personally, because it is also the day his father passed away. “Whenever I think of him, I feel for my dad,” he said. “I have a lot of love for him.”
Two and a half years side by side
The bond between the two men was forged during the making of director Velraj’s Velaiyilla Pattathari (VIP, 2014). Vignesh had designed the film’s posters and appeared in a small acting role. It was during that period that Dhanush offered to produce Vignesh’s sophomore directorial venture, Naanum Rowdy Dhaan (2015), a film that went on to change the course of Vignesh’s career and personal life. It was also on that set that Vignesh met Nayanthara, who later became his wife.
During the interview, Vignesh described the closeness of that period with striking detail. “The time when we worked together for two and a half years for VIP, we were always there for each other,” he said. “I used to eat only if he had food, throughout the shooting.” The words paint a picture not of a working relationship, but of something closer to family.
The weight of a broken friendship
What made the interview striking was not just the warmth Vignesh expressed, but the grief underneath it. He spoke about the loss of the friendship with a sense of shame, not anger. “I consider it my biggest loss. If we lose someone with whom we had a great relationship, I consider it a shame as well,” he said. “If there was one correct problem and two people split, it can be solved. What can we do if there is no problem? How do you solve that?”
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The comment carries particular resonance given what the previous years have brought. In November 2024, Dhanush’s production house, Wunderbar Films, filed a case in the Madras High Court against Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, and their production company Rowdy Pictures, over the use of footage from Naanum Rowdy Dhaan in the Netflix documentary Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale.
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Subsequently, Nayanthara published an open letter on her social media, alleging that she had repeatedly requested a No Objection Certificate (NOC) from Wunderbar Films for two years but had not received one. In the letter, she explained that the footage from Naanum Rowdy Dhaan was included because the film marked the beginning of her relationship with Vignesh. She also accused Dhanush of harbouring a personal grudge against her and Vignesh, as he had sent a legal notice seeking Rs 10 crore in damages after the release of the documentary’s trailer. The Madras High Court sided with Dhanush in January 2025, dismissing Netflix India’s petition to reject his lawsuit. The case remains ongoing.
What the interview really says
Vignesh did not name the legal dispute in the interview. He did not accuse anyone or offer a timeline of events. What he did instead was speak about the loss itself, with a clarity that felt personal rather than performative. “We feel like, where are we?” he wondered.
For a director who has publicly credited Dhanush with giving him his first real break in the industry, the split clearly sits uncomfortably. The irony is not small. Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, the film Dhanush produced for Vignesh, is the same film at the centre of the legal dispute. It is where Vignesh met Nayanthara. It is both the foundation of what he built and, now, part of what has come apart.
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