Dhanush

Dhanush, life and biography

Venkatesh Prabhu Kasthuri Raja (born 28 July 1983), known professionally as Dhanush, is an Indian actor, producer, director, lyricist and playback singer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Starring in 46 films over his career, among Dhanush's awards include 13 SIIMA Awards, nine Vijay Awards, seven Filmfare Awards South, five Vikatan Awards, five Edison Awards, four National Film Awards (two as actor and two as producer), and a Filmfare Award. Dhanush has been included in the Forbes India Celebrity 100 list six times, which is based on the earnings of Indian celebrities.

Dhanush's first film was Thulluvadho Ilamai, a 2002 coming-of-age film directed by his father, Kasthuri Raja. Dhanush achieved further success in Polladhavan (2007) and Yaaradi Nee Mohini (2008), both of which were critically acclaimed and commercially successful. His role as a rooster fight jockey in Aadukalam (2010) won him Best Actor at the 58th National Film Awards and Best Tamil Actor Award at the 60th Filmfare Awards South. Dhanush continued success with films including 3 (2012), Maryan (2013), Anegan (2015), Kodi (2016), Vadachennai (2018) and Asuran (2019). Vadachennai emerged as the highest-grossing A-rated Tamil film of all time, while Asuran entered the 100 Crore Club earning a revenue of ₹100 crore within a month of its release, when adding the theatrical box office collections with non-theatrical revenue such as satellite, digital, and audio rights. During the 2010s, Dhanush also starred in the action films Maari (2015) and Maari 2 (2018) and Velaiilla Pattadhari (2014) and Velaiilla Pattadhari 2 (2017).

In 2011, Dhanush's popular song "Why This Kolaveri Di" from the romantic psychological thriller film 3 became the first Indian music video to cross 100 million views on YouTube. Dhanush made his Bollywood debut with Aanand L. Rai's Raanjhanaa (2013). His performance as an obsessive one-sided lover in the film won him the Best Male Debut Award and earned a Best Actor nomination at the 59th Filmfare Awards. Dhanush produces films through his production company, Wunderbar Films, and Dhanush made his directorial debut with Pa Paandi (2017). His song "Rowdy Baby" from Maari 2 became one of the most-viewed Indian songs of all time. It is the only South Indian video song to receive 1 billion views on YouTube. Dhanush won his second National Film Award for Best Actor for Asuran (2019).