'D54’: Dhanush's Next With 'Por Thozhil' Director Vignesh Raja Announced

Vels Films International announced the beginning of their first production with actor Dhanush on Thursday. It will be directed by Vignesh Raja, who made the 2023 superhit thriller Por Thozhil. Dhanush’s most recent release was the Tamil-Telugu bilingual, Kuberaa.

Tentatively titled ‘D54’, the film’s music will be scored by GV Prakash Kumar. According to initial reports, the supporting cast of the film will include actors Mamitha Baiju, Suraj Venjaramoodu, Jayaram, Karunas, Nithin Sathya, and KS Ravikumar, among others. A report also stated that Dhanush would join the film’s sets from the 14th of July. The genre of the film has not yet been disclosed. The film will be written by Vignesh Raja and Alfred Prakash. Theni Eswar, Sreejith Sarang and Mayapandi will make up the remaining technical crew.

Dhanush’s next release is expected to be Idli Kadai, which will release on October 1. Apart from starring in the film, he has also directed and written Idli Kadai. He has also finished shooting for Aanand L Rai’s Hindi film Tere Ishk Main. 

Kuberaa, although a hit in Telugu, did not perform as per expectations in Dhanush’s home base of Tamil Nadu. Explaining what might have gone wrong with the film’s Tamil version, producer and distributor G. Dhananjayan had spoken about why this previously cost-effective method of film production isn't effective anymore. He said, “Recent examples are the two Dhanush-starrers. Both films (Sir and Kuberaa) were produced by Telugu producers and made by popular directors in Telugu. However, these films, which worked well in Telugu, did not get the expected success in Tamil as they were seen more as Telugu here and were not treated on par with a straight Tamil film made by a Tamil filmmaker, despite featuring Dhanush.”  

Dhananjayan also drew attention to reasons why only one version of the two films gets the desired response. He said, “Tamil and Malayalam audiences look for rooted, native, and emotional content, while Telugu audiences look for larger-than-life stories with huge production value. Similarly, they (Tamil audiences) also look for relatability, with popular actors from their industry cast in character-oriented roles. However, Telugu audiences accept other-language actors for character roles."