Dhanush

Venkatesh Prabhu Kasthoori Raja (born 28 July 1982), better known by his stage name Dhanush, is an Indian actor, producer, director, writer, lyricist, screenwriter and playback singer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Due to his martial arts influenced fight scenes in films, he has been nicknamed the "Indian Bruce Lee" by Indian media and fans.[ Starring in 44 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, three National Film Awards, and a Filmfare Award. He 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. He 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. He continued success with films including  (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 for grossing ₹100 crores within a month of its release. During the 2010s, Dhanush also starred in the action-comedy film series Maari (2015) & Maari 2 (2018) and Velaiilla Pattadhari (2014) and Velaiilla Pattadhari 2 (2017).