Indian star Dhanush says soul is with Tamil cinema

He has a clear criterion for accepting roles in films: it should have a good script. But Dhanush, who real name is Venkatesh Prabhu Kasthuri Raja, says his heart and soul is in his mother tongue and he will do more Tamil films.

“I’ll do Hindi films when I land very good stories, and very good filmmakers,” he told a newspaper. “I’ll do Telugu and Malayalam ones, I’d love to do Marathi as well, I will do in any language as long as the story is good. We all are in the same industry, the same country, and I would take every opportunity to do those in the Indian industry; but like I said, my mother tongue is where my soul is.”

Dhanush has starred in 46 films over the past two decades, but only three have been in Hindi: Raanjhanaa, Shamitabh and Atrangi Re, set to release on Disney+Hotstar on Friday.

But the southern superstar has made a name for himself on social media; ‘Why this Kolaveri Di,’ was the first Indian music video to cross the 100 million-mark on YouTube. And ‘Rowdy Baby,’ from Maari 2 was one of the most-viewed Indian songs of all time. It is also the only south Indian video song to get over a billion views on YouTube.

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But Dhanush does not like being described as a south Indian actor. “Why do we need it? We are all from the same country, same industry, I am an Indian actor,” he asserted. “When you go to the West, they don’t call me a south Indian actor, they call me an Indian actor and I think that’s how it should be.”

• India