Aggressive director Atlee on overdrive

His last film 'Whistle' (Bigil in Tamil) was a blockbuster in both the Tamil and Telugu film industries when released during 2019 Diwali. This one-time assistant to showman director Shankar has just four releases in six years and all of them have hit the bull's eye, release after release. Married to a small screen star of Telugu origin, Krishna Priya, Atlee had raised hopes that he would come up with a Telugu original film the last time he was in the Pearl City.

With the dreaded coronavirus bogging down the glamour world, the high-profile celebrities of Indian cinema are content keeping themselves active on social media. Already, there are enough messages clogging the social media about how big stars in Chennai have been reluctant in donating to the coronavirus fund. The list includes the big names like Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth, whose moves are still seen as falling short of what their actual contributing potential can be.

In this milieu, Atlee's contribution of Rs 10 lakh to the Relief Fund and the body supporting the film industry workers ( FEFSI) has also gained its own kind of attention in the media. Being among the handful of directors in Tamil cinema commanding a huge fee, he too is not free from accusatory comments which have been aimed at him. Yet, the director has gone ahead and announced his next film which he is producing under his banner A for Apple.