Dhanush, who was recently seen in Captain Miller, made his debut in Hindi movies way before the concept of pan-Indian films became big in India. Back in 2013, Dhanush played a lead role in Aanand L Rai’s Raanjhanaa and while the actor was a force to be reckoned with in the Tamil industry, the Hindi film audience wasn’t very familiar with his work. In a recent interview, Rai shared that his decision to cast Dhanush in the movie was met with some opposition as “people saw him as odd”. Primarily, this was because the northern part of the country saw heroes as having certain physical attributes and Dhanush did not fall in that category.
The filmmaker told Mashable India, “We have an image for a hero which is slowly changing now. But at that time, in 2012-23… in the north, a 6 foot tall, fair boy was seen as a hero. That was the image. In such a world, Dhanush, who was a star in south, but here, people saw him as odd. But when you see him in the film and when he performs, there is no one more appealing than him.”
He refused to divulge what naysayers told him about Dhanush at the time. The director has since worked with Dhanush in Atrangi Re. The two have announced their collaboration on the upcoming film Tere Ishk Mein.
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In the course of the conversation, Aanand L Rai also addressed the accusations that his film Raanjhanaa promoted stalking as the lead hero resorts to stalking to follow the female actor. He said, “When we were accused that this is stalking, I thought that I don’t even know that this is stalking. For a boy in Varanasi, this is how he expresses his love. It is wrong and I’m not trying to defend it but the boy whose story I am trying to tell, this is all that he knows.”
Actors Swara Bhasker and Abhay Deol, who were also a part of the film, have previously said that the film glorifed stalking. In 2020, Abhay had shared on social media that “history will not look kindly at this film for its regressive message”. He shared, “It’s been a theme in Bollywood for decades, where a boy can (and should), pursue a girl until she relents. Only in cinema does she do that willfully. In reality, we have seen time and again that it leads to sexual violence of some sort. Glorifying it on screen only leads to blaming the victim.”
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Dhanush was seen as ‘odd’ when Aanand L Rai cast him in Raanjhana, director recalls: ‘A 6 foot tall, fair boy was seen as a hero’ – The Indian Express
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