Aishwarya Rajinikanth

05Director

Behind the
monitor.

Aishwarya Rajinikanth has directed three feature films and a documentary since 2012, working across romantic drama, crime thriller, non-fiction and sports drama. A fourth feature, Texla, is in production.

Aishwarya Rajinikanth on a film set, wearing sunglasses with her arms folded, crew and background artistes behind her
Frame 01On set — direction

01Approach

Genre is the
vehicle. The subject
is the point.

Read across four titles and the genres could not be more different — a romantic drama, a gambling thriller, an industry documentary, a sports film. What holds them together is a consistent interest in the person standing slightly outside the story everyone else is watching.

In 3, that person is a husband whose illness goes unnamed and untreated while the marriage around him is read as a love story. In Cinema Veeran, it is the stunt artiste who performs the fall that makes the star look invincible, and whose name does not reach the poster. In Lal Salaam, it is a community pushed to the edge of a sporting rivalry that is really about something else entirely.

The films are also, consistently, built around music. Each has been made with a major composer — and in the case of 3, gave one his first feature score.

02The Work

Reel 01 — 2012

3

Feature · Tamil · Romantic psychological drama

Her debut takes the shape of a love story and then refuses to behave like one. A marriage between two childhood sweethearts is progressively undone by an untreated psychiatric illness that the film names plainly rather than romanticising. Dhanush and Shruti Haasan lead; Velraj photographs; Anirudh Ravichander writes his first film score.

The film’s soundtrack carried “Why This Kolaveri Di”, which reached an audience far beyond Tamil cinema.

Reel 02 — 2015

Vai Raja Vai

Feature · Tamil · Crime thriller

A deliberate change of register: fast, stylised and plotted around a man who can see what is about to happen and is therefore extremely dangerous at a card table. Gautham Karthik and Priya Anand lead, produced by AGS Entertainment, with Yuvan Shankar Raja scoring and Velraj again behind the camera.

A director’s second film is where range is tested. This one moved from interior drama to genre machinery.

Reel 03 — 2017

Cinema Veeran

Documentary · Tamil · 51 minutes

Written and directed as her non-fiction debut, the film sits with the stunt artistes and fight choreographers of Tamil cinema — the people who absorb the industry’s physical risk. Produced by Wunderbar Films, with narration by Rajinikanth, it was shot from late 2015 and released in June 2017.

The clearest statement of the concern that runs through all the work: who gets named, and who does not.

Reel 04 — 2024

Lal Salaam

Feature · Tamil · Sports drama

A village cricket rivalry escalates into communal confrontation, and a local leader tries to hold the place together. Vishnu Vishal and Vikranth lead; Rajinikanth appears in an extended cameo as Moideen Bhai. Produced by Lyca Productions, scored by A. R. Rahman, and shot across Chennai, Mumbai and Pondicherry.

The first film in which her father performed under her direction — twelve years after her debut.

Reel 05 — 2026

Texla

Feature · Multilingual · In production

Launched in Chennai in March 2026 and shooting from June, Texla is led by Jai and Suraj Venjaramoodu and produced by the Kannan Ravi Group, with Yuvan Shankar Raja returning as composer. It is planned for release in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.

Her first project conceived from the outset as a multilingual release.

03Collaborators

The people who
make the frame.

Composers, cinematographers and production houses credited on her films.

Music

Composers

Anirudh Ravichander (3) · Yuvan Shankar Raja (Vai Raja Vai, Texla) · A. R. Rahman (Lal Salaam)

Camera

Cinematography

Velraj (3, Vai Raja Vai) · Vishnu Rangasamy (Lal Salaam, also story and co-screenplay)

Production

Production houses

Wunderbar Films (Cinema Veeran) · AGS Entertainment (Vai Raja Vai) · Lyca Productions (Lal Salaam) · Kannan Ravi Group (Texla)

04On the Circuit

A seat at the
table.

In 2012, the year of her directorial debut, she took part in the 43rd International Film Festival of India at Goa — appearing on the festival’s master-class platform alongside the producer David Wonark and the American casting director Avy Kaufman, and meeting the press as a director in her own right.

Public conversation has remained part of the work: panels, festival sessions and literary platforms, including appearances following the publication of her memoir.

Media & appearances

Aishwarya Rajinikanth on a master-class panel at the 43rd International Film Festival of India with producer David Wonark and casting director Avy Kaufman
Plate 01Master class — 43rd IFFI, Goa
Aishwarya Rajinikanth speaking into a microphone during a festival panel discussion
Plate 02In conversation — festival panel

Currently

Texla — in production.

A multilingual feature led by Jai and Suraj Venjaramoodu, produced by the Kannan Ravi Group, with music by Yuvan Shankar Raja.

Full credits

→Enquiries

Project and
production enquiries.

For press, festival, distribution and professional enquiries, please write or call. All correspondence is handled directly.