Before #VickyNayan: Directors who created a buzz by marrying their actresses in Kollywood

Vignesh Shivan has officially confirmed this morning that he and Nayanthara will be getting married on June 9, in Mahabalipuram. We take a look at some of the other popular directors who fell in love with their actresses and eventually married them in Kollywood...

Even before he turned director, Sundar C is said to have had a crush on Khushbu, who was the top actress in Kollywood in the early 90s. Not surprisingly, he cast her as the female lead in his debut directorial, Murai Maman, in 1995. They started seeing each other after Sundar proposed to her. In filmi style, Khsubhu had revealed in an interview that the filmmaker had met on her the pretext of narrating a script, and gone down on his knees and proposed to her. About five years later, they got married in 2000.

Bhagyaraj had directed Poornima in the romantic film Darling Darling Darling, in 1982. She was his female lead in the film, which was successful at the box office. The director-actor had at that time been married to Praveena, who was also an actress. However, following her unfortunate demise in 1983, the actor proposed to Poornima, and married her the following year.

Roja was introduced in films by Selvamani, who cast her as the heroine in his romance drama Chembaruthi, in 1992. She was the director's muse and acted in over a half-a-dozen films and also in the films that he produced. Roja has remarked in interviews on how she was attracted to Selvamani seeing his good qualities. The director had proposed to her when she was shooting in Rajahmundry, but assured Roja that he'd wait until she tires of acting as a heroine. And so, after a 13-year-wait, the couple married each other with the approval of both their families, in August 2002.

Devyani had first worked with Rajakumaran in Suriyavamsam, in which he was an associate director. Later, when the he made his directorial debut, he cast Devayani as the female lead, in Nee Varuvaai Ena. After the director proposed to her, the actress also accepted it, but her family was pretty much against their romance. After some high drama, the couple eloped and got married in a very private ceremony in April 2001.

Among the newer gen of filmmakers, Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal director Desingh Periyasamy is the most recent to have married the actress he worked with. He fell in love with Niranjani Ahathian, daughter of National Award-winning director Ahathian, who played the second female lead in his debut comic caper. The duo married each other in February 2021.