Kollywood debutantes who made an impact in 2021

Despite the COVID-19 pandemic situation, quite few interesting films made it to the screens this year and also impressed the audience. Just like every year, this year too, Kollywood welcomed many new faces and many more are yet to enter the industry. And, some of these debutants managed to cast a spell on the audience. The Tamil film industry saw some promising debutants this year and here's a look at some of the them.

Director Arun Matheswaran's debut directorial 'Rocky' starring Vasanth Ravi hit the screens only recently on 23rd December towards the end of the year and has been receiving amazing response from the audience. While the critics and celebrities from within the Tamil film industry have been raving about the film, the youngster has signed up his third film, which will have Dhanush in the lead role. Interestingly, Arun Matheswaran had become famous even before the release of 'Rocky', when his second film 'Saani Kaayidham' starring Selvaraghavan and Keerthy Suresh was announced and he was completed the shooting for the film as well.

Television actor, Ashwin Kumar rose to fame with his stint on the popular television show 'Cooku With Comali' and has gained a huge fan following. Even while the handsome actor's debut film 'Enna Solla Pogirai' as the lead actor is yet to be released, he made his film debut in Harish Kalyan and Priya Bhavani Shankar starrer 'Oh Manapenne', which released on an OTT platform due to the COVID-19 situation.

Director PS Vinothraj has been the talk of Kollywood through out the year for his film 'Koozhangal' (Pebbles) and even made headline across the nation when his film was selected as India's official entry to the 94th Academy Awards. 'Koozhangal', which is based on the relationship between an alcoholic father and his son and follows their journey together to bring back the wife/mother who has gone off to her father’s house, is based on a real incident that took place in director Vinothraj’s family, inspiring him to spin it into a story for his debut film.

Actor Pradeep Anthony, who is more popularly known for entering the Bigg Boss Tamil house in season 3, as actor Kavin's friend, made his debut with director Arun Prabu Purushothaman's second film 'Vaazhl'. He made an impressive debut in the film which was about a middle-class youngster, who leads a mundane life, experiences a roller-coaster ride after meeting two women of contrasting personalities.

Director Madonne Ashwin delivered a smart satire with his critically acclaimed Tamil film ‘Mandela’, featuring Yogi Babu in the lead. Written and directed by himself, it got directly released on OTT and the movie was a successful hit. After an impressive debut, which garnered widespread appreciation and critical acclaim, Madonne Ashwin signed a film with actor Sivakarthikeyan in the lead.

Popular You Tube reviewer C Elamaran, popularly known as Blue Sattai Maran, made debut as a director with his film 'Anti Indian'. To the surprise of many, he managed to pass the test - if not in flying colours, at least in admirable fashion. The talked about sensitive issues like religious riots, political corruption, abuse of power by the police, and sensationalism by the media. Maran impressed with the writing, giving sharply written scenes with dialogues that sting.

Director Kiran R gave the Tamil audience 'Kayamai Kadakka', a minimalist thriller that keeps us guessing about where the narrative will go next. Kayamai Kadakka means 'crossing the depraved/immoral behaviour'. Kiran, who played with his audience's expectations by revealing the twists gradually, also posed ethical questions that are hard to answer. The writing was solid and even a couple of far-fetched scenes did not lower the narrative tension.

Directed by Arjunan Ekalaivan, a protege of Mysskin, 'Oomai Sennaai' starring Michael Thangadurai and Sanam Shetty in the lead was backed by solid writing, which uses spare dialogues and gets the audience hooked into its narrative gradually. The film is about Prabhakar (Michael Thangadurai), a man with a murky past who is working for a seedy private detective Rathnam (Gajaraj), who blackmails their marks.

Actress Anandhi starrer 'Kamali From Nadukkaveri' was a feel good film delivered by the debutante director Rajasekar Duraisamy, who ensured that this female-centric film has its soul in the right place. The film is an inspirational story of a young girl who dreams and achieves big in the end.