Meet the hat-trick hit heroes of Kollywood

This year, Karthi has had a hat-trick of hits with Viruman, Ponniyin Selvan 1 and Sardar. He is the latest into the Kollywood hat-trick club. Here are the other contemporary stars who have scored hat-trick hits down the years...

He is Kollywood's 'Super one', so delivering consecutive hits is child's play for Rajinikanth. While he has had many hat-trick hits, since the 2000s, he has had a few just misses, like when he had Kuselan breaking the monster successes of Chandramukhi and Sivaji, and coming in the way of mega hit Enthiran. But in the 1990s, the Superstar was a phenomenon like no one else. In the late 90s, he cemented his legacy with record-setting hits in the form of Muthu, Arunachalam and Padayappa.

Given his amazing longevity, the Ulaganayagan has had more than his fair share of hat-trick hits. But in his post-Nayakan phase, the actor alternated between commercial and experimental cinema that resulted in quite a few hat-trick misses. But still, Kamal showed his commercial aura this millennium with a trio of back-to-back hits in the form of Vettaiyaadu Vilayaadu, Dasavatharam and Unnaipol Oruvan.

Vijay has had quite a few successful spells when he has had three hits in a row in the late 1990s and early 2000s. His most recent string of hat-trick hits happens to be in the last decade, when he delivered back-to-back blockbusters with Mersal, Sarkar and Bigil.

Ajith's career has largely been one of strange ups and downs — monster hits followed by mega flops. But the actor had a triple success in the last decade when he switched between mass and class roles with supreme ease in Veera, Yennai Arindhaal and Vedalam.

Suriya did face criticism in the early part of his career, but the actor took them constructively, and became the superb performer that he is today. After establishing his box office credentials in the middle part of the 2000s, the actor unlocked commercial superstardom with three huge hits — Ayan, Aathavan and Singam — in the fag end of the decade.

Vikram's career was not a bed of roses, and the actor had to fight his way to success. After Sethu turned his fortunes, the acclaimed actor sustained his success by delivering three hits back to back in the form of cop action drama Dhil, old-fashioned melodrama Kasi and commercial potboiler Gemini.

Despite being bodyshamed during the release of his first film, Dhanush made all his critics eat humble pie by delivering hat-trick hits with the first three movies of his career — coming-of-age drama Thulluvatho Ilamai, romance thriller Kadhal Konden and commercial romantic entertainer Thiruda Thirudi.

After appearing in minor roles for many years, Vijay Sethupathi got his break as a hero with Thenmerku Paruvakkatru. However, it is with the trifecta of Pizza, Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom and Soodhu Kavvum — all of which released within a short span of time — that he established himself as the new-gen star of Tamil cinema.

Sivakarthikeyan tasted hat-trick success pretty early in his career, with the sports drama Ethir Neechal, the rural comedy Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam and the action comedy Maan Karate.