Vijay’s father slams Beast director Nelson, asks where is the screenplay, homework on terrorism

Actor Vijay’s father, filmmaker SA Chandrasekhar, has slammed Beast (2022) director Nelson Dilipkumar for making a movie relying solely on Vijay’s stardom and expressed "utter disappointment" at the film’s screenplay.

Chandrasekhar proceeded to take Nelson to task for not doing his homework on RAW (Research and Analysis Wing) agents and cross-border terrorism which serve as important plot points in the movie.

The film, which opened in theatres amid high expectations last week, has mostly earned a mixed response from audiences.

In an interview to Thanthi TV, Chandrasekhar shared his thoughts about Beast and what he thought went wrong with the movie.

“I enjoyed 'Arabic Kuthu' like how a die-hard fan would," the veteran said. "But this is a film made solely relying on Vijay’s stardom. Young filmmakers deliver an excellent first film in terms of content, technology and making. They also somehow achieve good results with the second film. When they begin to get projects of superstars, these young filmmakers begin to think, now that we have dates of these heroes, we can make movies whichever way we want! They think he [the star] already has a huge fan following and his film will run successfully in theatres, so no need for a screenplay and things like that. And they make a movie with a few songs and fights.”

Chandrasekhar said the film, which talks about ISIS terrorists and RAW agents, had simply not done any research to study how these groups operate. “You need to take time to study all these things," the filmmaker said. "You can’t just rush into a project because you have got dates from a star. A good screenplay will immerse audiences into a story and this was missing in this film.”

In its extended opening weekend, Beast, which was released on a Wednesday, entered the Rs200 crore club in worldwide collections, the fifth time a Vijay-starrer had done so after Master (2021), Bigil (2019), Sarkar (2018) and Mersal (2017).

The film was also dubbed and released in Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam. The Hindi version proved to be a dud, earning just Rs50 lakh on opening day and never showing any upward trend thereafter.

Beast marked Vijay's maiden collaboration with director Nelson. In the movie, he plays a character called Veeraraghavan, a notorious espionage agent. Filmmaker Selvaraghavan plays the mediator in the film's hostage situation while VTV Ganesh, Sathish and Yogi Babu are seen in supporting roles.