Tamil Actress Nayanthara publicly expressed her frustration over actor Dhanush in a lengthy open letter on her Instagram on November 16, 2024. This took place over the use of a three-second clip from their 2015 film ‘Naanum Rowdy Dhaan’ in Nayanthara’s upcoming Netflix documentary, ‘Nayanthara: Beyond the Fairytale’. It began when Dhanush, who produced the original film, sent a legal notice demanding Rs 10 crore in damages for what he claims is unauthorized use of footage from the movie.
In the letter shared on social media by the ‘Jawan’ actress, she accused Dhanush of harbouring a personal grudge against her and her husband, filmmaker Vignesh Shivan. She expressed her disappointment at Dhanush’s refusal to grant permission of the clip, despite their repeated requests over two years.
Nayanthara described the legal action as an “all-time low” and criticized Dhanush for his perceived hypocrisy, stating that he does not practice the positivity he preaches in public.
In the post, she wrote, “We were startled to read those lines wherein you questioned the usage of some videos (just 3 seconds) which were shot on our personal devices and that too BTS visuals that are already very much publicly present on social media and claimed a sum of Rs 10 crores as damages for the mere 3 seconds. This is an all-time low from you and speaks so much about your character. I wish you were half the person you portray to be on stage in audio launches in front of your innocent fans but clearly, you do not practice what you preach, at least not for me and my partner.”
Now, the clip in this whole controversy is the behind-the-scenes footage from ‘Naanum Rowdy Dhaan’, which is significant to Nayanthara and Vignesh as it marks the beginning of their love story.
Nayanthara’s documentary features stories about her life as an actress, daughter, sister, and friend. One of the key points of the documentary is about Nayanthara’s wedding to Vignesh Shivan and her entire career, including her journey into motherhood through surrogacy. The documentary is set to release on November 18th.
Support for Nayanthara has been coming in from many actors in the film industry. Parvathy Thiruvothu, Shruti Haasan, Anupama Parmeswaran, Nazriya Fahadh, Aishwarya Lekshmi, Dia Mirza, Nazriya Nazim and other actresses who worked with Dhanush earlier also shared support liking or commenting on the social media post.
Dhanush’s legal team has responded by stressing that he holds rights to the footage as the producer and has requested its removal within 24 hours. The legal statement reads, “My client is the producer of the film and they know where they have spent each penny for the production of the film and your client has stated that my client has not commissioned any person to shoot the behind the scenes footage and the said statement is baseless and your client is put to strict proof of the same”.