Nelson Dilipkumar

Biography:

Nelson Dilipkumar is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter who specializes in Tamil films. He was born on June 21, 1984. His career began in 2010 with the Silambarasan-starring feature film Vettai Mannan. But for a number of reasons, it was put on hold. He then made his industry debut as director of Kolamaavu Kokila (2018). During the COVID-19 pandemic, his film Doctor (2021), starring Sivakarthikeyan, became a commercial triumph.

Following this was Beast (2022), starring Vijay, which became one of the highest-grossing Tamil films of that year. After that, he collaborated with Rajinikanth on Jailer (2023), which became his most successful movie and one of the highest-grossing Indian films globally, earning over ₹600 crore (US$72 million). He is among India’s highest-paid directors. Nelson graduated from Chennai’s New College with a degree in visual communication. He began working on Star Vijay as an assistant scriptwriter. In November of 2018, Nelson’s father passed away.

Nelson started his work on what was originally intended to have been his directorial debut, Vettai Mannan, in 2010. The film would have starred Silambarasan, Jai, Hansika Motwani and Deeksha Seth; would have been produced by NIC Arts’s S. S. Chakravarthy; and would have featured music by Yuvan Shankar Raja. However, the film was shelved for unknown reasons halfway through production. There was an attempt to revive the project in 2017 with a new crew, such as Anirudh Ravichander replacing Yuvan Shankar Raja as the composer. However, the project failed to take off again.