After a widely acclaimed Hindi breakthrough with Shershaah in 2021, filmmaker Vishnu Varadhan is returning to the industry that first shaped him, with Nesippaya marking his comeback to Tamil cinema after nearly a decade. His last Tamil film, Yatchan, released in 2015, and the director says the long gap has not changed his sense of belonging to the language and audience that remain his creative base.
"Yenge suthi ponalum, inge dhaan thirumba varuven (no matter where I go, I always come back here). This is my base," Vishnu Varadhan said, underscoring that his move across industries never meant a permanent shift away from Tamil cinema. He added that the success of Shershaah, which earned multiple accolades including a National Award, was never something he had anticipated. "We never expected that. The reason I did Shershaah was to do something more exciting. I was planning another film and Shershaah came in between. Despite people saying it's been a while, I don't find a difference as I was busy with multiple things. But I was waiting to return and do something in Tamil. I'm glad it happened with Nesippaya."
The director's return comes at a moment when Indian cinema is increasingly defined by cross-industry movement, with filmmakers and actors working across Tamil, Telugu and Hindi productions. Vishnu Varadhan said the experience of working outside Tamil Nadu has not altered his working style so much as reinforced it. "Wherever I go, I make sure the team works the way I work. When you are making a film, you should be comfortable doing it," he said, explaining that Shershaah was a deliberate step beyond his comfort zone. "With Shershaah, I broke out of my comfort zone to try something exciting that tested my limits. It did extremely well and we feel blessed."
What drew him to Nesippaya, he said, was the chance to tell a fictional story rooted in the emotional texture of real life. "It's a fictional story inspired by many real-life events that fascinated me," he said. The project, he added, was not part of a post-Shershaah plan to continue with military or biographical subjects. "After Shershaah, there were a lot of biopics and military films but I didn't even remake Billa. The idea is to explore something new and working on a film like Nesippaya after Shershaah was never on the radar."
The film also emerged from a personal creative instinct tied to its lead actor. Vishnu Varadhan said he and producer Sneha were drawn to Akash, the second son of late actor Murali, and wanted to build a film around him. "When I saw Akash and really started liking the boy, my producer, Sneha, and I wanted to do a film with him and made this story," he said. He described the film as more than a straightforward romance. "I like a lot of drama in my films and in Nesippaya, you can expect more heavy-duty drama than just love."
That emphasis on emotional conflict appears central to the film's identity. Vishnu Varadhan said romance has often been present in his work, even if he never considered it his strongest genre. "I'm glad you find it so; I've always thought romance was never my forte," he said. But he also suggested that his understanding of love stories has evolved with time. "When you grow as a filmmaker, you want to try different genres as your sensibilities and understanding towards certain aspects such as love and relationships change. Nesippaya's script was built with that in mind and has several layers and intricacies. To attempt a love story with drama is a new for me."
For Vishnu Varadhan, the film is also a reflection on how modern relationships are changing. "Love is the story of two souls and while the levels have changed over time, true romance is timeless," he said. "In today's generation, people realise true romance after they miss it. There's confusion between love and infatuation. It's become easy to break off and go but if they really try to understand and realise mistakes, that's what true love is and Nesippaya talks about that."
The director, who began his career working with younger actors such as Arya and Bharath, said launching new talent still excites him. "It doesn't matter if I'm working with newbies or big-league actors; it's the film you want to make," he said. "The fact that I'm launching a new actor is more exciting because there are no expectations. It's more challenging and interesting when you are trying something new like introducing a new actor. It gives me an adrenaline rush as a director."
As he returns to Tamil cinema, Vishnu Varadhan appears to be positioning Nesippaya as both a homecoming and a creative reset: a contemporary love story with emotional weight, built around a new face and grounded in the director's long-standing belief that cinema should keep testing him. For an industry watching his return closely, the film signals not just a comeback, but a reminder of the director's roots and the kind of layered storytelling he now wants to bring back to Tamil screens.