Jawan Director Atlee On Being Asked About His Success Formula: Whatever I Love, What I Have Learnt In My Life, Whatever I See, I Use In My Cinema

Director Atlee who recently helmed Shah Rukh Khan starrer Jawan, talked about his formula of making successful films.

After assisting director S. Shankar on films like Enthiran and Nanban, Atlee made his directorial debut with Arya-Nayanthara starrer Raja Rani in 2013. His next three consecutive releases, Theri, Mersal and Bigil (all starring Thalapathy Vijay) turned out to be blockbuster successes and established him as one of the top directors in Tamil cinema.

Now, Atlee has stepped into Hindi film industry with Shah Rukh Khan starrer Jawan, which too has set the box office on fire. On Friday (September 15, 2023), the director graced the success press meet of Jawan wherein he was asked about all his movies being successful.

In response, Atlee said,  “I’m not a writer, director, but I’m a fan. Fan not of an individual, but of cinema. I don’t have a formula to get the right balance. Whatever feels right, I make it. I don’t know the formula. I can’t explain the formula, how I found this.”

He continued, “Whatever I love, what I’ve learnt in my life , whatever I see, I use in cinema. For instance, I take things from my wife, mother, sister, and fellow beings. And I just replicate that in form of cinema. That is my secret of making a film. The approach is basic.”

Talking about latest blockbuster Jawan, he said, “I’m a different director. To say what Jawan means to me I will have to mention the day I met Shah Rukh sir and decided that we are going to come together for a film. That day I took a blank white paper, like we used to write love letters in teenage years, and I started Jawan. So, Jawan is my love letter to SRK.”

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He revealed that he narrated the film to Shah Rukh Khan on a Zoom call during COVID-19 times.

“I knew theatrical footfall was going down and people were not ready to greenlight even a 30-40 crore film. I know because I am also a producer. But, sir (Shah Rukh Khan) greenlighted a Rs 300 crore film when everyone was skeptical. But we didn’t stop at Rs 300 crore. We went more. We made a blockbuster in three days and now, we are flying,” the filmmaker told the audience.

Jawan features Shah Rukh Khan in a dual role and also stars Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupathi, Sanya Malhotra, Priyamani, Sunil Grover, Eijaz Khan amongst its ensemble cast. The action entertainer also has special appearances by Deepika Padukone and Sanjay Dutt.