VZ Durai is one of the most unpredictable directors in Tamil cinema. He has given a couple of very good hits back in the early 2000s. Even after that, his films have mostly fetched good reports from the critics but his films, unfortunately, couldn’t make it big at the box office. Durai with no prior experience in films as an assistant, with producer SS Chakravarthy’s support, became a director with Ajith Kumar’s Mugavaree which means address. Like the title suggest, his debut film till happens to be his address in Kollywood. People still refer him as Mugavaree director. Prior to the release of the film, Ajith, who has happy with the final product, gifted a car to the director.
The success of Mugavaree led to the producer SS Chakravarthy and the director Durai signing another film together, Kadhal Sadugudu, featuring Vikram and Priyanka Trivedi. In 2005, he directed the gangster film Thotti Jaya, starring Silambarasan and Gopika. Durai's fourth film was Nepali, which starred Bharath and Meera Jasmine. He took a five-year hiatus and directed 6, which cast Shaam and Poonam Kaur. He again took a five-year hiatus before directing Yemaali in 2018. The idea of narration is truly different but the director fails to get the urban flavour right and all his actors are disappointing. He then directed the horror-thriller movie Iruttu with Sundar C on lead role and the film released on Dec 6th 2019. The film is a watchable horror thriller for the unexplored element and the investigative angle. Iruttu performed decently well at the box office.
Now the latest we hear is that VZ Durai is apparently planning to direct Sundar C again for his next film which happens to be the sequel of 2006 gangster film Thalai Nagaram directed by Suraj. The film stars director Sundar C and Jyothimayi. This story is a tale of a man who sacrifices his life to kick out gangsters ruining others lives. It also stars Vadivelu, Prakash Raj, Bose Venkat, Judo. KK Rathnam, and KS Ravikumar, among others. It enjoyed huge success. It must be noted that Thalai Nagaram was Sundar C’s first film as a hero. Sundar C later directed a film called Nagaram Maruppakkam which was reported to a sequel of Thalai Nagaram however, upon the film’s release fan realized that the story had no connection to Thalai Nagaram. This upcoming Sundar C/Durai film is likely to be titled Thalai Nagaram 2 and will start from the first part ends.