The year 2023 witnessed a wide variety of films and filmmakers making their mark in the film industry with several films in all South Indian languages making a massive buzz at the theaters.
Picking out the top 10 directors of the year, we asked Pinkvilla readers to vote and decide who should win the title of Best South Director of 2023 and they have answered. With a majority vote, director Lokesh Kanagaraj who came to the big screens with his film Leo starring Thalapathy Vijay in the lead role has clinched the title for the year 2023.
Lokesh Kanagaraj wins the title of Best South Director of 2023
Lokesh Kanagaraj, the director of Thalapathy Vijay starrer film Leo has won the title of Best South Director for the year 2023. The film features the story of Parthiban, a café owner and animal rescuer in Theog, who is pursued by gangsters Antony and Harold Das who suspect him to be Antony’s estranged son, Leo.
The film develops into a complete action thriller where Parthiban tries to prove he isn’t Leo and strives to protect his family from getting harmed. Even though the film received mixed to positive reviews from critics for its screenplay and second half of the movie, it was lauded for the technical aspects and performance, especially by Thalapathy Vijay.
The film also featured actors like Trisha Krishnan, Sanjay Dutt, Arjun Sarja, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Mysskin, Sandy Master, and many more in crucial roles, becoming a massive hit in theaters worldwide.
The Nominees
Even though Lokesh Kanagaraj has emerged as the top director for the year 2023, the nominations included great directors and their great films.
The top 10 nominees for directors of South Cinema were, Mani Ratnam for Ponniyin Selvan: II, Hemanth M Rao for Sapta Sagaradaache Ello – Side A and Side B, and Jude Anthany Joseph for 2018.
Along with directors Srikanth Odela for Dasara, Jeo Baby for Kaathal – The Core, Adhik Ravichandran for Mark Antony, Nelson Dilipkumar for Jailer, Karthik Subbaraj for Jigarthanda DoubleX, and finally Prashanth Neel for Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire.
Lokesh Kanagaraj’s work front
Lokesh Kanagaraj is one of the most sought-after commercial directors of Tamil cinema. The Master director has been on a roll since his first film Maanagaram which was released back in 2017.
Soon after Lokesh was seen collaborating with Karthi for his breakthrough film Kaithi and subsequently in 2021 he came with Master for his first collaboration with Thalapathy Vijay. The director went on to work with his idol Kamal Haasan for the latter’s comeback film Vikram which was a massive success in theaters of the year 2022.
Now, with the massive success of Leo on his shoulders as well and a developing cinematic universe called Lokesh Cinematic Universe (LCU) shaping up with films like Kaithi, Vikram, and Leo and having leading Tamil actors like Karthi, Suriya, Kamal Haasan and Thalapathy Vijay under a single interconnected film universe.
Moreover, the director is set to direct Superstar Rajinikanth in his next film after the latter finishes his current film with Jai Bhim director TJ Gnanavel for the film Vettaiyan. The tentatively titled film called Thalaivar 171 is rumored to feature Rajinikanth in a negative-shaded gangster role with actors like Raghava Lawrence, Sivakarthikeyan and Kaaka Kaaka Jeeva speculated to join.
The film is confirmed to be bankrolled by Sun Pictures with Anirudh Ravichander and Anbariv handling the music and action of the film. Furthermore, the film is said to be a standalone film not coming under the cinematic universe.
Additionally, it was confirmed earlier that Lokesh Kanagaraj has already shot a short film for the LCU which would be set before the timeline of Kaithi, serving as the origin of the Lokesh Cinematic Universe.
