Jailer director Nelson Dilipkumar says he was advised not to give old man role to Rajinikanth

During a recent roundtable conversation for Film Companion, Jailer director opened up about having a lot of doubts while both making and writing Jailer. The Rajinikanth starrer which released on August 9 earlier this year, emerged as a massive box office hit and became only 2nd film to gross over 600 crore worldwide.

Nelson admits to being full of doubts 

During the said roundtable, Nelson said, “There were doubts throughout the writing process. What made me come out of those doubts was Rajini sir.”

Nelson clarified his statement by adding that whenever he would hit a writing block, he would remind himself that he just had to do a film with Rajini sir. “Don’t leave this project. You have to do this,” Nelson recalled often telling himself through the writing process.

Nelson recalled people’s advice to him about Rajinikanth’s role in Jailer

Besides the internal doubts, Nelson also spoke about feeling apprehensive after being advised by many against his decision of giving an old man’s character to Rajinikanth in the film. Nelson said, “Lot of people told me, ‘Let him do whatever he has been doing all these years.’  And I remained both confident and under confident about it at once.” Nelson further recalled how he dealt with this set of doubts. He said, “I decided to make whatever I feel like making. Even if I failed, it would be with my gut. If it’s not working, I will take the blame - but I can’t let anyone confuse me.”

Nelson also spoke about his complete awareness of Rajinikanth’s cultural impact in Tamil cinema, and how that influenced his choices. He stated, “Knowing his audience and what all he did in these 50 years, it was a very big challenge - so I always worked around it.”

Jailer marked the first collaboration between Rajinikanth and the filmmaker. Besides Rajinikanth in the titular role, the film featured many impactful cameos by the likes of Shiva Rajkumar, Jackie Shroff, Mohanlal and Tamannaah Bhatia.