Soundarya Rajinikanth’s Next Big Creative Role

A contemporary rom-com set against the worlds of start-ups and modern-day dating, the new series that Soundarya is the showrunner of, stars Aishwarya Lekshmi and Arjun Das and explores relationships in an increasingly digital world. At its heart is a question familiar to anyone navigating modern romance: chemistry or compatibility? Soundarya’s answer is simple — both need to coexist.

Soundarya made her directorial debut with the animated action film Kochadaiiyaan (2014), starring her father Rajinikanth, and followed it with Velaiilla Pattadhari 2 in 2017. After stepping away from the creative arena for a while, she returned as a producer with the Tamil teen comedy With Love earlier this year. #Love marks her next step, this time as both producer and showrunner.

“Storytelling has been an integral part of my life. I produced Goa many years ago, and then my personal life took priority. So it was not a conscious break, I wanted to prioritise,” she says.

“Coming back now, being a producer and a showrunner for Netflix, I cannot be more grateful to have #Love, which is the streamer’s first Tamil love original. It has been an incredible journey. All the ups and downs, everything has just taught me so much. To be here to represent Tamil cinema on a global scale is incredible.”

‘I’m a Chennai girl’

The show brings together an urban couple whose contrasting ideologies and attitudes towards love and dating become the source of both conflict and connection. For Soundarya, the Chennai setting was equally important. “I am a proper Chennai girl, so I wanted to show Chennai in a different light. When Balaji Mohan and I started speaking about how we wanted to present the show, we definitely wanted a global standard. Our entire team and the actors shared that vision.”

“What drew me to #Love was how effortlessly it captures relationships today without losing its warmth and emotion. The characters are ambitious, flawed and incredibly easy to root for, and Arjun and Aishwarya bring such a refreshing energy to them. It’s exactly the kind of contemporary story we wanted to tell.”

Having worked across films and now streaming, Soundarya has watched the storytelling landscape change dramatically, with theatres, long-form streaming and short-form content all competing for audiences.

Yet she believes cinema and storytelling remain powerful forces. “I feel it is a very powerful medium, and it can influence, as it can make you feel things that you probably wouldn’t feel without being in the moment with the characters. Even today, some of Appa’s dialogues and song lyrics resonate with people and continue to inspire them. That’s the power of cinema.”

She recalls a line from her father’s Annaatthe that gave her strength during a difficult phase in her own life. “Doing the series, I understood that certain stories, especially those that have love as the core, family values as the core, or life lessons, need to be said at a slower pace, which you can’t do in a theatrical. I’m just very happy that we are in an industry that’s so powerful and influential.”

On social media

Soundarya, who married actor and entrepreneur Vishagan Vanangamudi in 2019 and is a mother of two sons, is also restrained in her use of social media. Yet she acknowledges its growing influence on the entertainment industry.

“You can’t deny the fact that social media does play a part. Where it crosses the line is when the professional stops and personal attacks or comments start. It needs to be dealt with a little bit more sensitivity.”

“Even as producers, we look at Instagram for casting, gauging comments and seeing how a project was received. So that’s not something I’m going to deny. But having said that, the way artists and those in the public eye are targeted can be insensitive.”

And there is another major Rajinikanth project on which Soundarya is lending a hand — her father’s much-awaited autobiography. “It is going well and fans and audiences can expect it soon,” she says.

Family bond

From what I’ve learned living with my father, what he has taught me is that we have to use it the right way, and I am trying to do that.

The Rajinikanth family has long maintained a relatively low profile despite its enormous public stature. Soundarya shares a close bond with her elder sister Aishwarya and says her father has already watched the trailer for #Love twice. He is yet to watch the series, which the family plans to watch together.

Highlight: “Social media does play a part. But it crosses the line when criticism turns into personal attacks. That needs to be addressed with greater sensitivity.”

Cinema and storytelling remain powerful forces. I feel it is a very powerful medium, and it can influence, as it can make you feel things that you probably wouldn’t feel without being in the moment with the characters. Even today, some of Appa’s dialogues and song lyrics resonate with people and continue to inspire them. That’s the power of cinema.”