Rajinikanth's 'Sivaji,' Kamal Haasan's 'Dasavatharam,' and Ajith Kumar's 'Mankatha': First films of the south stars that made its way into the Rs 100 cr club

Movies collecting Rs 100 crore at the box office were once a rare phenomenon, but now the landscape has changed due to the rising quality and audience expectations of films going beyond mere entertainment. Movies are now adopting standout techniques, realistic narration, and thematic brilliance to attract audiences to theaters. Here, we curate a list of South Indian actors and their first films that entered the prestigious Rs 100 crore club.

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'Dasavathaaram' is a 2008 Tamil science fiction action film directed by K. S. Ravikumar and written by Kamal Haasan. It stars Kamal Haasan in ten different roles, along with a cast that includes Asin, Jaya Prada, Mallika Sherawat, KR Vijaya, Rekha Harris, Nagesh, P Vasu, Raghuram, Napoleon, and MS Bhaskar. The movie crossed the Rs 200 crore mark at the box office.

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Rajinikanth's 2007 film 'Sivaji: The Boss', directed by S Shankar, marked the superstar's entry into the prestigious Rs 100 crore club. The movie also stars Shriya Saran, Vivek, and Suman in key roles. It received positive reviews from critics and became a commercial success, grossing between Rs 125 to 160 crore worldwide. 'Sivaji: The Boss' emerged as one of the highest-grossing Indian films at the time of its release and went on to win a National Film Award.

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Thalapathy Vijay's 2012 action thriller film, 'Thuppakki,' written and directed by AR Murugadoss, received positive reviews and became a major commercial success, grossing over Rs 100 crore. The film stars Vijay and Kajal Aggarwal.

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Ajith Kumar's 'Mankatha,' directed by Venkat Prabhu, is the Kollywood star's 50th credited film. It features Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Lakshmi Rai, Anjali, Andrea Jeremiah, Ashwin Kakumanu, Vaibhav, Premji Amaren, Mahat Raghavendra, Jayaprakash, Aravind Akash, and Subbu Panchu. Yuvan Shankar Raja composed the musical score. The movie crossed Rs 100 crore in its worldwide run.

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'7 Aum Arivu' is a fictional martial arts film written and directed by AR Murugadoss. It features Suriya in dual roles, along with Shruti Haasan and Johnny Trí Nguyễn. The film was one of several selected by the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce as India's submission for the Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category. It crossed Rs 100 crore worldwide.

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