An outpour of support could be found on Tamil twitter for actor Dhanush, who was attacked by actress Nayanthara in an open letter earlier on Saturday. Usual fans aside, even those in the trade seem to be taking Dhanush's side, on the basis of details privy to them with respect to the Naanum Rowdy Dhaan (2015) film.

In her open letter, Nayanthara accused Dhanush of dragging copyright clearance to her team for a period of two years, and eventually denying the use of anything related to the Naanum Rowdy Dhaan movie, in Nayanthara's Netflix documentary Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairytale. Nayanthara claimed that this was done over personal vengeance towards her and her partner Vignesh Shivan, who is the writer, director, lyricist of the Naanum Rowdy Dhaan film. 

Nayanthara believes that Dhanush's vendetta stems from his dislike towards Naanum Rowdy Dhaan movie and Nayanthara's performance in it. She also claims of hearing from Tamil industry folks that the films' success 9 years ago was a big bruise to 'Dhanush's ego'. However Dhanush's side claims that Naanum Rowdy Dhaan incurred loss for his production house Wunderbar Films. 

Word in the trade is that Naanum Rowdy Dhaan movie was initially planned with a budget of Rs. 6 Cr. but Vignesh Shivan and team extended it to Rs. 16 Cr. Dhanush had to sell the movie for a less price because Vijay Sethupathi was coming out of flops in 2015, and director Vignesh Shivan's first film too had not done well at the box-office.

Why can't Nayanthara speak about the loss Naanum Rowdy Thaan occurred for Dhanush sir. Movie was started with 6 crore budget when it finished it was 16 crores. Dhanush sir has to sell the movie for less price. That might be the reason for nit giving NOC.

— Varun (@varusath2003) November 16, 2024

The distributors however saw good money with Naanum Rowdy Dhaan, and Nayanthara's statement in her letter that Naanum Rowdy Dhaan is the biggest hit of Dhanush's production house Wunderbar Films is hence deemed disputable. With respect to the copyright issue in Nayanthara: Beyind The Fairytale, it is said that Vignesh Shivan's call to Wunderbar Films' CEO Sreyaas (who is also Dhanush's manager), was handled in an improper manner. 

There’s always another side to the story!

— Shahir (@shahir_muneer) November 16, 2024

Instead of formally asking for permission to use Naanum Rowdy Dhaan related material in the Netflix documentary, Sreyaas was apparently asked by Vignesh Shivan to issue a no-objection certificate by email without bringing it to Dhanush's notice. When Sreyaas brought this to Dhanush's notice, apparently Dhanush started receiving calls from politicians instead of Vignesh Shivan or Nayanthara to give clearance, to which the actor did not budge.  

Valaipechu explains #Dhanush's side clarification of the #Nayanthara issue !! pic.twitter.com/d76TuaufAR

— AmuthaBharathi (@CinemaWithAB) November 16, 2024

After Dhanush denying permission to Nayanthara and Vignesh Shivan from using Naanum Rowdy Dhaan stills, lyrics (penned by Vignesh Shivan) or the film's music composed by Anirudh Ravichander for two years, the actor has now sent a legal notice demanding compensation of Rs. 10 Cr. because of Naanum Rowdy Dhaan BTS footage used in Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairytale trailer.

Nayanthara claims that what is used in their Netflix documentary is a non-copyrighted footage. The actress also underlines the need for a moral viewpoint here since the footage used is just for 3 seconds, and she is known to have worked for free for Wunderbar Films in the past.