Anandaraj & Mayilsamy Movies Together List — 7 Films

The shape of the work

The 1980s belonged to En Thangachi Padichava; the 2020s to Idiot. Anandaraj acted in every film; Mayilsamy acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Mayilsamy once told a Tamil YouTube channel: 'Anandaraj sir is the only actor who can make me laugh even when I'm scared of his character. I'd be trembling on set, and he'd whisper a joke in my ear before the director said action.'
• Mayilsamy was a struggling comedian when Anandaraj personally recommended him to director Kasthuri Raja for Varushamellam Vasantham (2002). That film gave Mayilsamy his first proper break in a mainstream comedy role.
• In Pakka (2018), Anandaraj played the menacing villain while Mayilsamy played his comic sidekick. The director said he cast them together because Anandaraj's deadpan intensity made Mayilsamy's nervous chatter funnier — they worked as a straight man and a panic man.
• On the sets of Gurkha (2019), Anandaraj and Mayilsamy shared a room during outdoor shoots. Mayilsamy later said Anandaraj would wake him up at 5 AM to practice fight sequences, even though Mayilsamy only had comedy scenes that day.
• The success of their pairing in Pakka (2018) directly led to the director casting them again in Gurkha (2019) and Idiot (2022). Without that first hit, the other two films likely wouldn't have been made with this duo.
• In Idiot (2022), Anandaraj and Mayilsamy swapped their usual roles — Anandaraj played a bumbling father while Mayilsamy played the sharp-tongued antagonist. The director said they insisted on the switch to challenge each other, and it became the film's most talked-about dynamic.