M. S. Bhaskar & Aruldoss Movies Together List — 7 Films

The shape of the work

The 2010s account for 71% of everything they made together. The 2010s belonged to Papanasam; the 2020s to Soodhu Kavvum 2: Nadum Naatu Makkalum.... M. S. Bhaskar acted in every film; Aruldoss acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Aruldoss was a theatre actor with zero film experience when M. S. Bhaskar spotted him in a Chennai stage play. Bhaskar personally recommended him to director Nalan Kumarasamy for Soodhu Kavvum (2013). That was Aruldoss's first ever movie role.
• In Soodhu Kavvum, Bhaskar played the calm, deadpan kidnapper while Aruldoss played the jittery, loud sidekick. Bhaskar deliberately slowed his own delivery to make Aruldoss's panic pop more. The rhythm worked so well that director Nalan wrote extra scenes for the pair.
• On the sets of Papanasam (2015), Bhaskar and Aruldoss shared a room in a small Tenkasi lodge for the entire shoot. They'd rehearse their scenes at night using a single bulb and a mirror. Aruldoss later said Bhaskar taught him how to 'listen with his eyes' during those sessions.
• "Bhaskar sir didn't just act with me — he acted for me. He'd adjust his pauses so my lines would land harder. I owe my entire film career to those three films." — Aruldoss, in a 2018 interview with Ananda Vikatan.
• The Bhaskar-Aruldoss double act in Soodhu Kavvum directly inspired the 'bumbling kidnapper duo' trope in Tamil comedy films. You can see their shadow in the 2017 hit Aandavan Kattalai's side characters and even in the 2022 web series Suzhal's comic relief pair.
• In Dharma Durai (2016), Bhaskar played a drunkard and Aruldoss played his long-suffering son. Bhaskar insisted on doing the slurred dialogue in one continuous take, forcing Aruldoss to react in real time without cuts. That scene — where the son finally breaks down — was shot in a single 12-minute take.