A Star Is Born

Elan burst onto the Tamil cinema scene out of nowhere. Beginning young, he admits he was lucky to make his directorial debut at 23—with the fresh, thoughtful, enlightened romantic comedy Pyaar Prema Kaadhal in 2018.

- Aditya Shrikrishna

And then it took six years for his sophomore film Star with Kavin in the lead. The film deals with Kalai (Kavin), an aspiring actor with dreams of becoming Tamil cinema’s next star. Kalai is the son of a photographer played by Lal, a father who is more enthusiastic and bullish about his son’s chances. Elan’s father too is a still photographer turned actor—Stills Pandian—but the autobiographical aspect ends there. Elan is positive about the long gap between his first two films. “I started very young; I made my first film at 23. I felt like I didn’t have enough life experience to tell some stories, so this time helped.” For example, there are parts of