Beast (2022 Indian film)

Beast is a 2022 Indian Tamil-language action comedy film written and directed by Nelson Dilipkumar. It is produced by Kalanithi Maran under Sun Pictures. The film stars Vijay and Pooja Hegde in the lead roles, alongside Selvaraghavan, Shaji Chen, VTV Ganesh, Ankur Vikal, Aparna Das, Sathish Krishnan, Shine Tom Chacko, Yogi Babu and Redin Kingsley. It is about an ex-RAW agent who seeks to rescue hostages in a shopping mall which has been hijacked by terrorists.

Sun Pictures acquired the production rights for Vijay's 65th film in January 2020. AR Murugadoss was initially signed to direct it; however, he was ousted from the film, after he refused to cut his remuneration. Nelson was subsequently brought on board, with announcement in December 2020 under the tentative title Thalapathy 65, and the official title was announced in June 2021. Principal photography commenced in April 2021. It was shot in several locations including Chennai, Delhi and Georgia, and wrapped by mid-December 2021. The film has music composed by Anirudh Ravichander, cinematography was handled by Manoj Paramahamsa and editing by R. Nirmal.

Beast was released worldwide on 13 April 2022 in theatres to mixed reviews from critics. The film was a commercial success, grossing ₹237–300 crore worldwide. It set several box office records for a Tamil film, emerging as the third highest-grossing Tamil film of 2022, tenth highest-grossing Indian film of 2022 and one of the highest-grossing Tamil film of all time.