Arun Kumar (born 21 September 1986), popularly known as Atlee, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and film producer majorly known for his work in Tamil cinema. He started his film career as an assistant to director Shankar on Enthiran (2010) and Nanban (2012). Atlee made his directorial debut with the romantic drama Raja Rani (2013), which was a major critical and commercial success. He followed it with a string of collaborations with actor Vijay on Theri (2016), Mersal (2017), and Bigil (2019), all of which saw massive commercial success. Atlee marked his foray into Hindi cinema with Jawan (2023). In 2017, Atlee and his wife, Priya, started their own production house, A for Apple Productions.