From the upcoming Laal Singh Chaddha based on Hollywood’s Forrest Gump to Baazigar based on A Kiss Before Dying, the Indian film industry is filled with movies and characters inspired by the West. But, how about the other way round? 

The Gray Man is all set to release on Friday, and we’re gonna see Dhanush making his Hollywood debut. The actor has already set a high precedent in the Indian film industry, where he is undoubtedly one of the finest actors of our times. 

In April 2022, Netflix dropped the first glimpse of Dhanush in The Gray Man, and we were all spellbound. 

The Gray Man is directed by the Russo brothers, who have also directed iconic films in Marvel Cinematic Universe like Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019). 

As reported by ET Times, during a media roundtable, the duo opened up about how Dhanush has been a great inspiration while working on Marvel movies. (Yes, you read that right.) 

It was interesting that while we were working on the Marvel movies, we would research action sequences from other films as inspiration and look for ideas. We have a very good stunt team that we have worked with for years and everyone brings ideas to the table. A lot of times, we’d look at clips from other movies. I noticed that we would see a lot of clips of Dhanush in action.
India Today

Dhanush will be playing one of the world’s deadliest assassins who is hired to stop the Gray Man. The movie is said to be the most expensive film ever produced by Netflix. While speaking to the media, Joe Russo shared how ecstatic they were when Dhanush accepted their offer.

We had no idea if he would respond to the script or if he had any interest in working on a movie like this. We are so grateful that he did because we wrote the part for him and it would have been really sad if he said no.

Even Dhanush expressed his seamless experience of working with the iconic directorial duo. 

Working with the Russo Brothers is really fun. They make it really simple and easy. They walk you through it, talk to you about their character, and tell you how and what they want

It’s not the first time the Russo brothers have opened up about their love for Indian actors. Earlier, Hindustan Times reported how Joe Russo spoke about the way Indian actors such as Dhanush and Priyanka Chopra bring discipline and quality to the sets. For the unversed, the directorial duo has cast Priyanka Chopra in their upcoming Amazon Prime series, Citadel. 

Apparently, the duo will be focusing on bringing more of Desi talent to the global setting. Isn’t it exciting?