Writer Rajesh Kumar
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement
It is past 9pm when I dial crime writer Rajesh Kumar’s number. The 77-year-old’s baritone sounds just the same from when we spoke six years ago. “I go to bed only at 12,” he says, adding that he writes till 11pm. Rajesh Kumar is the talk of the town in the Tamil entertainment world with web-series Regai, set to premiere this week on OTT platform Zee5. It is based on his novel Ulagai Vilaikael from the 1990s, which writer-director M Dhinakaran has further developed.
Regai forms the author’s first OTT collaboration and he is excited about it. “I have achieved proper recognition for my work only now,” feels Rajesh Kumar. “It is a medical thriller, one that features an invisible crime.” His quaint Coimbatore home that has played host to him churning crime novel after novel for decades is now hosting video calls, Zoom meetings, phone calls and visits from the movie people over story ideas.
He sections time for his various affairs, writing with discipline every day from 9.30am. It is this discipline that saw him through the over 1,500 crime novels and his recent creative collaboration with Zee5. Tamil film directors have long been reaching out to Rajesh Kumar, with OTT platforms showing interest over the past few years. His crime stories, written with cinematic flair, are thought to be a good fit for the screen. However, he says that several discussions have been dropped over the scale of his stories.
A still from Regai
| Photo Credit:
Special arrangement
Rajesh Kumar wonders if his novels would have reached the big screen sooner had he lived in Chennai. “I would’ve been more accessible then,” he says. But he maintains that his present life — one that revolves around his wife and his writing — is most important. “I’ve moved past the stage when I shift to Chennai and sit through long film discussions,” he says. “My life is here [in Coimbatore] and my wife is more important to me than anything else.”
After Regai, the writer is set for further collaborations with Zee5. “Talks are on to develop my popular investigative characters Vivek, Rupella, and Vishnu,” he says adding that Vivek will make for a spiffy detective on the lines of Sherlock Holmes, with Vishnu playing his flirtatious assistant. Vivek, who is inspired by Rajesh Kumar’s “guru and role model” Swami Vivekananda, has long held the fancy of Tamil film makers. “There have often been debates about which actor will play him,” he says. “Will it be Rajini, Kamal or Sarath Kumar? In the later years, they wondered if Vijay or Ajith will be a good fit.”
A still from Regai
| Photo Credit:
Special arrangement
But Rajesh Kumar feels that only a new-comer will be able to do justice for the role, and is looking forward to seeing Vivek come alive on screen. Rajesh Kumar’s works, many of which are based on pseudoscience, have long surprised readers by predicting technology and crimes that are unfolding for real in today’s world. Which perhaps makes him one of the most relevant Tamil crime authors of our time.
He is now working on a novel based on Artificial Intelligence. “Is AI good or bad? What will it do for humanity?” he asks, adding that his novel will delve into the most popular debate of today’s world. He recalls a reader asking him about the technology. “My answer to him was: what if AI knowledge is something planted by extra-terrestrials on us? Perhaps they landed on earth many years ago to intersperse among human beings. Never stop questioning, never stop speculating,” he says, speaking like a true crime writer. So, the next time you ask something to ChatGPT, maybe, just maybe, there is an alien on the other side.
Regai drops on Zee5 on November 28.
Published – November 25, 2025 12:35 pm IST
