Director Alphonse Puthren announces retirement from filmmaking due to autism, deletes post

In a Facebook post, director Alphonse Puthren claimed that he is retiring from filmmaking due to self-diagnosed autism. Later, he deleted the post.

By: Entertainment Desk

Chennai | October 30, 2023 06:16 PM IST

3 min read

Alphonse Puthren Facebook Post

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Director Alphonse Puthren, well-known for his debut feature film Neram and second film Premam, is also known for his controversial social media posts. In a recent Instagram post, the director claimed that he is quitting filmmaking due to self-diagnosed autism. The post, which shocked his fans, was later deleted by Puthren.

The director claimed that he found out by himself that he is on the autism spectrum and doesn’t want to be of burden to anyone. He claimed that he would only direct songs and short films from now on and stay away from making features. The director claimed he doesn’t have any choice but to quit cinema.

“I’m stopping my cinema theatre career. I have Autism Spectrum Disorder which I found out yesterday on my own. I don’t want to be a burden to anyone else. I will continue doing songs and videos and short films and maximum on OTT. I don’t want to quit cinema, but I have no other option. I don’t want to make promises that I can’t keep. When health is weak or unpredictable, life brings a twist like an interval punch (sic),” the post read.

He also added a comment that claimed the delay of his films was due to his mental issue. He apologised for not being healthy.

Here is the screenshot of the deleted post:

Screenshot of Alphonse Puthren’s deleted post

Alphonse Puthren was among the filmmakers who made their foray into feature filmmaking by participating in Kalaingar TV’s Nalaya Iyakkunar, a short-filmmaking competition. Later, he made his debut in Tamil with Neram, which was a hit. Puthren later became a nationwide sensation through the success of his second film, Premam, which had Sai Pallavi and Nivin Pauly in lead roles. After a long gap of about seven years, he came up with his third feature film, Gold. Starring Prithviraj and Nayanthara, the film failed to make an impact. Puthren is currently working on a film called Gift. However, the fate of the film is unknown after the new post of the director.

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