He directed the films Theri (2016), Mersal (2017) and Bigil (2019), all featuring Vijay, all of which became commercially successful at the box office and won several accolades.

[2][3] Following the success of Raja Rani, Atlee went on to direct his next film, Theri (2016), an emotional action thriller, produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu, starring Vijay, Samantha, and Amy Jackson in the lead roles.

It received positive reviews from the critics who praised the performances of the cast, soundtrack, score, cinematography, production design, and action sequences.

Again starring Vijay, it also had Nithya Menen, Kajal Aggarwal, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, S. J. Suryah, Sathyaraj, Vadivelu, Hareesh Peradi, and Kovai Sarala appear in pivotal supporting roles.

Due to demand, the film was screened at the largest cinema theatre in Europe Grand Rex, France.

[5] Atlee directed his next film, Bigil (2019), a sports action drama, produced by AGS Entertainment.

They jointly produced their first film with Fox Star Studios, Sangili Bungili Kadhava Thorae, a horror comedy, written and directed by Ike.

It was produced by Priya Atlee, alongside Sudhan Sundaram, and Jayaram, under their banner, Passion Studio and K. Poornachandra's O2 Pictures.

[8] Atlee made his debut in Hindi cinema with Jawan,[9] starring Shah Rukh Khan, Nayanthara, Vijay Sethupathi, Priyamani, Sanya Malhotra, Riddhi Dogra, along with others.

[13] Editor Ruben, art director T. Muthuraj and actor Sai Dheena have worked on five of Atlee's films.

Atlee's films, though commercially successful, but have been criticized for having overly-familiar stories that have been done-to-death, starting from the 1980s of Tamil cinema.