Chennai, Mar 18 (IANS): Calling her his friend, Dhanush has congratulated his ex-wife, Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth, on her return to direction after nine years.

On Thursday, Aishwaryaa Rajinikanth released her Tamil song titled 'Payani'. Sung by Anirudh, the song has music by Ankit Tiwari and its lyrics are by Viveka.

Several celebrities, cutting across industries, congratulated Aishwaryaa on her return to direction, including her dad, Superstar Rajinikanth.

Rajinikanth said: "Happy to release 'Payani', music single directed by my daughter Aishwaryaa, who is back to direction after a long gap of nine years. I wish you the very best always ... God bless ... Love you."

In his message, Dhanush said: "Congrats my friend Aishwaryaa on your music video 'Payani'. God bless." Aishwaryaa responded by saying: "Thank you Dhanush, ... Godspeed."

In January this year, Dhanush and Aishwarya chose to end their 18-year-long marriage and went public with the announcement that they were parting ways.