Thiagarajan Kumararaja

Career

Kumararaja enrolled for a Visual Communications course at the Loyola College, Chennai, but dropped out shortly after to make films. Kumararaja cited that it was composer Ilaiyaraaja's music that animated him to come to films and to study Visual Communications in the first place. However, he discontinued his studies in 1998 and started to work as a freelance copywriter and photographer for a while. He went on to shoot advertisement films and also directed a five-part documentary on South Indian Temples, Sthala Puranam for Vijay TV. In 2005, he participated at the one-minute film competition 60 Seconds to Fame by Ability Foundation, aiming for the prize money. His short film Becky was awarded the first prize at the Ability Fest 2005. Kumararaja then collaborated with Pushkar-Gayathri, writing the dialogue of their directorial debut Oram Po (2007). He also wrote song lyrics for their second project Va (2010) as well. Through Pushkar-Gayathri, Kumararaja met S. P. B. Charan, who agreed to produce his first feature film Aaranya Kaandam.

Kumararaja began writing his maiden film in December 2006. Although he had wanted to make a "racy film" – he wrote the climax part first, before going on to add multiple storylines – he said that the film had eventually turned out to be a "leisurely paced film, taking its own time to unfold". Kumararaja met Charan in January 2007 and narrated him the script for two hours. Filming was supposed to commence by late 2007, but Charan opted to produce another film first. Aaranya Kaandam was launched in December 2008, starring Ravi Krishna and Sampath Raj, with Bollywood actor Jackie Shroff, who was being introduced to Tamil films. Kumararaja took more than one and a half years to complete the film, which was entirely shot in and around Chennai. Upon completion, the film ran into trouble when the regional censor board in Chennai refused to clear it, demanding 52 cuts due to profanity and excessive violence. Kumararaja expressed that he made the film for a matured audience and not for children, while adding that he expected difficulties in the censorship. Since he wanted to present the film uncompromisingly to the audiences, he and Charan approached the Central Tribunal at Delhi, that cleared the film. Dubbed as the first neo-noir film in Tamil cinema, Aaranya Kaandam opened to strong critical acclaim, winning the Grand Jury Award for Best Film at the 2010 South Asian International Film Festival, and two prizes at the 59th National Film Awards, including the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film of a Director for Kumararaja.

In 2015, he was involved as a script consultant for the Tamil film Yennai Arindhaal, which was co-written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon.

Filmography

• Note: all films are in Tamil, unless otherwise noted.

As director

As writer and lyricist

Awards

Notes

References

References

1. (9 June 2011). "Aaranya Kaandam: A day in a gangster's life". Rediff.
2. Sudhish Kamath. (5 February 2011). "A new chapter". The Hindu.
3. (4 August 2011). "No South Indian actor was ready to play an impotent don: Kumararaja, Aaranya Kaandam director". DearCinema.com.
4. "Ability Fest 2005". Ability Foundation.
5. (13 September 2010). "Va Quarter Cutting music is worth a listen". Rediff.
6. (31 July 2007). "SPB Charan's new gambit".
7. (25 October 2007). "Dailynews – SPB Charan's 'Aranya Kaandam'". Cinesouth.
8. (18 December 2008). "Events – 'Aaranya Kaandam' Movie Launch".
9. V Lakshmi. (22 January 2009). "Kumar Raja tells all". [[The Times of India]].
10. Bijoy Bharathan. (8 February 2011). "Thiagarajan: Caught in the crossfire". [[The Times of India]].
11. Sreedhar Pillai. (26 January 2011). "Censor Board butchered Aaranya Kaandam". [[The Times of India]].
12. (1 March 2011). "'I have no problem with the 'A' certificate'". Rediff.
13. "Movie Review : Aaranya Kaandam".
14. V Lakshmi. (4 November 2010). "Aaranya Kaandam wins best movie award". [[The Times of India]].
15. Udhav Naig. (1 February 2015). "Gautham Menon hires script consultants". The Hindu.
16. (8 May 2023). "Modern Love Chennai: This Thiagarajan Kumararaja's Web Series Will Premier On Amazon Prime From This Date".
17. (20 November 2008). "From the States".
18. "59th National Film Awards for the Year 2011 Announced". Press Information Bureau (PIB), India.
19. (9 June 2012). "6th Annual Vijay Awards". India Glitz.
20. (18 June 2012). "Vijay Awards 2012 winners".
21. (17 July 2019). "Andhadhun, Gully Boy lead nominations at Indian Film Festival of Melbourne Awards 2019".
22. (15 October 2019). "Nominees for the 2019 AACTA Award for Best Asian Film Announced".
23. (12 January 2020). "The prestigious awards of the South-- Vikatan Awards 2019".
24. "Edison Awards 2020 nominations".
25. (14 January 2020). "Edison Awards 2020 Winners".
26. (28 March 2020). "Review — Super Deluxe".