Arun Vaidyanathan (born in

Sirkazhi Sirkazhi () also spelled as ''Siyali'' is a major municipal town in Mayiladuthurai district in Tamil Nadu, India. It is located from the coast of the Bay of Bengal, and from the state capital Chennai. Sirkazhi was a part of Thanjavur distric ...

, Tamil Nadu,

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

) is an

Indian-American Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

film director, producer and screenwriter of

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

short films A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

and television

dramas Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been c ...

. He directed his first full-length feature film in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

, ''

Achchamundu! Achchamundu! ''Achchamundu! Achchamundu!'' ( There is fear! There is fear!) is a 2009 Indian-American Tamil language social thriller directed by Arun Vaidyanathan, starring Prasanna, Emmy Award–winning American actor John Shea and Sneha. It is the first ...

'', which released in July 2009. He produced a Tamil romantic-comedy film, ''

Kalyana Samayal Saadham ''Kalyana Samayal Saadham'' (), also known by the initialism ''KSS'', is a 2013 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by R. S. Prasanna. It stars Prasanna and Lekha Washington, while Crazy Mohan, Delhi Ganesh, Uma a ...

'' in 2013. In 2014, he directed

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor, film producer, playback singer, film distributor, and director who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeare ...

in a

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

political satire film, ''

Peruchazhi ''Peruchazhi'' () is a 2014 Indian Malayalam-language political satire film written and directed by Arun Vaidyanathan. The dialogues were co-written by Ajayan Venugopalan. Vijay Babu and Sandra Thomas produced the film for Friday Film House. It ...

''.

Early life and career

Arun Vaidyanathan was born and raised in

Sirkali Sirkazhi () also spelled as ''Siyali'' is a major municipal town in Mayiladuthurai district in Tamil Nadu, India. It is located from the coast of the Bay of Bengal, and from the state capital Chennai. Sirkazhi was a part of Thanjavur distric ...

, a remote town in the state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

, India. He watched movies during his childhood as it served as his only entertainment. In school, he was very much interested in music and dance and held the talent of receiving an applauding audience. He also discovered a talent for

mimicry In evolutionary biology, mimicry is an evolved resemblance between an organism and another object, often an organism of another species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. Often, mimicry f ...

, which he pursued in college. This led to jobs in the television field. He wrote scripts, directed and performed in the leading television programs of South India aired on Sun TV and

Raj TV Raj TV is a Tamil language Indian general entertainment channel based in Chennai, India, which was launched on 14 October 1994. Rajtv became as the second most popular channel in Tamil. It is available through digital and mobile entertainment ...

. On Raj TV, he worked on a program called ''Hollywood Special'' where reviews about

American films This is a list of films produced by the American film industry from the earliest films of the 1890s to the present. Films are listed by year of release on separate pages, either in alphabetical order (1900–2013) or in chronological order (2 ...

were given in Tamil. He loved that job and learned of many Hollywood films he would not have otherwise been exposed to. Ever the pragmatist, after completing his education in Computer Science, he joined a leading software company which allowed him to migrate to

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

, United States. He then completed a

New York Film Academy New York Film Academy – School of Film and Acting (NYFA) is a private for-profit film school and acting school based in New York City, Los Angeles, and Miami. The New York Film Academy was founded in 1992 by Jerry Sherlock, a former film, t ...

program and began directing short English films. In 2008, he began working on his debut Tamil feature film, ''

''. Is a Tamil

social thriller A social thriller is a film genre using elements of suspense and horror to augment instances of apparent oppression in society. The genre gained attention in 2017 with the release of Jordan Peele's ''Get Out'', a film highlighting occurrences ...

starring Prasanna, Sneha and

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

-winning American film actor

John Shea John Victor Shea III ( ; born April 14, 1949) is an American actor, film producer and stage director. His career began on Broadway theatre, Broadway where he starred in ''Yentl (play), Yentl,'' subsequently winning his first major award, the 1975 ...

. The film was shot in New Jersey and New York during early 2008 and subsequently released in 2009. The film premiered in New Jersey's

Garden State Film Festival The Garden State Film Festival is a film festival in the United States held in Asbury Park, New Jersey which debuts more than 200 independent films annually over four days each spring. The festival was founded in 2002 in Sea Girt, New Jersey by D ...

, and shared 'Best Homegrown Feature Film' award with Dorothy Lyman's ''Split Ends'' Ethaya Rajan along with Ananth Govindan produced an Indian Tamil romantic-comedy film written and directed by RS Prasanna, ''

''. It features Prasanna and

Lekha Washington Lekha Washington is an Indian actress, artist, and product designer who has predominantly appeared in Tamil and Telugu language films. She was first recognised for her work as a sculptor in 2002 and then as a theatre actress in Chennai based sta ...

in lead roles, Krishnan Vasant and Arora as the cinematographer and music composer respectively. The film was covered as part of the TV series '' Born to Explore with''

Richard Wiese Richard Wiese (born July 13, 1959) is an American explorer, the longest serving President of The Explorers Club, and Executive Producer and Host of the multiple Emmy Award-winning ABC and PBS program, Born to Explore. Early life and education ...

. Richard Wiese, who features in the show, in his interview with ''KSS'' director RS Prasanna, focused on two points – Indian weddings, their universal appeal, and the growing interest in stories and movies based in India He then made his Malayalam debut with the

-starrer ''

''. The type of humour used in the film was inspired by Cho Ramaswamy's 1971 Tamil classic political-satire film ''

Muhammad bin Tughluq Muhammad bin Tughluq (1290 – 20 March 1351) was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from February 1325 until his death in 1351. The sultan was the eldest son of Ghiyath al-Din Tughluq, founder of the Tughlaq dynasty. In 1321, the youn ...

'', but ''

'' has a pan Indian narrative. Besides

in the lead, the film featured an ensemble cast with

Mukesh Mukesh is an epithet for the Hindu god Shiva, and literally means "conqueror of the Muka demon". It also means god of 3 worlds, heaven, hell & earth, which in turn represents Hindu god Shiva. It is commonly used as a male given name in India. Peopl ...

Ragini Nandwani Ragini Nandwani (born 4 September 1991) is an Indian actress. She became popular after playing the lead in the Hindi soap opera '' Mrs. Kaushik Ki Paanch Bahuein'' (2011–12). She made her Bollywood debut with the crime thriller film ''Dehraadu ...

Baburaj Mohammad Sabir Baburaj was an Indian music composer. He is often credited for the renaissance of Malayalam film music. Baburaj has rendered music to many evergreen Malayalam film songs. Early years Baburaj was born on 9 March 1929 in Kozhikod ...

Aju Varghese Aju Kurian Varghese (born 11 January 1985) better known as Aju Varghese is an Indian actor and producer who appears in Malayalam cinema. He made his debut in 2010 in ''Malarvadi Arts Club'', directed by his college classmate Vineeth Sreenivas ...

and

Vijay Babu Vijay Babu (born 14 May 1976) is an Indian film producer, actor, and businessman, who works in the Malayalam film industry. He is the founder of the film production company Friday Film House. Vijay Babu is best known for producing and starring ...

among others. The cinematography was done by

Arvind Krishna Arvind Krishna is an Indian-American business executive serving as the Chairman and CEO of IBM. He has been the CEO of IBM since April 2020 and took on the role of Chairman in January 2021. Krishna began his career at IBM in 1990, at IBM's Tho ...

. The songs and background score for the movie was composed by Arrora (Naveen Iyer).

Ajayan Venugopalan Ajayan Venugopalan is an Indian screenwriter, film director. Life He started his career as a writer/director of the acclaimed Malayalam television sitcom '' Akkara Kazhchakal''. This T.V series was followed by a movie based on the show call ...

along with the director co-wrote the dialogues. He then directed ''

Nibunan ''Nibunan'' () is a 2017 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film co-written, co-produced and directed by Arun Vaidyanathan. The film features an ensemble cast of Arjun, Prasanna, Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, Sruthi Hariharan, and Vaibhav. It was A ...

'' starring

Arjun Sarja Srinivasa "Arjun" Sarja is an Indian actor, producer, and director who works predominantly in the Tamil film industry, in addition to Kannada and Telugu languages as well. Referred to by the media and his fans as " Action King" for his roles in ...

, Varalakshmi Sarathkumar, Prasanna,

Sruthi Hariharan Sruthi Hariharan (born 2 February 1989) is an Indian actress and producer who appears primarily in Kannada language films. She debuted in a 2012 Malayalam film, ''Cinema Company'', and her first film in the Kannada cinema industry was '' Lucia' ...

Vaibhav Reddy Sumanth Reddy (born 21 April 1978), better known as Vaibhav, is an Indian actor who works primarily in Tamil film industry. He made his debut with the Telugu film ''Godava'' (2007) under his father, A. Kodandarami Reddy's direction. He is best ...

Suhasini Maniratnam Suhasini Maniratnam (born 15 August 1961) known mononymously as Suhasini, is an Indian actress, director, producer and writer in the Tamil film industry. She has worked as an actress in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. She made her ...

and Suman, Along with Anand Raghav, he has penned the dialogues and screenplay for the film which is being produced by Passion Film Factory who also produced ''

Kappal ''Kappal'' () is a 2014 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film directed by Karthik G. Krish, a former assistant of Shankar. Produced by I Studios Entertainment, the film stars Vaibhav and Sonam Bajwa, while Karunakaran, Arjunan, Venkat Sund ...

'' (2014).

Filmography

Feature Films

Short Films

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaidyanathan, Arun Living people American film directors of Indian descent Tamil film directors Tamil-language film directors Tamil screenwriters American male film actors American Hindus Malayalam film directors Kannada film directors English-language film directors Indian emigrants to the United States 21st-century Indian film directors People from Mayiladuthurai district Screenwriters from Tamil Nadu Film directors from Tamil Nadu Year of birth missing (living people)