Ashwin Saravanan is an Indian film director, who has directed predominately Tamil language films. Directorial debut from ''

Maya Maya may refer to: Civilizations * Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America ** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples ** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples * Maya (Ethiopia), a populat ...

'' and film making style is

neo-noir Neo-noir is a revival of film noir, a genre that had originally flourished during the post-World War II era in the United Statesroughly from 1940 to 1960. The French term, ''film noir'', translates literally to English as "black film", indicating ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...

. Second film was Game over and it is a

psychological thriller film Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting. In terms of context and ...

. Third movie is

Connect Connect may refer to: Music Albums *Connect (album), ''Connect'' (album), an album by Australian rock band Sick Puppies *''Connect'', album by Mark Farina *''Tha Connect'', a 2009 album by Willy Northpole *''Connect'', a 2009 album by Dave Schu ...

and it is a supernatural horror movie.

Career

Ashwin Saravanan began writing short stories during his years in college and eventually made some short films. Inspired by the success of young filmmakers in the early 2010s such as

Karthik Subbaraj Karthik Subbaraj is an Indian film director, writer and producer working mainly in Tamil cinema. Life and career Karthik did his schooling in SBOA Matriculation and Higher Secondary School, Madurai after which he went on to study Mechatron ...

Balaji Mohan Balaji Mohan (born 25 May 1987) is an Indian filmmaker and actor in Tamil-language films. After discontinuing his engineering studies to pursue his passion and become a director, he enrolled at a film academy and attended courses and workshops, ...

and

Nalan Kumarasamy Nalan Kumarasamy is an Indian film director who works in the Tamil film industry. He started his career as a short filmmaker and won the title of the first season of ''Naalaya Iyakunar''. He made his feature film debut with Tamil film, ''Soodhu ...

, Ashwin chose to quit his job in the software industry to work as a film director. His first film, the horror drama ''

'' (2015) featured

Nayanthara Diana Mariam Kurian, known professionally as Nayanthara, is an Indian actress and film producer who is known for her work in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films. She was in the ''Forbes India'' "Celebrity 100" 2018 list, with her total annual ...

in the lead role, and the film won positive reviews from critics. A critic from ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

'' gave the film 3.5 stars out of 5 and wrote: "''Maya'' is wholly original and cerebral as well. Even after the film has ended, we keep thinking about it, replaying the scenes in our mind and thinking about the inventiveness in how the plot lines are brought together. And that is its real success".

Sify Sify Technologies Limited (formerly Satyam Infoway) is an Indian information and communications technology company providing end-to-end ICT solutions including telecom services, data center services, cloud & managed services, transformation in ...

wrote: "''Maya'' is a stupendous film and the entire team has done a remarkable job on par with international standards", going on to call it "undoubtedly one of the best horror movies of Tamil cinema". Ashwin subsequently began working on ''Iravaakaalam'', a thriller film starring

S. J. Suryah S. Justin Selvaraj, known by his stage name S. J. Suryah is an Indian film director, screenwriter, actor, composer, producer and music director who has worked predominately in Tamil film industry. He sought to become an actor but started out d ...

and

Wamiqa Gabbi Wamiqa Gabbi (born 29 September 1993) is an Indian actress, who works in Punjabi, Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu films. She made her screen debut in the Hindi film ''Jab We Met'' (2007) with a small role. But her major success came with ' ...

, by early 2017. Despite completing production, the film remains unreleased owing to financial problems face by the producers,

Thenandal Studio Limited Thenandal Studios Limited (TSL), formerly known as Sri Thenandal Films and Sri Thenandal Pictures, is an Indian film production and distribution studio in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded by director Rama Narayanan. History Rama Narayanan se ...

. In 2018, Ashwin moved on to work on a bilingual psychological thriller film, '' Game Over'' (2019), shot in Tamil and Telugu. The film featured

Taapsee Pannu Taapsee Pannu (born 1 August 1987) is an Indian actress who works primarily in Hindi, Telugu and Tamil films. She is the recipient of three Filmfare Awards. After a brief modelling career, Pannu ventured into acting with the Telugu film ''Jh ...

playing a character dealing with an 'anniversary reaction', a condition which triggered unsettling feelings around the anniversary of a traumatic event. Produced by Y NOT Studios, the film performed well at the box office. Ashwin then began pre-production on a film starring

Samantha Ruth Prabhu Samantha Ruth Prabhu (formerly: Samantha Akkineni; born 28 April 1987) is an Indian actress who mainly works in Telugu and Tamil film industries. She is a recipient of several awards, including four South Filmfare Awards, six South Indian I ...

in the lead role, but the film failed to develop into production despite a year of work. Ashwin's latest release was ''

'' (2022), a horror drama featuring Nayanthara, Anupam Kher and

Sathyaraj Rangaraj Subbiah (born 3 October 1954), professionally known as Sathyaraj, is an Indian actor, producer, director and a media personality who has predominantly appeares in Tamil cinema and Telugu cinema, Telugu Cinema. His 240 films also includ ...

in leading roles. He wrote the script for the film during the COVID-19 lockdown in India, noting that he added elements of the anxiousness that he was feeling during the period into the script. After pitching the idea to Nayanthara, the actress also agreed to produce the film.

Personal life

Ashwin is married to Kaavya Ramkumar, who has worked as a co-writer in his films.

Filmography

*''Note: All films are in Tamil unless otherwise noted.''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Saravanan, Ashwin Living people Tamil film directors Film directors from Tamil Nadu Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Indian film directors Tamil screenwriters