Perarasu (born 8 January 1967) is an Indian film director who works primarily in
Tamil film industry
Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kolly ...
. As a director, he is best known for his commercial Tamil movies with actors
Vijay and
Bharath Srinivasan. He has also been credited as an actor, music director, singer and lyricist in some of his ventures.
Personal life
Perarasu, was born on 8 January 1967 in
Natarasankottai in
Sivaganga district,
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...
.
Perarasu, married Shanthi at Nattarasankottai on June 11, 2000. A female child Viruthika was born to them in July 2001.
When Shanthi conceived a second time, she was given abortion pills, she fell ill and was sent by Perarasu to her parents. A panchayat was summoned and they started living together. However, Perarasu insisted on Shanthi moving to Nattarasankottai. During this time, Perarasu received an explicit divorce decree without Shanthi's knowledge. She took steps to have the decree rescinded. She moved the JM court to Bhavani, who asked Perarasu to pay child support.
Though Perarasu had filed a petition challenging the order, neither he nor his counsel appeared in court when the matter was called on five occasions. On September 12, 2007, a judicial magistrate court in Bhavani in Erode district, directed the film director to pay alimony of Rs 10,000 a month to Shanthi and Rs 5,000 a month to their daughter.
Perarasu then married Krishnaveni.
Career
He tried for 7 to 8 years to make it big and had some off-beat stories. When he was new to
Chennai
Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...
, he used to frequent AVM and stand in front of the studios longing to visit the place. He bribed a production in charge ten rupees one day and got himself into the studios. His experience of 15 to 16 years in the industry taught him to analyse the pulse of the audience and give them what they want. He honed his skills under
Rama Narayanan
Rama Narayanan (3 April 1949 – 22 June 2014) was an Indian film director and producer. In the 1980s, he was known as a director who specialized in shooting commercial films in which animals played vital roles, while in the 1990s, several of h ...
and
N. Maharajan. Apart from assisting, Perarasu appeared in few films doing small uncredited roles. He wants his films to be packed with mind-blowing songs, speedy screenplay, punchy dialogue and in between inserted with sentiments, comedy, twists and turns.
Perarasu made his directorial debut with ''
Thirupaachi'' starring
Vijay in lead role being his 40th film. The film was released on the eve of
Pongal with 207 prints and the film received positive reviews from critics claiming that "you may strive hard to find anything new in Tirupachi, which is old wine served in a new bottle, with a different label". The film completed a 100-day theatrical run among 112 screens in Tamil Nadu and completed 200 days in more than 25 centres.
After the success of ''Thirupaachi'',
A. M. Rathnam called Perarasu to make a film with Vijay re-uniting with him for second time. ''
Sivakasi'' was Perarasu's second collaboration with Vijay after ''Thirupaachi'' and producer Rathnam's third film with Vijay after ''
Kushi'' and ''
Ghilli
''Ghilli'' () is a 2004 Indian Tamil-language romantic action masala film directed by Dharani and produced by A. M. Rathnam. It is a remake of the Telugu-language film ''Okkadu'' (2003). The film stars Vijay, Trisha and Prakash Raj with ...
''. The film was released on Diwali to positive reviews with a critic claiming that ""This formula had worked well for director Perarasu and Vijay in ''Thirupaachi'' and now the team has re-worked it. This time, however, it will test your patience as it is not meant for the class audience or those seeking quality entertainment. Perarasu and Vijay believe only in catering to the mass audience who want their dose of unpretentious masala mix" but eventually became a successful venture at box office.
During the making of ''Sivakasi'', representatives from AVM Productions approached Perarasu to make a commercial film with
Ajith Kumar in the lead role. The director immediately accepted the offer and told the producer the story of the film during the meeting and the film was announced publicly two days later. In August 2005, it became clear that the film would begin in November and that
Riyaz Khan would play the lead antagonist role in the project. Sadha was signed on to play the lead role after early reports suggested that either
Nayanthara,
Renuka Menon or Gopika would play the lead female role. The film was named ''
Thirupathi'' and was launched officially on 15 September 2005 with
Vijay attending the opening ceremony. The film was critically panned, with critics claiming that the film drew too much resemblance to Perarasu's previous projects, ''Thirupaachi'' and ''Sivakasi''.
After the success of ''Thirupathi'', Perarasu announced a project called "Pandigai" with S. J. Suryah but the project was cancelled and he announced his next project ''
Dharmapuri'' with
Vijayakanth
Narayanan Vijayaraj Alagarswami (born 25 August 1952), better known by his stage name Vijayakanth, is an Indian politician and former actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil cinema. He was the Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Leg ...
in 2006 since Producer
A. M. Rathnam expressed his desire of Perarasu directing a film for him again after ''
Sivakasi''. Incidentally it was Rathnam who suggested Vijayakanth's name for the film. When Rathnam and captain heard the ‘one liner’ of the movie, they both liked it instantly and thus ''Dharmapuri'' was born without even a heroine. Indiaglitz wrote: Perarasu has dished out a movie that would certainly appease front-benchers. A commercial pot-boiler, the movie will be lapped by Vijayakanth's fans. Sure to make it big in rural centres, the movie also has enough stunt sequences for action-lovers".
Perarasu's next film was ''
Pazhani'', starring
Bharath and
Kajal Aggarwal
Kajal Aggarwal (born 19 June 1985) is an Indian actress and model who mainly appears in Telugu and Tamil language films, in addition to a few Hindi films. Aggarwal has worked in more than 50 films and also received two South Indian Internat ...
. It was average at the box office.
Perarasu then directed films like, ''
Thiruvannamalai'' and ''
Thiruthani''.
Thiruvannamalai was a commercial hit, but Thiruthani failed at box office. Later a Malayalam action movie
Samrajyam 2 was directed with
Unni Mukundan as the main hero, which was a sequel to the first part of
Mammootty
Muhammad Kutty Panaparambil Ismail (; born 7 September 1951), known mononymously by the hypocorism Mammootty (), is an Indian actor and film producer who works predominantly in Malayalam films. He has also appeared in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada ...
film
Samrajyam . Though the film was action packed, entertainer, this film failed to attract the audience, ending up in becoming a heavy flop.
Style of work
Perarasu is known primarily for directing films which he says are "aimed at the common man who looks at pure entertainment", rather than critics. His films are also known for having sentiment and action scenes in equal proportions. Due to his films being named after towns and cities, he has been nicknamed "Oorarasu" by the media, the term being a portmanteau of "''oor''" (meaning town or city) and his name Perarasu.
Filmography
;Director
*''All films are in Tamil, unless otherwise noted.''
;As lyricist
;As singer
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Perarasu
Tamil film directors
Living people
Tamil film poets
Film directors from Tamil Nadu
People from Sivaganga district
21st-century Indian film directors
Malayalam film directors
Tamil screenwriters
Screenwriters from Tamil Nadu
Malayalam screenwriters
1967 births