Soundarya Rajinikanth (born Shaku Bai Rao Gaikwad; 20 September 1984) is an Indian graphic designer, film producer and film director who primarily works in the

Tamil cinema Tamil cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Tamil language, the main spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is nicknamed Kollywood, a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam, a Ch ...

. She is the founder and owner of Ocher Picture Productions. Soundarya began her career in films as a graphic designer. For those starring her father

Rajinikanth Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (born 12 December 1950), known professionally as Rajinikanth, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. In a career spanning over five decades, he has done 170 films that includes films in Tamil, Hindi, ...

, she designed the title sequences. She became a film producer with ''

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

'' (2010). She made her debut as a film director with the film '' Kochadaiyaan'' (2014).

Career

Soundarya Rajinikanth, born as Shaku Bai Rao Gaikwad did her childhood education in the Ashram Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Velachery, Chennai. In 2007, Ocher Studios signed an agreement with Warner Bros Entertainment to partner up in producing and distributing Tamil films. Her directorial debut was supposed to be ''Sultan: The Warrior'', a

3D animated Computer animation is the process used for digitally generating moving images. The more general term computer-generated imagery (CGI) encompasses both still images and moving images, while computer animation refers to moving images. Modern ...

film featuring her father

. Despite heavy pre-production promotion, including a teaser of the film and an interactive website, the film was dropped. She instead directed ''

Kochadaiiyaan ''Kochadaiiyaan: The Legend'' () is a 2014 Indian Tamil-language animated period action film written by K. S. Ravikumar and directed by Soundarya Rajinikanth. It is India's first photorealistic motion capture film, featuring characters wh ...

'', India's first

motion capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mocap or mo-cap, for short) is the process of recording high-resolution motion (physics), movement of objects or people into a computer system. It is used in Military science, military, entertainment, sports ...

film, with Rajinikanth in the lead role. Through ''Kochadaiiyaan'', Soundarya earned the distinction of becoming the first woman to direct her father in a feature film. At the NDTV Indian of the Year awards 2014, she was honoured for "Technical Innovation In Film". In 2016, she worked on the pre-production of a film titled '' Nilavukku En Mel Ennadi Kobam'' with

Dhanush Venkatesh Prabhu Kasthuri Raja (born 28 July 1983), known professionally as Dhanush, is an Indian actor, filmmaker, lyricist and playback singer who primarily works in Tamil cinema. Having starred in Dhanush filmography, 50 films over his car ...

, Kajal Aggarwal and Manjima Mohan, but the film was later dropped. It was revived in 2023 without Soundarya's involvement. Her next directorial venture was ''

Velaiilla Pattadhari 2 ''Velaiilla Pattadhari 2'' () is a 2017 Indian Tamil action comedy film directed by Soundarya Rajinikanth. It is a sequel to the 2014 film ''Velaiilla Pattadhari'' and has Dhanush, Amala Paul, Vivek, Hrishikesh, Saranya Ponvannan, and Samuth ...

'', shot in Tamil and Telugu languages. In 2019, She started a production company called May 6 Entertainment. She founded Hoote, a social media platform that is based on voice messages.

Personal life

Soundarya is the younger daughter of actor

and his wife Latha. She has one elder sister, Aishwarya Rajinikanth. Soundarya married Ashwin Ramkumar, an industrialist, on 3 September 2010 at Rani Meyyammai Hall in Chennai. The couple has a son born on 6 May 2015. In September 2016, Soundarya revealed that she and her husband had filed for divorce by mutual consent due to irreconcilable differences. In July 2017, the couple officially divorced. She married Vishagan Vanangamudi, an actor and businessman, on 11 February 2019 at Leela Palace in Chennai. Their son Veer was born in 2022.

Filmography

As graphic designer and film director

As a producer

As an actor

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rajinikanth, Soundarya Living people Indian women film producers Tamil film producers Film directors from Chennai Indian women film directors 1984 births Indian designers 21st-century Indian designers Pseudonymous artists Film producers from Chennai 21st-century Indian women artists Women artists from Tamil Nadu Businesswomen from Tamil Nadu 20th-century Indian businesswomen 20th-century Indian businesspeople 21st-century Indian businesswomen 21st-century Indian businesspeople Indian women artists