Arun Vaidyanathan
Born
Arunachalam

Sirkazhi, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation(s)Film director, film producer, screenwriter
Websitehttp://www.arunfilmmaker.com

Arun Vaidyanathan (born in Sirkazhi, Tamil Nadu, India) is an Indian-American film director who works in predominantly Tamil films. He directed his first full-length feature film in Tamil, Achchamundu! Achchamundu!, which released in July 2009. He produced a Tamil romantic-comedy film, Kalyana Samayal Saadham in 2013.[1] In 2014, he directed Mohanlal in a Malayalam political satire film, Peruchazhi.[2]

Early life and career

Arun Vaidyanathan was born and raised in Sirkali, a remote town in the state of Tamil Nadu, 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, 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. On Raj TV, he worked on a program called Hollywood Special where reviews about American films were given in Tamil. He loved that job and learned of many Hollywood films he would not have otherwise been exposed to.

After completing his education in Computer Science, he joined a software company which allowed him to migrate to New Jersey, United States. He then completed a New York Film Academy program and began directing short English films.

In 2008, he began working on his debut Tamil feature film, Achchamundu! Achchamundu!. Is a Tamil social thriller starring Prasanna, Sneha and Emmy Award-winning American film actor John Shea. 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, 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, Kalyana Samayal Saadham. It features Prasanna and Lekha Washington 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, 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[3]

He then made his Malayalam debut with the Mohanlal-starrer Peruchazhi. The type of humour used in the film was inspired by Cho Ramaswamy's 1971 Tamil classic political-satire film Muhammad bin Tughluq,[4] but Peruchazhi has a pan Indian narrative. Besides Mohanlal in the lead, the film featured an ensemble cast with Mukesh, Ragini Nandwani, Baburaj, Aju Varghese and Vijay Babu among others. The cinematography was done by Arvind Krishna. The songs and background score for the movie was composed by Arrora (Naveen Iyer). Ajayan Venugopalan along with the director co-wrote the dialogues.

He then directed Nibunan / Vismaya, a bilingual film starring Arjun Sarja, Varalakshmi Sarathkumar, Prasanna, Sruthi Hariharan, Vaibhav Reddy, Suhasini Maniratnam and Suman.[5] 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 (2014).[6]

Filmography

Year Film Credited as Language Role Notes
Director Writer Producer Actor
2009Achchamundu! Achchamundu!Green tickGreen tickGreen tickRed XTamil   Shanghai International Film Festival- Official Selection
Garden State Film Festival - Best Homegrown Film
Chennai International Film Festival - Best Film
32nd Moscow International Film Festival - Official Selection
17th Minsk International Film Festival "Listapad" - Official Selection
33rd Cairo International Film Festival - Official Selection
International Film Festival of India- Official Selection
Asia-Pacific Film Festival - Official Selection
2013Kalyana Samayal SaadhamRed XSpecial DialoguesGreen tickRed X 
2014PeruchazhiGreen tickGreen tickRed XRed XMalayalam 
2017NibunanGreen tickGreen tickGreen tickRed XTamil Bilingual film
VismayaKannada
2023 Aneethi Red X Red X Red X Green tick Tamil
TakkarRed XRed XRed XGreen tickVaidy
Shot Boot ThreeGreen tickGreen tickGreen tickGreen tickDr. Shekar[7]

References

  1. Warrier, Shobha. "A big fat Indian wedding in Tamil cinema". Rediff.
  2. https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/underbelly-of-politics/article6217112.ece
  3. "Bollywood Life". 11 March 2013.
  4. "Cho's Tughluq influences Mohanlal's Peruchazhi". 22 August 2014 via www.thehindu.com.
  5. Rao, Subha J. (28 June 2017). "Hit and (A)run" via www.thehindu.com.
  6. "Vaidyanathan Cop Thriller".
  7. Rajendran, Gopinath (3 October 2023). "Calling the shots: Director Arunachalam Vaidyanathan on 'Shot Boot Three'" via www.thehindu.com.
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