Arun Vaidyanathan is an
Indian-American film director who works predominantly in
Tamil
Tamil may refer to:
People, culture and language
* Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia
**Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka
** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...
-language films. He directed his first full-length feature film in Tamil, ''
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 fi ...
'', which released in July 2009. He produced a Tamil romantic-comedy film, ''
Kalyana Samayal Saadham'' in 2013. In 2014, he directed
Mohanlal
Mohanlal Viswanathan (; born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor and filmmaker who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hin ...
in a
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of ...
-language political satire film, ''
Peruchazhi''.
Early life and career
Arunachalam Vaidyanathan was born and raised in
Sirkali, a remote town in the state of
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. 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 Indi ...
, 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. In the simples ...
, 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.
1890s
* List of American films of the 1890s
1900s
* List of American films of 1900
* List of American films of 1901
* List ...
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
New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...
, United States. He then completed a
New York Film Academy
New York Film Academy – School of Film and Acting (NYFA) is a Private college, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit film school and Drama school, acting school based in New York City, Los Angeles metropolitan ar ...
program and began directing short English films.
In 2008, he began working on his debut Tamil feature film, ''
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 fi ...
''. Is a Tamil
social thriller starring
Prasanna,
Sneha and
Emmy Award
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
-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
The Garden State Film Festival is a film festival in the United States held in Asbury Park, New Jersey, Asbury Park and Cranford, New Jersey, Cranford, New Jersey, which debuts more than 200 independent films annually over four days each spring.
...
, 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
He then made his Malayalam debut with the
Mohanlal
Mohanlal Viswanathan (; born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor and filmmaker who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hin ...
-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
Muhammad bin Tughluq (; ; 1290 – 20 March 1351), or Muhammad II, also named Jauna Khan as Crown Prince, further known by his epithets, The Eccentric Prince, or The Mad Sultan, was the eighteenth Sultan of Delhi. He reigned from 4 February 1 ...
'', but ''
Peruchazhi'' has a pan Indian narrative. Besides
Mohanlal
Mohanlal Viswanathan (; born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor and filmmaker who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hin ...
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 is commonly used as a male given name in India.
People with the name Mukesh include:
* Mukesh (singer) (1923–1976), Indian playback singer from ...
,
Ragini Nandwani,
Baburaj,
Aju Varghese
Aju Kurian Varghese (born 11 January 1985), better known as Aju Varghese, is an Indian actor, producer and singer who appears in Malayalam cinema. He made his debut in 2010 in '' Malarvadi Arts Club'', directed by his collegemate Vineeth Sr ...
and
Vijay Babu among others. The cinematography was done by
Arvind Krishna
Arvind Krishna (born November 23, 1962) is an American business executive, and the chairman and CEO of IBM. He has been CEO of IBM since April 2020 and chairman since January 2021. Arvind began his career at IBM in 1990, at its Thomas J. Watso ...
. 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
Srinivasa Sarja (born 15 August 1962), better known by his stage name Action King Arjun, is an Indian actor, producer, and director who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. He has mainly acted in Tamil cinema, Tamil films in addition to Telugu ...
,
Varalakshmi Sarathkumar,
Prasanna,
Sruthi Hariharan,
Vaibhav Reddy,
Suhasini Maniratnam 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'' (2014).
Filmography
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 people
People from Mayiladuthurai district
Screenwriters from Tamil Nadu
Film directors from Tamil Nadu
Year of birth missing (living people)