Photon Kathaas was an Indian

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

production company A production company, production house or production studio is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television show, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and video ...

led by director

Gautham Vasudev Menon Gautham Vasudev Menon (born 25 February 1973) is an Indian film director, screenwriter, film producer and actor who predominantly works in Tamil cinema, Tamil film industry. He has also directed Telugu cinema, Telugu, Hindi cinema, Hindi and Ma ...

. It was established in 2010 by Menon along with Venky Somasundaram and Reshma Ghatala, who worked as the co-promoters. Its name is derived from Gautham Menon's original company Photon Factory, which had previously co-produced several of Menon's films like ''

Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu ''Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu'' () is a 2006 Indian Tamil-language neo-noir action thriller film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. The film stars Kamal Haasan and Jyothika, while Kamalinee Mukherjee, Prakash Raj, Daniel Balaji, and ...

'' and ''

Kaakha Kaakha ''Kaakha Kaakha'' () is a 2003 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon and produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu. The film stars Suriya, Jyothika and Jeevan, with Daniel Balaji, Vivek Anand, Devadars ...

'', its Telugu remake ''

Gharshana ''Gharshana'' () is a 2004 Indian Telugu-language action thriller film produced by G. Sivaraju, C. Venkatraju, and Kalaipuli S. Thanu. It is directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon, in his Telugu debut. It is the remake of the 2003 Tamil film, ...

'' and ''

Pachaikili Muthucharam ''Pachaikili Muthucharam'' () is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon. It is loosely based on James Siegel's 2003 novel ''Derailed''. The film stars R. Sarathkumar, Jyothika, Andrea Jeremiah and ...

''.

History

Photon Kathaas's first venture was Menon's psychological thriller ''

Nadunisi Naaygal ''Nadunisi Naaygal'' () is a 2011 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language psychological thriller film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon and produced by Photon Kathaas Productions and R. S. Infotainment. The film stars Veera (actor), Vee ...

'', ''

Veppam ''Veppam'' () is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language crime action film written and directed by newcomer Anjana Ali Khan, starring Nani, Nithya Menen, Karthik Kumar, and Bindu Madhavi. The film marks Nani's Tamil debut. The story narrates events from ...

'', and

Ram Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

's second directorial ''

Thanga Meengal ''Thanga Meenkal'' (also spelt as ''Thanga Meengal''; ) is a 2013 Indian Tamil-language coming-of-age drama film directed by Ram. The story was written by Ram and his daughter Shri Sankara Gomathy Ram, with the former, besides, played the lead ro ...

,'' co-produced with

RS Infotainment RS Infotainment is an Indian film production and distribution company headed by Elred Kumar. The studio has produced films made in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. History Elred Kumar was first announced as "a businessman passionate about ...

. Furthermore, an audio label named Photon Kathaas Music was launched as a division of the company, with newcomer Vijay Ebenezer's '' Kanden'' becoming their first release. Soon after Photon Kathaas teamed up with

to produce ''

Neethaane En Ponvasantham ''Neethaane En Ponvasantham'' () is a 2012 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film co written, co produced and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon, starring Jiiva and Samantha. It was shot and released simultaneously in Telugu as ''Yeto Vellip ...

'' (2012), a romantic drama film featuring

Jiiva Amar Choudary (born 4 January 1984), known professionally as Jiiva, is an Indian actor and film producer who works mainly in Tamil cinema and a few Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi films. He is the youngest son of film producer R. B. Choudary. ...

and

Samantha Samantha is an English feminine given name in use since the 17th century that is of uncertain derivation. It is now in popular use worldwide due to various popular culture influences. Etymology Some etymologists have suggested Samantha might ...

, but the film fared averagely at the box office. In February 2013,

Elred Kumar Elred Kumar Santhanam is an Indian film director, screenwriter and film producer best known for his work on '' Ko, Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal, and Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa.'' His films were made under his production house, RS Infotainment ...

of RS Infotainment filed a legal case against Gautham Menon and Madan claiming that he had entered into an agreement to do a film starring

Silambarasan Silambarasan Thesingu Rajendar (born 3 February 1984), popularly known as Simbu or by his initials as STR, is an Indian actor, producer, and playback singer who primarily works in Tamil cinema. He is the eldest son of director T. Rajendar. ...

with music by

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

in November 2008, during the making of ''

Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa ''Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa'' () is a 2010 Indian Tamil-language musical romantic drama film written and directed by Gautham Vasudev Menon, starring Silambarasan and Trisha. Jointly produced by Elred Kumar, Jayaraman, VTV Ganesh and P. Madan und ...

''. He noted that they had agreed again in February 2010 to make the film, but now with

Allu Arjun Allu Arjun (born 8 April 1982) is an Indian actor who works in Telugu cinema. He is one of the highest-paid actors in Indian cinemaand has been featured in ''Forbes Indias Celebrity 100 list since 2014. Allu Arjun's accolades include a Na ...

in the lead role. However, Elred claimed that both Gautham and Madan had gone on to do other projects even though they had been paid an advance of 40 million. As a result of the litigation, Menon had trouble releasing the rest of Photon Kathaas' productions. Despite being announced as Photon Kathaas' productions at launch,

Premsai Premsai is an Indian film director and former actor. As an actor, he was acclaimed for playing many different prominent roles in Tamil and Telugu television serials and tele films. Later he ventured in to Direction. His debut film was ''Tamilse ...

's delayed bilingual films, ''

Courier Boy Kalyan ''Courier Boy Kalyan'' is a 2015 Indian Telugu-language action thriller film directed by Premsai, who had earlier assisted Prabhu Deva. This film is produced by Gautham Vasudev Menon under the banners Photon Kathaas and Guru films. It is inspi ...

'' (2015) in Telugu and ''

Tamilselvanum Thaniyar Anjalum ''Tamilselvanum Thaniyar Anjalum'' () is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Premsai and produced by Gautham Vasudev Menon. The film stars Jai, Santhanam and Yami Gautam with Ashutosh Rana, VTV Ganesh, Prem, Nassa ...

'' (2016) in Tamil, were eventually released as films productions by Gautham Menon and his team without a banner. In an interview in November 2016, Gautham Menon revealed that Photon Kathaas had closed. He added there "was a vision, but we faltered because of the films that we did", and made reference to the cases filed by

against the studio.

Filmography

Production

Discography

Distribution

References

{{Reflist Film production companies based in Chennai Film distributors of India Indian film studios Indian companies established in 2010 Mass media companies established in 2010 2010 establishments in Tamil Nadu