Rajendran Ravikumar (born 13 May 1984) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works primarily in Tamil films. He is best known for his

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses Speculative fiction, speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as Extraterrestrial life in fiction, extraterrestria ...

s ''

Indru Netru Naalai ''Indru Netru Naalai'' () is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language science fiction comedy film written and directed by R. Ravikumar. The film stars Vishnu Vishal and Miya George, while Karunakaran, P. Ravi Shankar, Jayaprakash and T. M. Karthik pl ...

'' (2015) and ''

Ayalaan ''Ayalaan'' ( ) is a 2024 Indian Tamil-language science fiction film directed by R. Ravikumar and produced by KJR Studios. The film stars Sivakarthikeyan and Rakul Preet Singh in the lead roles, alongside Sharad Kelkar, Isha Koppikar, Karuna ...

'' (2024).

Career

Ravikumar is a native of

Tiruppur Tiruppur or Tirupur ( ), is a city and municipal corporation in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the banks of the Noyyal river in Western Tamil Nadu, it is the fourth largest city in the state. It is the administrative capital of T ...

. He was not initially passionate about cinema until a friend from Dubai gave him an amateur camera in the early 2000s. With that camera, Ravikumar taught himself filmmaking and made several short films from 2004 to the remainder of the decade. Some of his shorts were later shortlisted for the reality show ''Naalaya Iyakunar'', where he finished at third. After his stint at ''Naalaya Iyakunar'', Ravikumar began to take cinema as his career, and became an assistant director under

Nalan Kumarasamy Nalan Kumarasamy (born 25 October 1980) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in the Tamil film industry. He started his career as a short filmmaker and won the title of the first season of ''Naalaya Iyakunar''. He made his featu ...

during ''

Soodhu Kavvum ''Soodhu Kavvum'' () is a 2013 Indian Tamil-language black comedy crime film directed by Nalan Kumarasamy, who co-wrote the story with Shrinivas Kaviinayam. Produced by C. V. Kumar's Thirukumaran Entertainment, the film stars Vijay Sethupathi, ...

'' (2013). He later made his feature directorial debut with the science fiction film ''

'' (2015), for which he won the Behindwoods Gold Medal for Best Screenplay Writer. Ravikumar's second directorial feature was announced in 2016. The science fiction film, later titled ''

'', began production in 2018, languished in

production hell Development hell, also known as development purgatory or development limbo, is media and software industry jargon for a project, concept, or idea that remains in a stage of early development for a long time because of legal, technical, or artistic ...

and was released only in 2024, but was well received. Shortly after the film's success, he was signed on to direct its sequel.

Filmmaking style

An avid reader of

Tamil literature Tamil literature includes a collection of literary works that have come from a tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the T ...

, Ravikumar noted that such novels influence his thinking style.

Personal life

Ravikumar married Priya Ganesan in 2016. They have a daughter born in 2018, and a son born in 2024. Ravikumar's mother died in March 2021.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{IMDb name, nm7415469 21st-century Indian people Living people People from Tiruppur Tamil film directors Tamil screenwriters 1984 births