Mani Ratnam

Gopalaratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and few Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films.

He is one of India's most acclaimed and commercially successful filmmakers.

Ratnam has won six National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards, six Filmfare Awards South, and numerous awards at various film festivals across the world.

Mani Ratnam was born on 2 June 1956 in Madurai, Tamil Nadu as the second child of a Tamil Brahmin family that was closely associated with film production.

His father, S. Gopalaratnam, was a film distributor who worked for Venus Pictures, while his uncle, "Venus" Krishnamurthy, was a film producer.

His elder brother, G. Venkateswaran, would go on to produce some of his films.

His younger brother was G. Srinivasan, who like G. Venkateswaran, would also co-produce some of his films.

Mani Ratnam grew up in Madras (now Chennai), along with his siblings and cousins.

Despite being a film family, the children were not allowed to watch films as the elders considered them taboo.

After finishing his post-graduation in 1977, he was employed in a firm in Madras as a management consultant, and continued to work there for sometime.

He entered the film industry through the 1983 Kannada film, Pallavi Anu Pallavi.

The failure of his subsequent films would mean that he would be left with fewer offers.

After working in Telugu and Malayalam Cinema, he made his major breakthrough with Mouna Ragam (1986), established him as a leading filmmaker in Tamil cinema which won him his first Filmfare Best Director Award.

He was the director of the critically acclaimed Nayakan (1987) and Anjali (1990), both of which qualified as India's official entry for The Academy Awards.

Ratnam married actress Suhasini on 26 August 1988.

The couple have a son.

The family resides in Alwarpet, Chennai, where he runs his production company, Madras Talkies.

He found success with the crime drama Thalapathi, romantic terrorism drama Roja (1992), Bombay (1995), Dil Se.. (1998), and his romantic trilogy of Mouna Ragam (1986), Alaipayuthey (2000), O Kadhal Kanmani (2015).

Ratnam revolutionized Tamil-language cinema and is the biggest director in south India and one of the most respected directors in all of India.

Each of his films contain its own unique style, with beautifully photographed songs and unique back-lighting.

Exploring success in romantic, terrorism war and drama films.

His epic historical dramas Ponniyin Selvan: I (2022) and Ponniyin Selvan: II (2023) based on the Indian epic written by Kalki Krishnamurthy was another critical and commercial hit with the former becoming the 25th highest-grossing film in India and 5th highest-grossing Tamil film.

"As a youngster, films seemed like a waste of time", he claimed in a 1994 interview; however, he started watching films more actively when he was studying at the Besant Theosophical School.

During this time, he developed an admiration for actors like Sivaji Ganesan and Nagesh; watching all their films.

When he discovered the legendary Director K. Balachander, he became his fan.

Upon completing his schooling, he graduated with a degree in commerce from the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, affiliated to the Madras University.

Later, he did his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in finance from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai.

In 1995, Mani Ratnam was wounded and hospitalised after homemade bombs were thrown at his home by attackers, suspected by police as Muslim extremists, in the wake of opposition to his film Bombay which portrayed the romance of a Hindu man with a Muslim woman.

In 2002, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri, acknowledging his contributions to film.

Despite being born into a film family, Mani Ratnam did not develop any interest in films when he was young.

Upon completion of his post graduation in management, he started his career as a consultant.

An FIR was filed on Mani Ratnam and 49 others in 2019 when they wrote to Modi listing statistics and expressing concern over the rise of communal violence against minorities including Muslims, Christians and Dalits since Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took power in 2014.

Mani Ratnam was not satisfied with his job as a consultant as he found it to be a mere extension of his academics.

During this time his friend Ravi Shankar, son of director B. R. Panthulu, was in the process of making his first film.

Mani Ratnam, Ravi Shankar and another friend Raman, son of filmmaker S. Balachander, worked on the script of the film.

Mani Ratnam took a sabbatical from his job to ensure his participation in the making of the film.

Being inexperienced, the makers were largely dependent upon the American Cinematographer magazine.

The principal cast included Vishnuvardhan, Srinath, Ambareesh, Lakshmi, and Roja Ramani.

When the filming was about to begin in Kolar, Karnataka, Mani Ratnam left his consulting job and joined the crew.

The film, however, did not take off and was eventually shelved.