Mani Ratnam (Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam), is an acclaimed Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer, born on June 2, 1955, in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. He is known for the visual way he tells the story using color, lighting, and objects to express emotions. The first film Mani directed was a moderately successful 1983 Kannada film “Pallavi Anu Pallavi”, with Anil Kapoor, for which he also wrote the screenplay. In 1985, he wrote and directed the romantic drama “Mouna Ragam”, which established him as a leading director of Tamil films. He won a National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil and a Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Director. The film became an important milestone in Tamil cinema because of its realistic three-dimensional characters, including a strong woman. Other well-known films include: “Nayakan” (1987); the terrorism trilogy “Roja” (1992), “Bombay” (1995), and “Dil Se…” (1998); “Guru” (2007), and “O Kadhal Kanmani” (2015). Mani films are known for their music; first with composer Ilaiyaraaja, and later with A.R. Rahman. Most of his films were remade or dubbed into Hindi and Telugu. ‘Oj Jaanu’, starring Shraddha Kapoor and Aditya Kapoor, was a remake of his Tamil hit ‘O Kadhal Kanmani’. His last films were ‘Kaatru Veliyidai’ (2017), and ‘Chekka Chivantha Vaanam’ (2018). Mani co-wrote the film ‘Vaanam Kottattum’ (2020) and directed the story ‘Coffee, Anyone?’ from the anthology ‘Putham Pudhu Kaalai’ for Amazon Prime. He directed his dream project, ‘Ponniyin Selvan’, in two parts released in 2022/2023. From a beloved Tamil historical epic series of books, PS had an ensemble cast led by Vikram, Karthi, Jayam Ravi, Aishwarya Rai, and Trisha, with music by A.R. Rahman. Mani Ratnam is considered one of the greatest Indian directors of all time. Mani Ratnam is considered one of the greatest Indian directors of all time.
Mani Ratnam
