Pa. Ranjith

Biography

Pa. Ranjith is an Indian film director who primarily works in the Tamil film industry. He quickly established himself as a prominent South Indian film personality by directing two hit movies successively.

Finally, Ranjith got the opportunity to work on a film when director Shiva Shanmugam hired him as an assistant director for the movie Thugapansamy (2006). However, he failed to gain much from that experience and decided to try his luck with Venkat Prabhu`s Chennai 600028 (2007) and Saroja (2008). 

These were far more fruitful experiences for Ranjith and he was soon given the opportunity to collaborate with producer C.V. Kumar on the rom-com Attakathi. Written and directed by Pa. Ranjith, the film looked extremely promising and its distribution rights were purchased by Studio Green before its release. The movie went down as a cult film in Tamil cinema for its simple yet beautiful storytelling and the studio signed Ranjith on to direct another film.

After contemplating between two projects, they finally agreed to go through with making the movie Madras, which was released in 2014. Ranjith attempted to capture the struggles and realities of the youth in North Madras, as per the observations he made while traveling to North Madras in his college days. 

The movie, starring Karthik Sivakumar, was a musical political drama and was critically and commercially successful. The Times of India gave it four out of five stars and wrote "Ranjith keeps defying our expectations in subtle ways. We think we know what the outcome of a scene would be but he constantly surprises us with how the scene is executed. "

The director won the SIIMA Award for Best Director- Tamil and was even nominated for the Filmfare Award for Best Director- Tamil. Madras saw high box office returns domestically and internationally, earning crores of rupees from markets in the USA, the UK, and Malaysia. 

In 2016, Pa. Ranjith teamed up with legendary actor Rajinikanth on the movie Kabali. The film, also starring Radhika Apte, is based on an aged gangster who attempts to protect his family from his ruthless enemies. His other releases include Pei Irukka Illaya (2018), Kaala (2018), Pariyerum Perumal (2018), and Irandam Ulagaporin Kadaisi Gundu (2019).