Selvaraghavan

Selvaraghavan is an Indian film director, screenwriter and actor who has directed and acted predominantly Tamil films.

Selvaraghavan had written the script for the film in the late 1990s and had first narrated the story to Dhanush in their shared bedroom at home, before asking him to play the lead role of Vinod after the success of Thulluvadho Illamai.

The story explores the mind of a youth who is mentally and physically abused in his childhood.

The lack of a mother's love haunts the protagonist throughout the film as the girl of his infatuation is killed.

Becoming a psychopath, he desperately tries to woo his newly found lady love and his efforts culminate in a thrilling climax.

After he graduated in 1997, he approached producers to fund his screenplay writing, but was unsuccessful and often remained at home as an unemployed graduate.

His family faced financial pressures in the early 2000s with his father being out of work, and subsequently they decided to put their remaining earnings into a venture titled Thulluvadho Ilamai (2002), which Selvaraghavan had written.

Featuring his brother Dhanush in his first role, alongside Sherin and Abhinay, the film told the coming-of-age story of six high school students and featured a hit soundtrack by Yuvan Shankar Raja.

After taking a small opening, the film began to get teen audiences to cinema halls for its adolescent themes, while also being publicised in quarters as a "soft porn" film.

It subsequently went on to become a sleeper hit and won positive reviews from critics for breaking the stereotypes of Tamil films.

After release, Selvaraghavan stated that he had also directed the film, but was forced to credit his more established film-maker father Kasthuri Raja as the sole director, in order to help the project find a distributor.

His directorial debut had with Thulluvadho Ilamai (2002) but his father is credited for business reasons, which stars his brother Dhanush K. Raja, Selvaraghavan went on to make a series of romantic drama films with Kadhal Kondein (2003) (also starring Dhanush) and 7G Rainbow Colony (2004) before also venturing into coming-of-age films Pudhupettai (2006) and Mayakkam Enna (2011), both starring Dhanush.

Following the success of the previous film, the team chose to collaborate again with the psychotic romantic thriller Kaadhal Kondein (2003), credited as Selvaraghavan's first film.

The venture, produced by his home production, also marked the first collaboration of Selvaraghavan with cinematographer Arvind Krishna, whom he would later associate with regularly.

The film opened in July 2003 to unanimously positive reviews, with a reviewer from The Hindu noting: "his story, screenplay, dialogue and direction are focused and hit the bull's eye straightway — hardly missing the mark."

The film subsequently went on to become a blockbuster and provided career breakthroughs for both Selvaraghavan and Dhanush in the Tamil film industry.

Since its release, the film has been remade into several Indian languages, while Selvaraghavan was briefly associated with the Hindi remake to be produced by Boney Kapoor in 2004, but the project did not eventually materialise.

Selvaraghavan's next venture was another juvenile love story, 7G Rainbow Colony, which saw him collaborate with Yuvan Shankar Raja and Arvind Krishna again.

He revealed that the film's inspiration came from his college days when he had been fascinated with a Punjabi girl called Ruchika, during his education in KK Nagar.

He based several of the scenes on real-life happenings with his friends, revealing that the film was "75% biographical" and the lead character was an "average guy" like himself, who "no one would make a film on".

He cast Ravi Krishna, son of the film's producer A. M. Rathnam, in the leading role after a successful screen test while choosing to retain Sonia Agarwal as the lead actress, due to her Punjabi origin.

The film opened in October 2004 to positive reviews, with a critic from Sify.com noting: "Unlike other contemporary film-makers running after superstars and making formula films, Selvaraghavan pushes the cinematic envelope and brings savvy freshness to the form, hitherto unexplored".

Another reviewer from Rediff.com added: "Selvaraghavan has once again displayed his skill making a movie that is touching without being mushy, and believable because of its realism", noting that "7G Rainbow Colony remains with you, disturbs you and lingers like the glowing embers of a fire long burnt."

Consequently, the film and its dubbed Telugu version went on to become amongst the most profitable films of the year.

On 15 December 2006, he married actress Sonia Agarwal, with whom he had previously worked with on three films.

Selvaraghavan later committed to begin work on a Hindi version of the film starring Vivek Oberoi in 2007, but the venture subsequently did not materialise.

After their two-year marriage, Sonia Agarwal and Selvaraghavan filed for divorce with mutual consent in a Chennai family court on 9 August 2009.

He has also ventured into making science fiction and fantasy films, such as depicting a fantasy Chola kingdom in Aayirathil Oruvan (2010) and a parallel universe in Irandam Ulagam (2013).

He has been critically acclaimed for his directorial skills.

He made his film acting debut in the 2022 film Beast.

Selvaraghavan was born to film director Kasthuri Raja and Vijayalakshmi.

He has a brother, Dhanush, who is an actor, and two sisters, who are both doctors.

In his youth, one of his eyes was removed after he developed retinal cancer.

Selvaraghavan married Gitanjali Raman on 19 June 2011, daughter of former Advocate General of Tamil Nadu P. S. Raman.

Gitanjali had worked as his assistant director in Mayakkam Enna.

The couple have a daughter named Leelavathi born on 20 January 2012, and a son born on 7 October 2013 named Omkar.

The couple had their third child, a baby boy on 7 January 2021 who they named Rishikesh.

Despite coming from a family from the film industry, Selvaraghavan and his sisters were persuaded by their parents to seek a career with an academic background.

He subsequently went on to attain a BEng. in Mechanical Engineering, though his exam performances were unremarkable and he acknowledges he was "never going to become one of the best".

During his studies, he engaged part-time in different career paths in a process he describes as "soul-searching", before finding satisfaction as a writer.