Ram (director)

Ram is an Indian film director, who works in Tamil cinema. After assisting Hindi directors Rajkumar Santoshi and working under Balu Mahendra, he made his directorial debut with Kattradhu Thamizh (2007), which fetched him strong critical acclaim. His second film Thanga Meengal (2013) also won critical praise and three National Film Awards.

Career

Ram, while he was pursuing a Master of Arts postgraduate degree in Tamil literature at the Madras Christian College, began writing short stories in Tamil language. He met director Thangar Bachan and worked with him in a few films, who recommended that he meet Hindi film director Rajkumar Santoshi. Since he could not understand Hindi and was unaware about Hindi films and hence did not know who Rajkumar Santoshi was, he was initially reluctant, but eventually decided to meet him and joined him as a script writer, moving to Mumbai subsequently. Ram worked together with Santoshi in several Hindi films, including Pukar (2000) and Lajja (2001), and helped him in shaping the story of Lajja. Ram revealed that he first had planned to make a "cross-over English film on man-woman relationship" and approached Balu Mahendra to handle the cinematography, since he felt Mahendra's style suited his script best. The project failed to take off, but Ram continued working with Mahendra. Though he did not assist him in any of his films, Ram considers Balu Mahendra as his teacher, who, he says, "converted" him "from being a film maniac to a film student" as he also learned about cinematic techniques from him, particularly about cinematography.