From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gautham Vasudev Menon (Tamil: கௌதம் வாசுதேவ் மேனன்; Malayalam: ഗൌതം വാസുദേവ് മേനോന് ; born February 25, 1973)^{[citation needed]} is an Indian film director and producer in Tamil Nadu, India. Many of his films have been critically acclaimed, most notably his action-thrillers Kaaka Kaaka, Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu and Vaaranam Aayiram.

Early life

Gautham Menon was born to Malayalee father and Tamil mother. He did Mechanical Engineering in Mookambikai College of Engineering in Trichy, Tamil Nadu^{[1] [2]}.

Film Career

He was an ad film maker, shooting various commercials after a good apprenticeship under noted filmmaker Rajiv Menon. He worked as an assistant director for Minsaara Kanavu, in which he also appeared in a cameo role. He soon started his own ad agency "Photon Factory" before moving to cinema which is now recognized as a film production company.

He made his directorial debut in 2001 with the Tamil romantic film Minnale with R. Madhavan, Abbas and Reema Sen playing the lead roles. The film was a huge hit because of its young and peppy story, brilliant comic timing from the acclaimed comedian Vivek and also because of some new lilting music from debutante music director, Harris Jayaraj. Gautham immediately received the chance to remake the film in Bollywood. He did so, retaining Madhavan as in the lead role, while having Diya Mirza playing the female lead role. The remake, title, Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein, however, couldn't repeat the success of its Tamil original version.

Gautham returned to Tamil cinema in 2003 with the action thriller Kaaka Kaaka, starring Surya Sivakumar, Jyothika Saravanan and Jeevan. Gautham, himself, appeared in a cameo role as a senior police officer. With R. D. Rajashekar on the camera, Anthony in editing and again with Harris Jeyaraj handling the music, the film was a box-office record breaker. Gautham again got offers from various quarters to remake the film. He later remade the film in Telugu with Venkatesh in the lead. But the facts reveal that some of the scenes were as is replicated from the English movie Se7en. After that, Gautham had the opportunity to make the investigative thriller film with Kamal Hassan in a pivotal role. Thus, he started Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu. The unit faced a lot of problems due to the producer's suicide attempt^[3]. However they overcame all that and the film was released in August 2006. The director plays a cameo dancing at the back in the song, Manjal Veiyil. The film came to be the biggest grosser of 2006. Menon's next project, Pachaikili Muthucharam, based on the novel Derailed, with Sarath Kumar and Jyothika Saravanan, released in 2007, was a critical acclaim but bombed at the box office.

His next release, Vaaranam Aayiram with Surya Sivakumar, Simran Bagga, Sameera Reddy and Divya Spandana got released in late 2008 and was a phenomenal success and also received rave reviews and numerous awards, including 5 Filmfare Awards and the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil for 2008. In 2010, his next project, the Tamil romantic film Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, starring Silambarasan Rajendar and Trisha Krishnan released to very positive reviews as did its simultaneous Telugu remake, titled Ye Maaya Chesave with Naga Chaitanya and debutante Samantha Ruth Prabhu as the leading cast. He is now working on several projects simultaneously, including an untitled thriller film, starring Sameera Reddy, the long-delayed Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikaalam and another untitled project that would have Ajith Kumar in the lead role.

Filmography

References

External links

• Gautham Menon at the Internet Movie Database