K. S. Ravikumar

K. S. Ravikumar (born 30 May 1958) is an Indian film director, film producer, screenwriter and actor, primarily working in Tamil cinema. Career 1990–1997 Ravikumar assisted various directors such as Bharathiraja, Vikraman, E. Ramdoss, Nagesh, Ramarajan and K. Rangaraj. Ravikumar worked as co-director on R. B. Choudary's production Pudhu Vasantham directed by Vikraman and the success of the film prompted the producer to give Ravikumar a chance to make his directorial debut. Ravikumar thus debuted as a film maker through Puriyaadha Pudhir (1990), a crime thriller starring Rahman and Raghuvaran. A remake of the Kannada film Tarka, the film won positive reviews upon release and remains as Ravikumar's only film outside the masala film genre. The success of the film meant that Ravikumar was able to expand his team of assistants and shortly after began work on a film under the same production house titled Pudhu Kaaviyam with Vikram in the lead role, though the venture was later shelved. He subsequently switched his genre of films to make a series of village action entertainers and regularly collaborated with actor Sarath Kumar, scoring successes with Cheran Pandiyan (1991) and Nattamai (1994), after which he became a highly sought after film maker in the Tamil film industry. Ravikumar then signed on to make Muthu (1995), adapting Priyadarshan's Malayalam film Thenmavin Kombath, for a film produced by K. Balachander and starring Rajinikanth. Despite buying the official remake rights, he worked on his own screenplay, and the film consequently went on to gain "cult classic" status in India and Japan, as well as becoming one of the most profitable Tamil films till date at release. Soon after he worked with Kamal Haasan for the first time in Avvai Shanmugi (1996), an Indian adaptation of the American comedy film, Mrs. Doubtfire. The film, also featuring Meena and Gemini Ganesan, won positive reviews and performed well at the box office. The Hindu praised the film claiming "turns out to be entertainer, mouthful from start to finish". The success of his two films with the two leading Tamil actors prompted further opportunities in big productions in 1997, notably Vijayakanth's Dharma Chakkaram and the comedy Pistha featuring Karthik.