Gautham Vasudev Menon (
Malayalam:
ഗൗതം വാസുദേവ് മേനോന്;
Tamil:
கௌதம் வாசுதேவ் மேனன்) is an
Indian film director and
producer. Mainly working in
Tamil cinema, he has also directed
Hindi and
Telugu films which are remakes of his Tamil films. Many of his films have been critically acclaimed, most notably his semi-autobiographical
Vaaranam Aayiram (2008), romantic classic
Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010), his action-thrillers
Kaakha Kaakha (2003) and
Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu (2006).
Vaaranam Aayiram won the
National Film Award for
Best Feature Film in Tamil.
Early life and education
Gautham was born to a
Malayali father and
Tamil mother on 25 February 1973 in
Kerala. Although, born in
Kerala he grew up in
Trichy.
[1][2] He did his schooling in Vailankanni Raj Mat. Hr., Sec School at K.K Nagar,
Trichy and did his
Mechanical Engineering in
Mookambigai College of Engineering,
Trichy,
Tamil Nadu .
[3][4]
Directorial career
Early work and Minnale, 2001
Gautham Menon was a student of mechanical engineering at
Mookambigai College of Engineering in the batch of 1993, and his time there inspired him to make his lead characters of
Minnale and
Vaaranam Aayiram, students of the same course.
[5] He claims to have been inspired by films such as
Dead Poet's Society and
Nayagan and expressed his desire to his parents to change career path and become a filmmaker and consequently wrote his first film at his college hostel. His mother insisted he became an ad film maker by shooting various commercials and took an apprenticeship under filmmaker
Rajiv Menon. He went on to work as an assistant director for
Minsaara Kanavu in 1997, in which he also appeared in a cameo role.
[6]
Gautham Menon launched a Tamil romantic film
O Lala in 2000 with the project eventually changing producers and title into
Minnale with
Madhavan, who was at the beginning of his career, being signed on to portray the lead role.
[7] About the making of the film, Gautham revealed that he found it difficult as the team was new to the industry with only the editor of the film, Suresh Urs, being a prominent technician in the industry.
[8] Gautham had come under further pressure when Madhavan had insisted that Gautham narrated the story to his mentor,
Mani Ratnam, to identify if the film was a positive career move after the success of his
Alaipayuthey. Despite initial reservations, Gautham did so and Ratnam was unimpressed; however Gautham has cited that he thought that Madhavan "felt sorry" and later agreed to continue with the project.
[8] The film also featured
Abbas and newcomer
Reemma Sen in significant roles, whilst Gautham introduced
Harris Jayaraj as music composer with the film.
[7] The film was advertised as a
Valentine's Day release in 2001 and told the tale of a young man who falls in love with the girl engaged to his ex-college rival and how he manages to get married to her. Upon release it went on to become a large success commercially and won positive reviews from critics with claims that the film had a lot of " lot of verve and vigour" and that it was "technically excellent".
[9]
The success of the film led to producer Vashu Bhagnani signing him on to direct the Hindi language remake of the film,
Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein, which also featured Madhavan with
Diya Mirza and
Saif Ali Khan added to the film. Gautham was initially apprehensive but said it took "half an hour" to agree and against his intentions, the producer opted against retaining the technical crew of the original.
[6] He changed a few elements, deleted certain scenes and added some more for the version. However in comparison, the film gained poor reviews with a critic citing that "the presentation is not absorbing" though stating that he " handled certain sequences with aplomb"; the film subsequently went on to become a below average grosser at the box office.
[10] The failure of the film left him disappointed, with Gautham claiming in hindsight that the film lacked the simplicity of the original with the producer's intervention affecting proceedings.
[11] In 2011, the producer of the film approached him to remake the film with the producer's son
Jackky Bhagnani in the lead role, but Gautham was uninterested with the offer.
[12]
Police duology, 2003-2006
Gautham returned in 2003 by directing the realistic police thriller
Kaakha Kaakha featuring
Suriya,
Jyothika and
Jeevan in the lead roles. The film portrayed the personal life of a police officer and how his life is affected by gangsters, showing a different perspective of police in comparison to other Tamil films of the time.
[11] Gautham revealed that he was inspired to make the film after reading of articles on how encounter specialists shoot gangsters and how their families get threatening calls in return, and initially approached
Madhavan,
Ajith Kumar and then
Vikram for the role without success, with all three actors citing that they did not want to play a police officer. The lead actress Jyothika asked Gautham to consider Suriya for the role, and he was subsequently selected after Gautham saw his portrayal in
Nandha.
[13] He did a rehearsal of the script with the actors, a costume trial with Jyothika and then enrolled Suriya in a commando training school before beginning production, which he described as a "very planned shoot".
[13] The film consequently opened to very positive reviews from critics on the way to becoming another success for Gauham, with critics labeling it as a "career high film".
[14] Furthermore, the film was described as for "action lovers who believe in logical storylines and deft treatment" with Menon being praised for his linear narrative screenplay.
[15]
Gautham Menon subsequently remade the film in the Telugu language for producer Venkata Raju and went on to claim that the new version was better than the previous version and that his new lead actor
Venkatesh was more convincing that Surya in the role.
[16] The film also featured actress
Asin and Saleem Baig in prominent roles and went on to earn commercial and critical acclaim with reviewers citing that "film redeems itself due to the technical excellence and masterful craft of Gautham", drawing comparisons of Gautham with noted film makers
Mani Ratnam and
Ram Gopal Varma.
[17] In July 2004, Gautham also agreed terms to direct and produce another version of
Kaakha Kaakha in Hindi with
Sunny Deol in the lead role and revealed that the script was written five years ago with Deol in mind, but the film eventually failed to take off.
[18] Producer
Vipul Shah approached him to direct the Hindi version of the film in 2010 as
Force with
John Abraham and
Genelia D'Souza, and Gautham initially agreed before pulling out again.
[19] Gautham and the original producer, Dhanu, also floated an idea of an
English version with a
Chechnyan backdrop, though talks with a potential collaboration with
Ashok Amritraj collapsed.
[13]
Gautham Menon was then signed on to direct a venture starring
Kamal Haasan and produced by Kaja Mohideen, and initially suggested a one-line story which went on to become
Pachaikili Muthucharam for the collaboration.
[13] Kamal Haasan wanted a different story and thus the investigative thriller film,
Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu, was written with Jyothika,
Kamalinee Mukerji,
Prakash Raj,
Daniel Balaji and Saleem Baig added to the cast. The film told another episode from a police officer's life, with an Indian cop moved to America to investigate the case of psychotic serial killers before returning to pursue the chase in India. During the shooting, the unit ran into problems after the producer had attempted
suicide and as a result, Kamal Haasan wanted to quit the project.
[13] Gautham subsequently convinced him to stay on as they had taken advance payments. He has since revealed that unlike Kamal Haasan's other films, he did not take particular control of the script or production of the film. The film however had gone through change from the original script with less emphasis on the antagonists than Gautham had hoped and he also revealed that scenes for songs were forced him and shot without him.
[13] The film released in August 2006 and went on to become his third successive hit film in Tamil and once again, he won rave reviews for his direction.
[20][21] Gautham later expressed interest in remaking the film in Hindi with
Amitabh Bachchan in the lead role without the love angle, though the project fell through after discussions. He has stated his intent on making a trilogy of police episode films, with a possible third featuring
Vikram in the lead role.
[13]
Experimentation and success, 2007-2011
His next project,
Pachaikili Muthucharam, based on the novel
Derailed by
James Siegel, featured
Sarath Kumar and
Jyothika in the lead roles and was released in February 2007. Initially the lead role was offered to
Kamal Haasan who passed the opportunity, while actors
Cheran and
Madhavan declined citing date and image problems respectively.
[22] Menon met
Sarath Kumar at an event where he cited he was looking to change his 'action' image and Menon subsequently cast him in the lead role.
[22] During production, the film ran into further casting trouble with
Simran dropping out her assigned role and was replaced by
Shobana after another actress,
Tabu, also rejected the role.
[23] Shobana was also duly replaced by a newcomer,
Andrea Jeremiah to portray the character of Kalyani in the film. The film was under production for over a year and coincided with the making of his previous film which was largely delayed. The film initially opened to positive reviews with a critic citing that Menon is "growing with each passing film. His style is distinctive, his vision clear, his team rallies around him and he manages to pull it off each time he attempts".
[24][25] However the film became a financial failure for the producer,
Venu Ravichandran and in regard to the failure of the film, Menon went on to claim that Sarath Kumar was "wrong for the film" and that he tweaked the story to fit his image; he also claimed that his father's ailing health and consequent death a week before the release had left him mentally affected.
[22]
His next release,
Vaaranam Aayiram, saw him re-collaborate with
Suriya, who played dual roles in the film. The film illustrates the theme of how a father often came across in his son's life as a hero and inspiration, and Menon dedicated the film to his late father who had died in 2007.
[26] The pre-production of the film, then titled
Chennaiyil Oru Mazhaikaalam began in 2003, with Menon planning his a romantic film with
Suriya as a follow up to their successful previous collaboration,
Kaakha Kaakha.
[27] Abhirami was signed and then dropped due to her height before a relatively new actress at the time
Asin was selected to make her debut in Tamil films with the project. The first schedule of the film began in January 2004 in
Visakhapatanam and consequently romantic scenes with Suriya and Asin were shot for ten days and then a photo shoot with the pair.
[27] The film was subsequently stalled and was eventually relaunched with a new cast including
Divya Spandana,
Simran and
Sameera Reddy in 2006 with Oscar Ravichandran stepping in as producer, who opted for a change of title. Menon has described the film as "autobiographical and a very personal story and if people didn’t know, that 70% of this [the film] is from my life".
[22] The film's production process became noted for the strain and the hard work that Suriya had gone through to portray the different roles with production taking close to two years.
[26] The film released to a positive response, with critics heaping praise on Suriya's performance while claiming that the film was "just a feather in Gautam's hat" and that it was "hardly a classic".
[28] The film was made at a budget of 15 crore rupees and became a commercial success, bringing in almost 22 crore rupees worldwide.
[26] It went on to become Menon's most appreciated work till date winning five
Filmfare Awards, nine
Vijay Awards and the
National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil for 2008 amongst other accolades.
In 2010, Menon made a return to romantic genre after nine years with the Tamil romantic film
Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, starring
Silambarasan and
Trisha Krishnan.
[29] The film explored the complicated relationship between a Hindu Tamil assistant director, Karthik, and a Syrian Christian Malayali girl, Jessie and their resultant emotional conflicts. The film featured music by
A. R. Rahman in his first collaboration with Menon whilst cinematographer
Manoj Paramahamsa was also selected to be a part of the technical crew. Menon cited that he was "a week away from starting the film with a newcomer" before his producer insisted they looked at Silambarasan, with Menon revealing that he was unimpressed with the actor's previous work.
[8] The film was in production for close to a year and throughout the opening week of filming, promotional posters from classic Indian romantic films were released featuring the lead pair.
[30] Prior to release, the film became the first Tamil project to have a music soundtrack premiere outside of India, with a successful launch at the
BAFTA in
London.
[31] Upon release, the film achieved positive reviews, with several critics giving the film "classic" status, whilst also become a commercially successful venture.
[32][33] Reviewers praised Menon citing that "credit for their perfect portrayal, of course, goes to Gautam Menon. This is one director who's got the pulse of today's urban youth perfectly" and that "crafted a movie that will stay in our hearts for a long, long time."
[33] The film was simultaneously released with a Telugu version, titled
Ye Maaya Chesave featuring a fresh cast of
Naga Chaitanya and debutante
Samantha in the lead roles. Like the Tamil version, the film won critical acclaim and being given "classic" status from critics.
[33][33][34] Both films also went on to become large commercial successes, and the films have received awards from award committees.
Menon had also made progress over the previous two years directing the psychological thriller
Nadunisi Naaygal featuring his assistant and debutant
Veera Bahu and
Sameera Reddy in the lead roles. Menon claimed that the film was inspired by a true event from the USA, while also claiming that a novel also helped form the story of the film.
[8] During the making, he explicitly revealed that the film was for "the multiplex audience" and would face a limited release, citing that "it will not cater to all sections of the audience".
[8] He promoted the film by presenting a chat show dubbed as
Koffee with Gautham where he intereviewed
Bharathiraja and Silambarasan, both of whom had previously worked in such psychological thriller films with
Sigappu Rojakkal and
Manmadhan. The film, which was his first home production under
Photon Kathaas and did not have a background score, told the story of a victim of child abuse and the havoc he causes to women, narrating the events of a particular day. The film opened to mixed reviews with one critic citing it as "above average" but warning that "don’t go expecting a typical Gautham romantic film" and that it "is definitely not for the family audiences", while criticizing that "there are too many loopholes in the story, raising doubts about logic".
[35] In contrast another critic dubbed it as an "unimpressive show by star director Menon, as it is neither convincing nor appealing, despite having some engrossing moments".
[36]
Filmography
As a director
| Year | Title | Cast | Language | Notes |
|---|
| 2001 | Minnale | Madhavan, Abbas, Reema Sen | Tamil | |
| Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein | Madhavan, Saif Ali Khan, Diya Mirza | Hindi | Remake of Minnale |
| 2003 | Kaakha Kaakha | Surya, Jyothika | Tamil | Nominated, Filmfare Best Film Award (Tamil) |
| 2004 | Gharshana | Venkatesh, Asin | Telugu | Remake of Kaakha Kaakha |
| 2006 | Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu | Kamal Haasan, Jyothika, Kamalinee Mukherjee | Tamil | |
| 2007 | Pachaikili Muthucharam | Sarathkumar, Jyothika, Andrea Jeremiah | Tamil | |
| 2008 | Vaaranam Aayiram | Surya, Simran Bagga, Sameera Reddy, Divya Spandana | Tamil | Winner, National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil
Winner, Vijay Award for Favourite Director
Nominated, Filmfare Best Tamil Director Award |
| 2010 | Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa | Silambarasan Rajendar, Trisha Krishnan | Tamil | |
| Ye Maaya Chesave | Naga Chaitanya, Samantha Ruth Prabhu | Telugu | Simultaneous make of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa |
| 2011 | Nadunisi Naaygal | Veera Bahu, Sameera Reddy | Tamil | |
| Prem Katha | Prateik Babbar, Amy Jackson | Hindi | Remake of Vinnaithaandi Varuvaaya. Post production |
 | Neethaane En Ponvasantham | Jeeva, Samantha | Tamil | Filming |
| Nithya | Telugu | Filming |
|  
 | | Filming
GAUTHAM MENON IN SHOOTING SPOT
 |
