Gautham Menon (born in 25 February 1963) is an engineer turned film maker. He has directed a number of successful films and has made stars out of actors such as Madhavan (Minnale) and Surya (Kaaka Kaaka). He had a huge success with his latest release Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu starring Kamal Haasan.
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. He started his own ad agency "Photon Factory" before moving to cinema.
His first film in tamil was Minnale (2001), with 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 Jeyaraj.
Immediately Goutham got an offer to remake the film in Bollywood. He did so, retaining Madhavan as the hero and having Diya Mirza playing the female lead role. The film however did not taste success.
Gautham returned to Tamil cinema with another big hit in 2003. The film was Kaaka Kaaka, starring Surya, Jyothika and Jeevan. This was a "supercop" story and a love story at the same time, and became a trendsetter of sorts in the Indian film industry, owing to excellent technical work by cameraman Raj Shekar and editor Anthony. He also had a minor role in the film as a senior police officer. Gautham again got offers from various quarters to remake the film, including one from Hollywood. However he remade the film in Telugu, with Venkatesh in the lead.
Then came the icing on the cake. Gautham was invited by Kamal Hassan, icon of Indian cinema to make a film. Thus he started Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu. The unit faced a lot of problems. However they overcame all that and the film was released in August 2006. He plays a minor part in the film dancing at the back in the song, Manjal Veiyil.
Gautham's Pachaikili Muthucharam with Sarath Kumar and Jyothika is nearing completion and shooting for Udal Porul Aavi with Surya and Asin Thottumkal goes on floors in the end of November as Chennaiyil Oru Mazhai Kaalam with Surya and Asin again is the only one left to take off.
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