Lokesh Kanagaraj – The

director who changed

Mainstream Action Movies in
Tamil Cinema
A fan boy Tribute
He came, He saw, He
Conquered and became a
legendary force to reckon in
Kollywood
By Makhesh Hariharan
 Contents
Preface- Page 3
Chapter1. Start of his initial Journey- Page
4-5
Chapter2. Entering K-town – Page 5-6
Chapter3. Finding success with Kaithi-
Page 6-8
Chapter4. Master, its Hysteria and future
projects- Page 8-10
Chapter5. My views on Lokesh- Page 10-
11
Preface
This Book is an amazing book that I started writing at a young
age. Ever since his full-fledged debut Managaram in 2017,
Lokesh has been going places. I liked him since his first film,
His next movie made me a fan of his work and Master his 3rd
film became a cult classic.
I am dedicating this as a tribute to the magnanimous
filmmaker of Kollywood’s new wave. Lokesh is one such
filmmaker that Kollywood badly needs in order to elevate
itself to global heights and prove that there can be an equal
balance between Mass Movies and Realism in Movies.
Lokesh is indeed a filmmaker who takes the criticism in a
humble and better way.
He has opened up a new cinematic universe for reluctant
heroes according to Film Critic Baradwaj Rangan. Lokesh has
also been credited with having given new youngsters in
cinema a lease of life and also brought back actors who were
out of the limelight which I can proudly accept. I hope that
this book will entirely be a testament to Lokesh; The persona,
the director and a storyteller who finds action as his home
ground and also is a fanatic of Kamal Hassan.
By
Makhesh Hariharan
Chapter 1- Start of his Initial Journey
March 14th 1986, a young little boy was born to a middle class family
in Kinathukaduvu, Coimbatore. That boy was born as Lokesh
Kanagaraj. He was a guy whose parents wanted him to be anything
just as long as he worked for it.

He was a school boy who started narrating stories to a lot of friends

who started enjoying his narrative style. As he was 10 years old, he
started watching a movie named Sathya; directed by Suresh Krissna
who was already the OG of Masala films.

This movie attracted Lokesh because of not just his love for his idol
Kamal Hassan but also for the way the fights were shown on scene as
they were realistic.

A few years later, he studied Fashion technology in Coimbatore’s PSG

College of Arts and Sciences. He even pursued MBA as well.

Lokesh was employed as a bank manager. He even saw 2 movies that

influenced his filmmaking career; Kamal Hassan’s Virumandi and
Dharani’s Ghilli that starred Vijay who was already a mass hero at
that time.

He got bored of his mundane bank managing job and suddenly quit
in order to get to the world of filmmaking. Lokesh did not assist
anyone and also didn’t go to other film institutes as well. The only
thing that drew him to filmmaking was Kamal’s films that he used to
watch in theatres.
He recalled a fan boy experience of watching Vishwaroopam in
Bangalore. He screamed for Kamal’s entry and literally worshipped
him.

Other than Kamal’s work, he has always been a fan of New Wave
Hollywood Filmmakers Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino
because of their works like Goodfellas, The Departed and Django
Unchained.

Chapter 2- Entering K-town

One fine day, Lokesh chanced upon a short filmmaking competition
and registered himself for this and he directed a short movie named
as Kaalam and submitted it to the judges. One of them happened to
be Karthik Subburaj; a filmmaker who was already well known for
bringing kollywood into an indie route.

The movie impressed him so much that it was later featured in His
next production called Aviyal which also had so many likeminded
filmmakers like Alphonse Putharen getting featured.

Post the release of Aviyal, He later decided to plan a full-fledged

movie which featured a hyper link narrative set in a 48 hour stretch
at Chennai City. That Movie was produced by SR Prakash Babu under
Potential Studios who produced their latest flick Maya starring
Nayanthara.

The movie was named Managaram and starred Sri, Sandeep Kishan
and Regina Cassandra who became well known in Tamil Cinema. The
movie featured cinematography by S.K Selvakumar, editing by
Philomin Raj and Music by Javed Riaz.

The movie released in the year 2017 to critical acclaim and got
Lokesh noticed. Sandeep Kishan’s character was based on Kamal
Hassan’s Character Satyamoorthy from Sathya because both the
characters wore a rugged look.

Lokesh was also supported by a group of friends and his wife

Aishwariya whenever he had financial problems. He made sure to
not sign any projects back – back as he wanted to be able to handle
everything by himself.

What nobody knew was that Lokesh would finally turn into a
legendary filmmaker that people would start to know and
appreciate. He was destined for many things ahead in cinema and
knew that his life was going to change for the better in his journey to
becoming a filmmaking legend of the late 2010s.

Chapter 3- Finding success with Kaithi

Post the success of Managaram, Lokesh wrote new scripts in the
hope that they would be made into movies but unfortunately it
didn’t see the light of day and also he felt that they required a lot
more research into the topics that the scripts were based on. So he
scrapped the ideas.

One day, Lokesh came across a news article about an ex-convict and
realized that this could be a feasible idea for a movie script. He co-
wrote the screenplay with Pon. Parthiban who also wrote additional
screenplay with dialogues.

That movie became Kaithi. That movie was initially set to star
Mansoor Ali Khan but while in the middle of the writing process, he
also felt that a more seasoned star would suit the script and thus,
Karthi who was already well known.

The movie’s budget started escalating and was produced by Dream

Warrior Pictures. It marked the comeback of Vivekananda Pictures
after a 25 year hiatus and also that of Narain Raam from Malayalam
Cinema.

Kaithi was influenced from 3 movies; John Carpenter’s Assault on

Prescient 13 influenced the movie script, Karthi’s character arc of
Dilli, an ex-convict was based on Kamal Hassan’s Virumandi, with the
action scenes in night based from Bruce Willis starrer Die Hard.

The Movie’s cinematography was by PC Sreeram’s associate; Sathyan

Sooryan with the editing by Philomin Raj while stunts were
composed by National Award winning Stunt Choreographer Twin
Brothers- Anbariv. Since the movie was without songs, the
background score was by Sam C.S.

The movie was set in night time and was shot only in night fall. It also
was credited with introducing a new wave actor named Arjun Das
who played a villain role as a Cocaine Smuggling Guy.

The movie released on October 25th 2019 with another film named
Bigil that starred Vijay and was directed by Atlee. Though it faced
stiff competition, it was well received at the box office and also won
Rave Reviews due to positive word of mouth.

The movie won big at the Norway Tamil Film Festival along with 2
Ananda Vikatan Awards, SIIMA Awards and Zee Cine Awards. It was
also dubbed in Russian.

Kaithi became a breakthrough for Arjun Das who stood out for his
bass voice and also it made Lokesh a well sought after director in
Tamil Cinema.

If Suresh Krissna was responsible for making Raghuvaran a well-

known baddie in the 1990s via Baasha, then Lokesh was credited
with making another Raghuvaran out of Arjun Das in the late 2010s
and 2020s.
Lokesh won the Zee cine Award for Best director and got to realize
that He was receiving it from his idol that he admired- Kamal Hassan.
Lokesh was ecstatic and was filled with happiness.

The movie also revived popularity of an old 90s song called

Jambalakka from En Swasa Katre. It also won so many acclaim from
many celebrities for eschewing songs and dance routines as well as
heroines.

It was also credited for using a plot device called Chekhov’s gun in
which the hero Dilli chances upon a garret machine gun and starts
firing at the villains.

Chekhov’s gun was modeled on Russian Playwright and author as

well as Doctor Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) who was
known for her works like The Seagull and Uncle Vanya and also as a
part of the realism movement along with Norwegian playwright
Henrik Ibsen often called the father of modern realism (1828-1906)
and Swedish Author and Playwright August Strindberg (1849-1912).

Chekhov’s popularity was because of his plays being staged at

Moscow Art Theatre by Vladimir Nemirovich Danchecko and
Konstantin Sergeivich Stanislavsky known as the father of method
acting.

Chapter4- Master, its Hysteria and

future projects
During the Post Production Phase of Kaithi, Lokesh wrote another
script revolving around a teacher who is alcoholic and reluctant. He
then narrated it to Vijay who was already the box office ruler.
He later got the green signal from Vijay and the project was finally
confirmed in August 2019. The movie cast included Vijay Sethupathi
who was already an indie star of Tamil Cinema, Malavika Mohanan,
and Shantanu Bhagyaraj, 96 fame Gouri G Kishan, Ramya
Subramanian, Arjun Das and Poovaiyar.

Sathyan Sooryan and Philomin Raj were retained for the

cinematography and editing department while stunts were
composed by Stunt Silva and the Music was composed by Rockstar
Anirudh Ravichander who attained fame as a new wave musician.

It was produced by Xavier Britto in association with SS Lalit Kumar

and Vijay’s Manager Jagadish Palaniswamy under XB Film Creations
and Seven Screen Studios.

This was Vijay’s 64th film as an actor. The Movie was shot in Chennai
and Neyvelli in Tamilnadu, Delhi the capital city and Shimoga in
Karnataka. Lokesh co-wrote the screenplay with Vijay’s Fan boy
Rathna Kumar who directed Meyyadha Mann and Aadai as well as
Pon Parthiban.

The movie was influenced from Kamal Hassan starrer and KS

Sethumadhavan’s last Tamil directorial Nammavar (1994). The Movie
was into some controversies as Vijay was pulled in for Questioning
from Income Tax Department but since he had paid all taxes, he was
let off scot free.

Vijay’s Selfie with his fans at Neyvelli became the most talking point
in social media. The shooting got wrapped and the soundtrack had
released.

The movie was initially set for release in April 2020 but it got
postponed due to Covid 19.It finally released in January 13th 2021 on
the Pongal Festival on theatres.
This movie was credited for saving the theatre from a financial fiasco
and also it became the first film to be streamed on Amazon Prime
Video 16 days after its release. The movie songs became a total
highlight as Vaathi Coming was becoming a world hit and the Vaathi
Step was trending everywhere.

It received a lot of love and amazing responses from many

celebrities. National Award Winning Actress Keerthy Suresh called
the FDFS of Master a feeling of being back in theatres after a long
break while Karthick Naren asked Lokesh to make more characters
like JD and also demanded a prequel story about JD’s relationship
with Professor V.C Selvam.

Master might have turned 1 year old since its release but its hysteria
still remains fresh as when it released recently. It has now become a
cult movie that every single thalapathy veriyan will never forget.

Lokesh is now looking forward to the release of his next project

named Vikram which stars his idol Kamal Hassan along with Vijay
Sethupathi, Mollywood Acting Powerhouse Fahadh Faasil, Kalidas
Jayaram, and Arjun Das.etc. The music is composed by Anirudh with
editing by Philomin Raj and the cinematography by National Award
winning Cinematographer Girish Gangadharan and stunts by Anbariv.

Chapter 5- My views on Lokesh

Lokesh is a filmmaker who redefined action sequence in Tamil
Cinema and also has been credited for introducing Biriyani as a single
motif in his filmography because he loves it. Lokesh is perhaps the
only sensible filmmaker. When I see other filmmakers, I feel that
they are actually different in their approach towards filmmaking and
criticism.
For ex. When Valimai got mixed reviews, H.Vinodh used a defense
mechanism by blaming the audiences to evade the critics, Director
Siva also did the same for Annaathe that starred Rajinikanth as he
felt that the movie is a hit and evaded the criticism by trying to fool
the audiences.

H. Vinodh and Siruthai Siva are always known to use such defend
their films from criticism and claim that they did their best. But
When it comes to Lokesh, He actually accepts the criticism and hopes
to never make a mistake. During an interview, Rangan told Lokesh
that he enjoyed only 50% of Master and Lokesh accepted it and
revealed that he thought of making it in his style 100% but he
couldn’t do it because of Vijay’s Market Value so he thought of
making the movie in 50% his style and the other 50% Vijay’s style.
This shows why Lokesh is the best director with clarity and
humbleness.