R. V. Udayakumar

R. V. Udayakumar is a veteran Tamil film director, who gave hit movies in the 1990s like Yejaman, Chinna Gounder etc., in which he directed the lead Actors of Tamil Cinema.^[2][3][4]

Udaya Kumar is a native of Coimbatore and a graduate from Arts College and due his film craze, he shifted his base to Chennai and ventured some good projects with Rajinikanth, Vijay Kanth, Karthick, etc.

Radha Mohan and Dharani were his assistants.

Early life

Udayakumar was born to an agricultural family in a village called Mullaipalayam near Mettupalayam. His father is Venkatasamy and mother is Kannammal. He graduated with P. U. C from govt Arts and science College and studied BSc in Coimbatore. He joined the Madras Film Institute to pursue a diploma in direction. During the course, Udayakumar directed various short films.^[5]

Career

He worked as an associate director for films like Neram Vandhachu, Janani and Oomai Vizhigal. He made his directorial debut with Urimai Geetham starring Prabhu Ganesan and Karthik. The film became successful and RM Veerappan provided him an opportunity to direct his second film Puthiya Vaanam, remake of Hindi film Hukumat. The film starred Sivaji Ganesan and Sathyaraj.^[6] He then directed Uruthimozhi. His fourth film Kizhakku Vasal became successful at the box office, the shooting of this film was plagued with various problems. The set which was built for the film was burnt, MS Madhu, storywriter of this film suffered from fits after witnessing the fire. Actress Sulakshana was admitted to hospital due to nose bleeding. RV Udayakumar was hospitalised due to car accident and he went into coma for one month. After recovery, Udayakumar completed the climax of the film.^[7] He then directed Singaravelan with Kamal Haasan which also became successful. His next venture Chinna Gounder featured Vijayakanth as a soft spoken village chieftain which was radically different from larger than life action roles which he was used to play, it was another successful film for both actor and director.^[8] After the success of Chinna Gounder, Udayakumar was approached by various producers but he was in confusion in selecting hero for his next film and then he decided to have Rajini as hero for his next film. Rajini agreed to act under the direction of Udayakumar and Udaykumar expressed his interest to make this film for AVM Productions. Initially different script was narrated but Udaykumar later opted to film other script as AVM Saravanan felt that it might go over budget. Meena was selected as heroine, Rajini was initially reluctant to have her as heroine as she appeared as child artist for his film Anbulla Rajinikanth and he felt that his fans might not accept this combination but eventually Rajini agreed to do so.^[9] He then directed Rajakumaran with Prabhu which became a flop but featured a successful soundtrack. His subsequent films Nandhavana Theru, Thalaivanin Arulullam, Seral Irumborayin Tamil Kadhal and Subhash became box office disasters. He made his debut in Telugu with Tarakaramudu starring Srikanth and Soundarya, became a flop and was dubbed in Tamil as Velli Malare. He then completed a project called Chinna Ramasamy Periya Ramasamy with himself and Jayaram in leading roles. In spite of the soundtrack being released, the film remains unreleased.^[10] He then made a comeback with Karka Kasadara introducing actor Vijay's nephew Vikranth in lead role. The film flopped at box office and Udayakumar opted against directing films.

Filmography

As director

As actor

• Chinna Gounder (1992)
• Ejaman (1993)
• Chinna Ramasamy Periya Ramasamy (2000) – Unreleased
• Iru Nadhigal (2008)
• Sooriya Nagaram (2012)
• Haiku (2015)
• Paambhu Sattai (2015)

References