Gautham Menon

Gautham Menon Bio

Gautham Vasudev Menon is an Indian film director and producer in Tamil Nadu, India. Many of his films have been critically acclaimed, most notably his action-thrillers Kaaka Kaaka, Vettaiyaadu Vilaiyaadu and Vaaranam Aayiram. Before becoming an established Indian film director, he was an ad film maker, shooting various commercials after under noted filmmaker Rajiv Menon. He worked as an assistant director for Minsaara Kanavu. He also played a cameo role in the film. He started his own ad agency "Photon Factory" before moving to cinema which is now recognized as a film production company. He made his debut with the romantic Tamil film Minnale with R. Madhavan, Abbas and Reema Sen playing the lead roles. The film was a huge hit because of its young and refreshing storyline, brilliant comic timing from the acclaimed comedian Vivek and also because of the music from debutante music director, Harris Jeyaraj. Gautham went onto remake the movie in Hindi featuring Madhavan, Diya Mirza and Saif Ali Khan. The film failed to perform at the box office like its Tamil version. Gautham returned to Tamil cinema in 2003 with Kaaka Kaaka, starring Surya Sivakumar, Jyothika Saravanan and Jeevan. Due to slick editing and Harris Jeyaraj's music, the film was a box-office record breaker. Following the success of Kakka Kakka, Gautham made another action/adventure thriller film with Kamal Hassan in a pivotal role. Thus, he started Vettaiyadu Villaiyadu, starring Kamal Haasan was the biggest grosser of 2006. His next release, Vaaranam Aayiram with Surya Sivakumar, Simran Bagga, Sameera Reddy and Divya released on November 14, 2008. The film was the biggest hit of 2008 and also received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil for 2008. He made a return to romantic films with Vinnathandi Varuvaaya starring Silambarasan and Trisha. 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. The film was labelled as a romantic classic and went onto become a huge box office hit.