Sundar C.

Sundar C.
Sundar in 2016
Born	Vinayagar Sundar Vel (1968-01-21) 21 January 1968 (age 54) Erode, Madras State, India,[1] (present day Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation	Film director Actor Film producer Screenwriter
Years active	1990–present
Spouse(s)	Khushbu ​ (m. 2000)​ [2]

Vinayagar Sundar Vel (born 21 January 1968), known professionally as Sundar C., is an Indian film director, actor and producer. He has directed over 34 films in Tamil and acted in over nineteen movies as the protagonist.

His notable films include Ullathai Allitha (1996), Arunachalam (1997), Unnai Thedi (1999), Anbe Sivam (2003), Winner (2003), Giri (2004), Kalakalappu (2012), Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru (2013), Aranmanai (2014), Aambala (2015) and Kalakalappu 2 (2018).

Sundar C is one of the few directors who directed Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan (in Arunachalam (1997) and Anbe Sivam (2003), respectively).

He took a short break from direction, after his initial launch as an actor in 2006, with the film Thalai Nagaram, which became a commercial success.^[3][4] He returned to direction with his trade mark comedy roller coaster in the movie Kalakalappu in 2012 and it went on to become a success.

His successful career as a director continued with the 2014 Aranmanai film series.

He also produced the TV series Nandini (2017-2018), along with his wife ( the actress Khushbu) aired on Sun TV. He also produced movies like Hello Naan Pei Pesuren (2016), Meesaya Murukku (2017), Natpe Thunai (2019), Naan Sirithal (2020) and Naanga Romba Busy (2020).

Career[]

Sundar C started his career as an assistant director to Manivannan and made his directorial debut with the movie Murai Maman (1995). Sundar revealed that he initially wanted a leading action hero to play the lead role in his film and approached Sarathkumar, but the producer was unable to sign the actor. Subsequently, the director chose Jayaram to play the lead role in the film and also said that he tapped into his innate sense of humour, as Jayaram was very famous for his humour in Malayalam.^[5] Murai Maman did well at the box office and Sundar went on to direct many humour themed films such as Ullathai Allitha (1996), Mettukudi (1996) and Unakkaga Ellam Unakkaga (1999) with Karthik. In 1997, he directed his highest-profile project till date, Arunachalam, with Rajinikanth. He has also occasionally directed action and thriller films such as Unnai Kann Theduthey (2000), Rishi (2001) and Chinna (2005).^[6][7] His favourite heroine was actress Rambha; as a Director he made her as his lead heroine in his 6 movies.

In the late 1990s, Sundar C had a brief career slump, where several of his films became stuck or did not have a theatrical release. Projects including collaborations with Karthik in Athai Magan featuring Ramya Krishnan, Kadhal Solla Vanthen featuring Isha Koppikar, and Vaazhkkai Vaazhvatharkke were affected.^[8][9] Likewise, a proposed projects titled Paarvai with Jayaram and Khushbu, was also shelved.^[10][11]

In 2003, he directed two films Anbe Sivam and Winner. Winner was successful and the comedy scenes from that film became hugely popular. However, Anbe Sivam, despite being critically acclaimed, under performed at the box office, but became a cult classic. Anbe Sivam remains his only humane realism movie till today out of his regular commercial cinema genre.^[12] After directing Rendu (2006), Sundar took a break from directing in order to concentrate on his acting career. He made his acting debut as lead actor with Thalai Nagaram (2006), which was well received. Then he went on to play lead roles with the commercially successful Veerappu (2007), directed by Badri and Sandai (2008) by Sakthi Chidambaram. He then made a comeback as a director with Nagaram Marupakkam (2010).

In 2012, written and directed Madha Gaja Raja but the film remains unreleased. Following Kalakalappu in 2012, he directed film like Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru (2013), Aranmanai (2014), Aranmanai 2 (2016) and Kalakalappu 2 (2018). He acted in lead role in the horror thriller, Iruttu (2019) directed by V. Z. Durai. The film was released to positive reviews.^[13] And directed Vishal's film, Action (2019).^[14] His next release as a director and actor is Aranmanai 3, produced by Avni Cinemax , with his own production house. The film makes highly positive reviews from critics and becomes a Hat-trick hit of his Aranmanai series.^[15] And he also signed a new films as an lead actor in an untitled film with Kattappava Kanom fame Mani Seiyon,^[16] and Thalai Nagaram 2 with V. Z. Durai. A sequel to the successful film Thalai Nagaram (2006).^[17]

Filmography[]

As an Actor[]

Year	Film	Role	Notes	Ref.
1990	Vaazhkai Chakkaram	Constable	Cameo appearance	[18]
1995	Murai Maman	Panchayat villager	Cameo appearance	[19]
1997	Arunachalam	Reporter	Cameo appearance	[20]
2006	Thalai Nagaram	Subramaniam (Right)	Lead debut	[21]
2007	Veerappu	Pulippandi		[22]
2008	Sandai	Kathiresan (Kaththi)		[23]
	Aayudham Seivom	Saidai Sathya		[24]
2009	Perumal	Perumal		[25]
	Thee	ACP Sarathy (Samy)		[26]
	Aiyantham Padai	Prabhakaran		[27]
2010	Guru Sishyan	Eeti		[28]
	Vaadaa	Vetrivel		[29]
	Nagaram Marupakkam	Selvam		[30]
2012	Murattu Kaalai	Kaalaiyan		[31]
2014	Ninaithathu Yaaro	Himself	Cameo appearance	[32]
	Aranmanai	Ravi		[33]
2016	Aranmanai 2	Ravi		[34]
	Muthina Kathirikai	Muthupandi		[35]
2019	Action	Passenger	Cameo appearance	[36]
	Iruttu	Inspector Chezhiyan		[37]
2021	Aranmanai 3	Ravi		[38]
2022	Vallaan	TBA	Post-production	[39]
	Thalai Nagaram 2	Right	Filming	[17]
	One 2 One	TBA	Filming	[40]
TBA	Pattampoochi	TBA	Filming	[41]

As a director and writer[]

Year	Film	Credited as		Notes
		Director	Writer
1995	Murai Maman	Y	Y
	Murai Mappillai	Y	Y
1996	Ullathai Allitha	Y	Y	Nominated – Filmfare Awards South for Best Director
	Mettukudi	Y	Y
1997	Arunachalam	Y	N	Won – Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film Nominated – Filmfare Awards South for Best Director
	Janakiraman	Y	Y
1998	Naam Iruvar Namakku Iruvar	Y	Y
1999	Unnai Thedi	Y	Y
	Suyamvaram	Y	N	Directed by fourteen directors
	Unakkaga Ellam Unakkaga	Y	Y
2000	Azhagarsamy	Y	N
	Kannan Varuvaan	Y	Y
	Unnai Kann Theduthey	Y	Y
2001	Ullam Kollai Poguthae	Y	Y
	Rishi	Y	N
	Azhagana Naatkal	Y	Y
2003	Anbe Sivam	Y	N	Won – Filmfare Special Award Nominated – Filmfare Awards South for Best Film
	Winner	Y	Y
2004	Giri	Y	Y
2005	London	Y	N
	Thaka Thimi Tha	Y	N
	Chinna	Y	N
2006	Rendu	Y	Y
2010	Nagaram Marupakkam	Y	Y
2012	Kalakalappu	Y	Y	25th Film as a director; also narrator
2013	Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru	Y	Y	Released in Telugu as Something Something[42]
2014	Aranmanai	Y	Y	Nominated – Vijay Award for Favourite Director Nominated – Vijay Award for Favourite Film
2015	Aambala	Y	Y
2016	Aranmanai 2	Y	Y
2018	Kalakalappu 2	Y	Y
2019	Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven	Y	N
	Action	Y	Y
2021	Aranmanai 3	Y	Y	[43]
2022	Untitled film with Jiiva and Jai	Y	Y	Filming[44]

As a Singer[]

As a Producer[]

Films[]

Year	Film	Cast	Director
2016	Hello Naan Pei Pesuren	Vaibhav Reddy, Aishwarya Rajesh, Oviya, Karunakaran	S. Bhaskar
2017	Meesaya Murukku	Hip Hop Adhi, Aathmika, Vivek, Vigneshganth	Hip Hop Adhi
2019	Natpe Thunai	Hip Hop Adhi, Anagha, Karu Pazhaniyappan, Harish Uthaman	Desingu Parthiban
2020	Naan Sirithal	Hip Hop Adhi, Iswarya Menon, K. S. Ravikumar, Sha Ra	Raana
	Naanga Romba Busy	Ashwin Kakumanu, Rittika Sen, Prasanna, Yogi Babu	Badri
2021	Aranmanai 3 (Co Producer)	Arya, Raashi Khanna, Vivek, Andrea Jeremiah, Sakshi Agarwal	Sundar C
2022	Pattampoochi	Sundar C, Jai, Honey Rose	Badri

Television[]

Year	Film	Credited as		Channel
		Producer	Writer
2017–2018	Nandini	Y	Y	Sun TV
2018	Maya	Y	Y
2018–2020	Lakshmi Stores	N	Y
2021	Jothi	Y	Y

References[]

External links[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sundar C..

• Sundar C. at IMDb