Mani Ratnam is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and few Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. Ratnam has won six National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards, six Filmfare Awards South, and numerous awards at various film festivals across the world. In 2002, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri, acknowledging his contributions to film.

Despite being born into a film family, Mani Ratnam did not develop any interest in films when he was young. Upon completion of his post graduation in management, he started his career as a consultant. He entered the film industry through the 1983 Kannada film, Pallavi Anu Pallavi. The failure of his subsequent films would mean that he was left with fewer offers. However, his fifth directorial outing, Mouna Ragam (1986), established him as a leading filmmaker in Tamil cinema. He was the director of the critically acclaimed, national award-winning movies Nayakan (1987) and Anjali (1990), both of which qualified as India's official entry for The Academy Awards.

Mani Ratnam is well known for his terrorism trilogy of Roja (1992), Bombay (1995), Dil Se.. (1998), and his romantic trilogy of Mouna Ragam (1986), Alaipayuthey (2000), O Kadhal Kanmani (2015).

His magnum opus, Ponniyin Selvan: I, broke several box-office records of Tamil cinema and grossed more than ₹500 crore (US$63 million). It became the the highest-grossing Tamil film of 2022, the second-highest-grossing Tamil film of all time, and the 15th highest-grossing Indian film of all time.

He is married to actress Suhasini Maniratnam, with whom he has a son.

Early Life

Mani Ratnam was born on 2 June 1956 in Madurai, Tamil Nadu as the second child of a family that was closely associated with film production. His father, S. Gopala Ratnam, was a film distributor who worked for Venus Pictures, while his uncle, "Venus" Krishnamurthy, was a film producer. His elder brother, G. Venkateswaran, would go on to produce some of his films. His younger brother was G. Srinivasan, who like G. Venkateswaran, would also co-produce some of his films. Mani Ratnam grew up in Madras (now Chennai), along with his siblings and cousins. Despite being a film family, the children were not allowed to watch films as the elders considered them taboo. "As a youngster, films seemed like a waste of time", he claimed in a 1994 interview; however, he started watching films more actively when he was studying in the Besant Theosophical School. During this time, he developed an admiration towards actors like Sivaji Ganesan and Nagesh; watching all their films. When he discovered the legendary director K. Balachander, he became his fan. Upon completing his schooling, he graduated with a degree in commerce from the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, affiliated to the Madras University. Later, he did his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in finance from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai. After finishing his post-graduation in 1977, he was employed in a firm in Madras as a management consultant, and continued to work there for sometime.

Personal life

Ratnam married actress Suhasini on 26 August 1988. The couple have a son, Nandan, who was born in 1992. The family resides in Alwarpet, Chennai, where he runs his production company, Madras Talkies.

In 1995, Mani Ratnam was wounded and hospitalised after homemade bombs were thrown at his home by attackers, suspected by police as Muslim extremists, in the wake of opposition to his film Bombay which portrayed the romance of a Hindu man with a Muslim woman.

An FIR was filed on Mani Ratnam and 49 others in 2019 when they wrote to Modi listing statistics and expressing concern over the rise of communal violence against minorities including Muslims, Christians and Dalits since Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took power in 2014.

Film Career

Beginnings: 1977-1983

Mani Ratnam was not satisfied with his job as a consultant as he found it to be a mere extension of his academics. During this time his friend Ravi Shankar, son of director B. R. Panthulu, was in the process of making his first film. Mani Ratnam, Ravi Shankar and another friend, Raman son of filmmaker S. Balachander, worked on the script of the film. Mani Ratnam took a sabbatical from his job in order to ensure his participation in the making of the film. Being inexperienced, the makers were largely dependent upon the American Cinematographer magazine. The principal cast included Vishnuvardhan, Srinath, Ambareesh, Lakshmi, and Roja Ramani. When the filming was about to begin in Kolar, Karnataka, Mani Ratnam left his consulting job and joined the crew. The film, however, did not take off and was eventually shelved. Nevertheless, he was firm in his idea of becoming a film-maker. Although not impressed with many of the films made in Tamil cinema, he was "amazed" at Bharathiraja's 16 Vayathinile (1977), K. Balachander's Apoorva Raagangal (1975), and Mahendran's Mullum Malarum (1978) and Uthiripookkal (1979). During this time, he befriended a group of people namely P. C. Sreeram, Santhana Bharathi, and P. Vasu, who shared his interest of entering into the film industry.

With a script in hand, Mani Ratnam had an idea to either get a producer for his film or to narrate the script to a "celebrated" film-maker, so that he could get a chance to work along with them and get to know about the various aspects involved in film-making. He chose three directors—Balachander, Bharathiraja, and Mahendran. As the attempts to meet and convince all the three proved to be unsuccessful, he decided to look out for a producer. In the process, he along with P. C. Sreeram—who would collaborate with him in most of his future projects—met around 20 people; however, all the efforts turned out to be unsuccessful.

Early Years and Struggle: 1983-1986

Mani Ratnam developed a script—originally written in English—into a film and named it Pallavi Anu Pallavi. His uncle Krishnamurthy agreed to produce the film but imposed a condition that it should be made under a limited budget in Kannada, to which he agreed. He persuaded Balu Mahendra to do the cinematography as he found the latter's work to be very impressive. He managed to get other crew members B. Lenin (for editing), Thota Tharani (for art direction) and Ilaiyaraaja (for music composer music), all leading craftsmen in their respective fields. For the male lead, he cast Anil Kapoor after watching his performance in the Telugu film Vamsa Vruksham (1980). Lakshmi was signed up as the female lead. The film explored the relationship between a young man and an older woman. Although an average grosser at the box-office, the film fetched Mani Ratnam the Best Screenplay Award from the Karnataka State Government for the year 1983. After watching Pallavi Anu Pallavi, N. G. John offered him a chance to direct a film in Malayalam. Scripted by T. Damodaran,and Mohanlal as heroUnaroo was about the corruption in labour unions of Kerala. The film was completed within two months and released in April 1984. Mani Ratnam attributed the failure of the film to the conflict of interests that he and the producer had. Following this, he entered Tamil cinema when G. Thyagarajan of Sathya Jyothi Films offered him a chance to direct Pagal Nilavu (1985). The film had Murali and Revathi playing lead roles. It was different from his previous two films in that it included dance sequences and a "comedy track". The same year, he directed another Tamil film Idaya Kovil, a romantic drama. He remodeled a ready made script on the lines of Charlie Chaplin's Limelight (1952). Despite being unsatisfied with the final product, the film was a major box-office success. The phase between 1983 and 1986 was the toughest of his career with only Pallavi Anupallavi feeling satisfactory; the other three completed with a lot of "compromises".

Breakthrough: 1986-1991

In 1986, Mani directed the Tamil romantic drama Mouna Ragam, which starred Revathi and Mohan. The film was critically acclaimed for portraying urban Tamils in a "realistic" manner. Specifically, it told the story of the friction between a newly-wed couple. The score by Ilaiyaraaja was appreciated and became popular upon release. Mouna Raagam was subsequently dubbed into Telugu under the same title and became a hit in Andhra Pradesh as well. The film elevated Mani's status as a director, and won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil at the 34th National Film Awards. He won his first Filmfare Award for directing the film.

In 1987, Mani directed Nayakan starring Kamal Haasan, and the film became a huge success and brought him recognition at the national level. Inspired by the 1972 American crime film, The Godfather, the film was based on the real-life story of underworld don Varadarajan Mudaliar, and tells the story of an orphaned slum-dweller and his rise to top of the Bombay underworld hierarchy. It was included in Time magazine's All-Time 100 Greatest Movies in 2005. Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy and Guru Dutt's Pyaasa are the only other Indian films that have appeared in the list. Indian critics dubbed the film as India's answer to The Godfather. Nayakan was both commercially successful and critically acclaimed winning three National Awards—Best Actor, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction—at the 35th National Film Awards. The film was India's official entry to the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film at the 60th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.

Following these two commercial successes, Mani wrote and directed Agni Natchathiram in 1988. The film deals with the story of step-brothers played by Prabhu and Karthik and is notable for its use of new techniques in camera framework, especially during the songs. The film had a successful run in the box office.

In 1989, Telugu actor Nagarjuna and Mani Ratnam collaborated for a Telugu film and it remains the only Telugu film directed by Ratnam. The film Geethanjali which had Nagarjuna and Girija Shettar in the lead, told the story of an ill-fated couple, both of whom are suffering from terminal diseases. Geethanjali was critically acclaimed and won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment in 1990. In addition, it won the Best Director and Nandi Award for Best Story Writer for Mani. Mani maintained a momentum of making emotional stories of under-served people through the film Anjali in 1990, which starred Baby Shamili as the central character. The film which also had Raghuvaran and Revathy, told the story of an autistic child who changed the lives of people around her. The film proved to be a commercial success and was nominated as India's official entry to the Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 63rd Academy Awards. Following Anjali's release, Mani later made another underworld-themed Tamil film, Thalapathi (1991), starring Rajinikanth and Mammootty. The film was loosely based on Mahabharata, dealt with the friendship between Karna and Duryodhana portrayed by Rajinikanth and Mammmooty respectively. The film met with both critical acclaim and commercial success upon release. Ilaiyaraaja's musical score and Mani's work were highly appreciated as they both went on to win the Music Director and Best Director awards respectively at the 39th Filmfare Awards.

Comeback 2013-present

Mani's film, Kadal was released worldwide on 1 February 2013 to mixed reviews from critics and became a box office failure. Later the distributor of the film filed a police complaint against Mani on account of the huge losses suffered by him.

His next film, romantic drama O Kadhal Kanmani starring Dulquer Salmaan and Nithya Menen as the lead pair, was released in April 2015. The cinematography and editing of the film was handled by P.C. Sreeram and A. Sreekar Prasad respectively, while music was scored by A. R. Rahman. The film depicted the life of a young couple in a live-in relationship in Mumbai, and was said to be a "reflection of the modern mindset of urban India", dealing with issues such as marriage and traditional values. Made at a small budget of 6 crores, the film achieved widespread critical acclaim and commercial success.

His next was Kaatru Veliyidai, starring Karthi, Aditi Rao Hydari and RJ Balaji. The film, set in 1999 during the Kargil War, followed a pilot who, during his time as a prisoner of war, reflects on his failed love life. Kaatru Veliyidai was released in April 2017 to mixed reviews and received an average box office return.

After Kattru Veliyadai, Ratnam's next film was the crime thriller Chekka Chivantha Vaanam, starring Arvind Swami, Silambarasan, Arun Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi as the lead actors, while Jyothika, Aishwarya Rajesh, Aditi Rao Hydari and Dayana Erappa, Prakash Raj, Thiagarajan, and Mansoor Ali Khan rounded out the supporting cast. The film followed three children as they battled for complete power of their crime family following their father's unexpected demise. Chekka Chivantha Vaanam opened in September 2018 to positive reviews and was a box office success. His next project was confirmed to be Ponniyin Selvan: I, based on the Indian epic written by Kalki Krishnamurthy. The film has an ensemble cast consisting of Vikram, Karthi, Jayam Ravi, Jayaram, Rahman, Aishwarya Rai, Trisha, Aishwarya Lekshmi, R. Parthiban, Lal, Babu Antony, Ashwin Kakumanu, Prabhu, Sarathkumar, Sobhita Dhulipala, Vikram Prabhu and many more, play the prominent roles. The venture was jointly produced by Mani Ratnam and Subaskaran under their banners, Madras Talkies and Lyca Productions. The music was composed by A. R. Rahman, while Ravi Varman handled the cinematography of the film. A. Sreekar Prasad was the editor. Initially planned as one film, reminiscent of Mughal-E-Azam, Ponniyin Selvan was divided into two parts. This was done to ensure that the audience would not be confused with the screenplay and story, adapted from the five books of the epic. The first part, Ponniyin Selvan: I, released theatrically, on 30 September 2022.

Awards and honours

Mani is well recognized outside India with a retrospective of his films held at various film festivals around the world such as Toronto International Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival, Tokyo Filmex and Birmingham International Film Festival. His films are being screened regularly at many film festivals such as Venice Film Festival, Rotterdam Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival and Palm Springs International Film Festival.

The Government of India honoured Mani with Padma Shri in 2002. He has won several National Film Awards, Filmfare Awards, Filmfare Awards South and state awards. Apart from these awards, many of his films have been screened at various film festivals and have won numerous accolades. Geethanjali, directed by him won the Golden Lotus Award for Best Popular Film at the 37th National Film Awards. Other films like Mouna Ragam, Anjali, and Kannathil Muthamittal have won the Best Regional Film awards at the National Film Awards. Two of his films, Roja and Bombay have won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration. The former was also nominated for Best Film category at the 18th Moscow International Film Festival. In 2010, Mani was honoured with Jaeger-Lecoultre Glory to the Filmmaker at the 67th Venice International Film Festival. In July 2015, he was honoured with the Sun Mark Lifetime Achievement Award at the Bagri Foundation London Indian Film Festival for his esteemed contribution to international cinema. Around the same time, the Museum of the Moving Image, New York City, paid a special tribute to Mani. His films Roja, Bombay, and Dil Se were screened at the museum as a retrospective.