Kalanjiyam

Kalanjiyam Biography

Kalanjiyam is a film actor and director associated with Tamil film industry. He started off as a director in the mid-1990s and since early 2010s he is also doing film roles as an actor. He is a recipient of Tamil Nadu state film awards twice. He received Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Story Writer in 1996 for the film, Poomani and State Film Award for Best Film Portraying Woman in Good Light – for 1998 film Kizhakkum Merkkum. In 2011 he made his film debut as a leading hero for the movie, Karungali, the movie directed by himself. This director was in news for wrong reasons for his rift with actress Anjali, whom he launched through Sathamindri Muthamidu, a film that was never released.

As a film directed, 1996 movie – Poomani marked his film debut. The movie starred Murali and Devayani in lead roles. The movie met with critical acclaim and commercial success and the director received his first state awards for his debut movie itself. The village story Kizhakkum Merkkum was his second release and brought him critics’ appreciation, state awards and commercial success for the second time. He also established himself as one of the talented young directors of late 1990s. Both the movies played a significant role in establishing Devayani’s career. He did two more movies with Devayani before 2000 – Poonthottam and Nilave Mugam Kaattu and both disappointed critics and audience.

In the mid-2000s, he planned to launch Devayani’s younger brother with another newcomer Anjali through the movie, Sathamindri Muthamidu. The movie got shelved after the film shooting was begun. He started two other films with Anjali, Valiba Desam and En Kanavu Thaanadi, which met the same fate with the previous one. Later when Anjali got established as an actress she decided to do one movie with her mentor - Oor Suttri Puranam. News surfaced that the director threatened the actress Anjali, who was already victimized by her stepmother. Anjali even filed charges against him, accusing of threatening. Since then he has been in news for wrong reasons. In 2014, while working for Kathiravan's Kodai Mazhai, he slapped the heroine so hard while shooting a sequence that the actress Priyanka fainted in the location and was later admitted to hospital. In 2014 he met a car accident which killed one co-passenger too.  

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Updated: January 30, 2016