Suraj (Film Director)

Suraj (Film Director) Biography

Suraj is a film director associated with Tamil cinema since mid-1990s. Suraj is known for making action oriented and masala entertainer movies, which attract audience to theatres. Thalainagaram, which starred his friend and associate Sundar C playing the lead role, is one of his memorable films. The Tamil remake of 1991 Malayalam blockbuster Abhimanyu turned out to be a commercial success. Before Thalainagaram (2006), he has assisted Sundar in several hit movies and has made many masala entertainers too. Sakalakala Vallavan (2015) starring the hit pair Jayam Ravi and Trisha was his latest release. Anjali, Soori and Prabhu also played pivot roles in the movie, which received negative response from critics. He was earlier credited as G. Saisuresh, Siraj and C. G. Suraaj for his movies.

Suraj started his film journey as an assistant director to Sundar C, a hit maker of 1990s. Ullathai Allitha and Mettukudi were his early films as an assistant director under Sundar, followed by Rajinikanth starrer Arunachalam, Janakiraman etc. Moovendhar in 1998 was his first independent film as a director which was a commercial failure. The movie starred the top artists of the time - R. Sarathkumar and Devayani. The movie was panned by critics as well. So he returned back to Sundar and continued working with him for some time.

He was one among the crew members of the directors who made the movie – Swayamvaram in 1999. The movie caught global attention and owns many records like Guinness World Record for casting the most stars in a film and quickest ever feature-length film made, and most interesting part is that the movie was well received by critics. Shot in a short interval of 23 hours and 58 minutes, he was one among the 14 major directors of the film. He also joined the team to write screenplay. After a couple of movies - Kunguma Pottu Gounder and Military, Thalainagaram was made in 2006 – his best film up-to-date. His 2011 film Mappillai was a box office hit despite getting mixed reviews.

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Updated: February 03, 2016