Mani Ratnam

Mani Ratnam
Ratnam in April 2015
Born	Gopalaratnam Subramaniam (1956-06-02) 2 June 1956 (age 67) Madurai, Madras State, India
Alma mater	Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies
Occupations	Film director Film producer Screenwriter
Years active	1983–present
Spouse	Suhasini Charuhasan ​ (m. 1988)​
Children	1
Relatives	G. Venkateswaran (brother) Charuhasan (father-in-law)
Honours	Padma Shri (2002)

Gopalaratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter who predominantly works in Tamil cinema^{[citation needed]} and few Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He is one of India's most acclaimed and commercially successful filmmakers. Ratnam has won six National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards, six Filmfare Awards South,^[1] 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.^{[citation needed]} Upon completion of his post graduation in management,^{[citation needed]} 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 would be left with fewer offers. After working in Telugu and Malayalam Cinema, he made his major breakthrough with Mouna Ragam (1986), established him as a leading filmmaker in Tamil cinema which won him his first Filmfare Best Director Award. He was the director of the critically acclaimed Nayakan (1987) and Anjali (1990), both of which qualified as India's official entry for The Academy Awards. He found success with the crime drama Thalapathi, romantic terrorism drama Roja (1992), Bombay (1995), Dil Se.. (1998), and his romantic trilogy of Mouna Ragam (1986), Alai Payuthey (2000), O Kadhal Kanmani (2015).

Each of his films contain its own unique style, with beautifully photographed songs and unique back-lighting. Exploring success in romantic, terrorism war and drama films. His epic historical dramas Ponniyin Selvan: I (2022) and Ponniyin Selvan: II (2023) based on the Indian epic written by Kalki Krishnamurthy was another critical and commercial hit with the former becoming the 25th highest-grossing film in India and 5th highest-grossing Tamil film.