Sundar C.

Vinayagar Sundar Vel (born 1968), also known as Sundar C., is an Indian film director and actor. He has directed over 32 films in Tamil and acted in over nine movies as the protagonist. Initially, he worked as an assistant director to Manivannan. His notable films include Ullathai Allitha (1996), Arunachalam (1997), Anbe Sivam (2003), Winner (2003), Giri (2004), Kalakalappu (2012), Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru (2013), Aranmanai (2014) and Kalakalappu 2 (2018).

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. He returned to direction with his trade mark comedy roller coaster in the movie Kalakalappu in 2012 and it went on to become a moderate success.

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

He also produced the TV series Nandini, along with his wife ( the actress Kushboo) aired on Sun TV. He is a pioneer within the Indian television industry, in simultaneously producing a TV series in 4 languages, namely Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. The show has been praised and well received by audiences, becoming a huge success, and India's most watched television series, within weeks after it first aired. He also produced movies like Hello Naan Pei Pesuren, Muthina Kathirika and Meesaya Murukku. Sundar C is one of the few directors who directed Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan (in Arunachalam (1997) and Anbe Sivam (2003), respectively).

Career
Sundar C started his career as an assistant director to Manivannan and made his directorial debut with 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 unavailable 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. Murai Maaman 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). 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). 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 Kadhal Solla Vanthen featuring Isha Koppikar, Athai Magan featuring Ramya Krishnan, and Vaazhkkai Vaazhvatharkke were affected. Likewise, a proposed projects titled Paarvai with Jayaram and Kushboo, was also shelved.

In 2003, he directed two films Winner and Anbe Sivam. The former was successful and the comedy scenes from that film became hugely popular. However, the latter, 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. 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, directed by Badri and Sandai by Sakthi Chidambaram. He then made a comeback as a director with Nagaram Marupakkam (2010).

After his blockbuster hit Kalakalappu in 2012, he is continuously giving successful movies like Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru, Aranmanai, Aambala, Aranmanai 2 and Kalakalappu 2. Out of which Aranmanai and Aranmanai 2 are the trend setters in Comedy Horror genre in Tamil film industry. He acted in lead role in the horror thriller, Iruttu (2019) directed by V. Z. Durai. Sundar C. takes charge as the inspector of police. The film was released to positive reviews. And directed Vishal's film, Action (2019). His Next is Aranmanai 3 with Sun Pictures Filming Starts from February 20.

As a TV Series Producer

 * Nandini (S.1:2017-2018)
 * Maya (2018)
 * Lakshmi Stores (2018–2020)
 * Nandini (S.2:2021)