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Mani Ratnam

Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956) commonly known as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema, based in Chennai. Widely regarded as one of the leading directors in Indian cinema, he made his directorial debut with the Kannada film Pallavi Anu Pallavi in 1983. Despite a commercial failure the film earned critical acclaim and fetched an award for the screenplay at the Karnataka State Film Awards. Ratnam's following efforts were the Malayalam film Unaru (1984), and two Tamil films—Pagal Nilavu and Idhaya Kovil—both in 1985. He came into prominence after Mouna Ragam, a story that dealt with the friction between a newly–wed couple. He followed that with the Godfatheresque Nayagan (1987) that went on to gain national acclaim. The film was among the three Indian films to be named by Time magazine's list of All-Time 100 Greatest Movies. Ratnam made his only straight Telugu film to date, Geethanjali in 1989.Anjali released in 1990, depicting the story of a mentally disabled child. The film was submitted by India for the Academy Award consideration in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. He is well known for his "terrorism trilogy" consisting of Roja (1992), Bombay (1995) and Dil Se.. (1998). Ratnam is widely credited with having revolutionised the Tamil film industry and altering the profile of Indian cinema.Ratnam is married to actress Suhasini. In 2002 he was honoured with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award given by the Government of India. Ratnam has won several film awards, including six National Film Awards. In addition to these, he is a recipient of a number of awards at various international film festivals.