Lakshman (director)

Lakshman
Occupation	Director, distributor, writer, producer
Years active	2006 – Present

Lakshman is an Indian film distributor, director and producer who has worked in Tamil language films.

Lakshman made a breakthrough as a film distributor following the success of S. J. Surya's New (2004), which he released in the Chengalpet area of Tamil Nadu. He subsequently agreed terms to produce a film starring S. J. Surya in the lead role and the pair initially considered starting a film with Selvaraghavan as director, before finalising Thamizhvannan. The film was initially launched with the title 36-24-36, before the makers decided to use Kalvanin Kadhali, with actress Nayanthara and Shradha Arya joining the cast. The film had an average response critically and commercially.

After spending several years away from the film industry, Lakshman announced that he would make his first venture as a director with a film titled Romeo Juliet (2015) featuring Jayam Ravi in the lead role. The director had initially convinced Nayanthara to play the leading female role but did not want to repeat her pairing with Jayam Ravi, as the pair were working on another production, Raja's Thani Oruvan, at the time of casting. Subsequently, he chose to cast Hansika Motwani in a leading role instead. The film opened in June 2015 to widespread negative reviews from film critics, with Baradwaj Rangan of The Hindu writing, "the film is a disaster...it's impossible to digest the overall preposterousness...Romeo Juliet just cannot make up its mind whether it wants to be a screwball comedy or a melodrama — the tone is all over the place. And the writing is painfully inconsistent".Rediff.com wrote, "Lakshman's Romeo Juliet is just a rehash of old clichés", "he pitches love against money and there are no prizes for guessing which one wins". Similarly Sify.com wrote, "Lakshman has packaged the film in a glossy manner but it is unable to find any spark or chemistry between the lead pair" adding "his direction is amateurish and so the characters are half-baked". Despite the mixed reviews, the film performed well at the box office.

...
Wikipedia