Murugadoss

AR Murugadoss
Murugadoss at a special screening of Ghajini in 2009
Born	Arunasalam Murugadoss (1974-09-25) 25 September 1974 (age 42) Kallakurichi, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation	Film director, Screenwriter, Producer
Years active	2001–present
Spouse(s)	Ramya (m.2005)

Arunasalam Murugadoss, commonly known with his stage name initials AR Murugadoss, is an Indian film director, producer, and screenwriter. He's best known for his action Tamil films and for remaking them in Hindi cinema. This includes the Suriya-starrer Ghajini (2005) and it's Hindi remake Ghajini (2008) starring Aamir Khan, along with the Vijay-starrer Thuppakki (2012) and it's Hindi remake Holiday (2014) starring Akshay Kumar. His 2002 Tamil film Ramanaa was remade in Hindi by director Krish as Gabbar Is Back (2015) starring Akshay Kumar as well. Murugadoss won the Filmfare Award for Best Director for his 2014 Tamil action-drama film Kaththi.

Murugadoss was born in Kallakurichi, Tamil Nadu. The initials "AR", denoting his father's name Arunasalam, were added after Murugadoss signed his first film Dheena (2001). Murugadoss currently resides in Virugambakkam, Chennai. Murugadoss had his schooling at the Government Higher Secondary School and studied BA in Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirapalli. His brother Dileepan made his acting debut with Vathikuchi (2013).

During his college days, Murugadoss was active in cultural events, particularly in mimicry and drawing. He subsequently became a cinephile watching up to seven films a week in his hometown and started writing jokes as well. After Ananda Vikatan published them, Murugadoss began to think of becoming a story writer. At Bharathidasan University he started to write sketch comedies and acted in them. After college he tried to join the Madras Film Institute, but was rejected. Nevertheless, Murugadoss stayed in Chennai in multiple functions. First he became an assistant writer of P. Kalaimani and wrote dialogues for the Tamil film Madurai Meenakshi. He became assistant director of Ratchagan (1997) for half of the film and continued as assistant script director for the Telugu film Kalusukundam Ra. Murugadoss then worked with S. J. Surya for the film Kushi.