Prabhu Solomon | |
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Born | 7 May 1969 |
Occupation | Director, Producer |
Years active | 1999–present |
Prabhu Solomon (Tamil: பிரபு சாலமன்; born 7 May 1969) is an Indian film director who has primarily worked on Tamil films. After making his debut in 1999, he had a middling career before rising to prominence with the success of the romantic tragedy film Mynaa (2010).
Prabhu Solomon hails from Neyveli, Tamil Nadu and revealed he was a regular at the town's only cinema hall, which helped him develop an initial passion for films. He did his schooling in St. Paul's Matriculation Higher Secondary School, after which he completed a master's degree in English literature, before relocating to Chennai. His career in the film industry started in 1991 and for three years, he looked for opportunities to become in involved in ongoing film projects. He first worked as a stunt double for Sarathkumar in Namma Annachi (1994), where he also met director Sundar C, who was working as the associate director of the film. He consequently joined Sundar’s film Murai Maman (1995) as an assistant director, before subsequently working with Agathiyan on the award-winning Kadhal Kottai (1996).
Anbalaya Films offered him an opportunity to direct a film for their production house, after he had helped them complete the post-production works for Murai Mappillai (1995) when director Sundar C walked out. Prabhu Solomon chose to feature Raghuvaran and Bhanupriya in the leading roles, though the producers Anabalaya Films were reluctant to cast a character artiste in the lead role for the film, Kannodu Kanbathellam (1999). Prabhu revealed he met Arjun in Thenkasi during the making of Mudhalvan (1999), at the insistence of his producer and actively tried to make a poor impression. Arjun, nonetheless, was keen and worked on the film. Co-starring Sonali Bendre and Suchindra, the film was released to positive reviews. A romantic thriller featuring Arjun in a different role to his usual action ventures, the film however did not do well at the box office. Similarly his second venture, the Kannada film Usire (2001), a remake of Cheran's Bharathi Kannamma, also did not perform as expected commercially. Prabhu Solomon had wanted Shiva Rajkumar to play the lead role, and he lamented that miscasting Ravichandran in the leading role instead, worked against the viability of the film. Prabhu Solomon had signed on Vikram to play the lead role in a project shortly after the success of Sethu (1999) and wanted to work on a different script, but the actor insisted that the pair a film from the director's script titled King (2002). Solomon revealed that he was unconvinced about Vikram portraying the lead role, feeling that he was too old to play Nassar's son, but the actor insisted the project went ahead. Delays in the production in the film, meant that Vikram's star image had risen and reviewers labelled the film as a disappointment upon release. The director noted that the story was written with the expectation of a small-time actor in the lead role, and hence Vikram's sudden popularity worked against his film. He revealed that his early career in film involved making significant compromises and was strictly against the type of cinema he had actually ventured to make.