Ratchagan

Ratchagan
DVD Cover
Directed by	Praveen Gandhi
Produced by	K. T. Kunjumon Francis Joseph
Written by	Crazy Mohan (dialogues)
Story by	K. T. Kunjumon
Starring	Akkineni Nagarjuna Sushmita Sen
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Cinematography	Ajayan Vincent
Edited by	B. Lenin V. T. Vijayan
Production company	Kunjumon Studios
Distributed by	Gentleman Film International J. R. S. Combines
Release date	30 October 1997 (1997-10-30)
Running time	154 minutes
Country	India
Language	Tamil
Budget	₹18 crore (equivalent to ₹64 crore or US$9.5 million in 2016)

Ratchagan (English: Protector) is a 1997 Tamil action film written, produced by K. T. Kunjumon, and directed by Praveen Gandhi. Starring Akkineni Nagarjuna and Sushmita Sen in the lead roles, alongside Raghuvaran, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, Vadivelu and Girish Karnad in supporting roles. The soundtrack and background score helmed by A. R. Rahman remained a chartbuster. The film was dubbed into Telugu as Rakshakudu.

Ajay (Nagarjuna) is an unemployed youth who always gets into trouble because of his temper. This angry young man gets heated up when he encounters anyone committing a crime; he takes the law into his own hands, beats them up and then gives them some free advice. Ajay’s father Padmanabhan (S. P. Balasubrahmanyam), who works for an insurance firm, is very unhappy with his son’s attitude, and tries his best to change Ajay's attitude through a meditation expert, but he fails in this matter as the expert suggests that Ajay's anguish is reasonable. Ajay meets Sonia (Sushmita Sen) through his father, and Sonia falls in love with him. What Sonia likes about Ajay is his temper and anger when he encounters anything, which is against the law. Sonia gets Ajay’s father's help to get Ajay to love her. Still, Ajay is not interested in her and seriously rejects her at first; but he later changes his mind after going through some unusual situations, and love blossoms between them.

Sonia’s father Sriram (Girish Karnad) is an industrialist who owns the Daewoo automotive manufacturing facility. He has no objection to his daughter’s relationship with Ajay but has one condition: Ajay must become employed in his factory, control his temper for three months, and not get into any fight whatsoever, even if he encounters a crime happening in front of his eyes. If Ajay cannot do this he will not be allowed to marry Sonia. With a heavy heart, Ajay agrees to the condition; Sonia's love for Ajay deepens and Sriram offers Ajay a job in his factory. Sriram actually has his own problems with his factory in a loss; ten of his workers are working with his rival and younger stepbrother Gnaneswar (Raghuvaran), and they hamper the progress of his factory with frequent, pre-planned mishaps. This leads to the factory's property loss.