Gopalaratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and a few Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu, and Kannada films. He is known as one of the most prominent and greatest directors in the history of Indian cinema.
He has won seven National Film Awards, four Filmfare Awards, seven Filmfare Awards South, and numerous awards at various film festivals across the world. In 2002, the Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri, acknowledging his contributions to film.
Despite being born into a film family, Mani Ratnam did not develop any interest in films when he was young. Upon completion of his post graduation in management, he started his career as a consultant. He entered the film industry through the 1983 Kannada film, Pallavi Anu Pallavi. The failure of his subsequent films would mean that he would be left with fewer offers. After working in Telugu and Malayalam Cinema, he made his major breakthrough with Mouna Ragam (1986), established him as a leading filmmaker in Tamil cinema which won him his first Filmfare Best Director Award. He was the director of the critically acclaimed Nayakan (1987) and Anjali (1990), both of which qualified as India's official entry for The Academy Awards. He found success with the crime drama Thalapathi, romantic terrorism drama Roja (1992), Bombay (1995), Dil Se.. (1998), and his romantic trilogy of Mouna Ragam (1986), Alai Payuthey (2000), O Kadhal Kanmani (2015).
Each of his films contain its own unique style, with beautifully photographed songs and unique back-lighting. Exploring success in romantic, terrorism war and drama films. His epic historical dramas, Ponniyin Selvan: I (2022) and Ponniyin Selvan: II (2023), based on the Indian epic written by Kalki Krishnamurthy, were critical and commercial blockbusters with the former becoming the 35th highest-grossing film in India and 5th highest-grossing Tamil film.
Mani Ratnam was born on 2 June 1956 in a Tamil Iyer family in Madurai, Tamil Nadu as the second child of a family that was closely associated with film production. His father, S. Gopalaratnam, was a film distributor who worked for Venus Pictures, while his uncle, "Venus" Krishnamurthy, was a film producer. His elder brother G. Venkateswaran (died 2003) would go on to produce some of his films. His younger brother G. Srinivasan (died 2007), like G. Venkateswaran, would also co-produce some of his films. Mani Ratnam grew up in Madras (now Chennai), along with his siblings and cousins. Despite being a film family, the children were not allowed to watch films as the elders considered them taboo. "As a youngster, films seemed like a waste of time", he claimed in a 1994 interview; however, he started watching films more actively when he was studying at the Besant Theosophical School. During this time, he developed an admiration for actors like Sivaji Ganesan and Nagesh; watching all their films. When he discovered the legendary director K. Balachander, he became his fan. Upon completing his schooling, he graduated with a degree in commerce from the Ramakrishna Mission Vivekananda College, affiliated to the Madras University. Later, he did his Master of Business Administration (MBA) in finance from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies in Mumbai. After finishing his post-graduation in 1977, he was employed in a firm in Madras as a management consultant, and continued to work there for sometime.
Ratnam married actress Suhasini on 26 August 1988. The couple have a son. The family resides in Alwarpet, Chennai, where he runs his production company, Madras Talkies.
An FIR was filed against Mani Ratnam and 49 others in 2019 when they wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi listing statistics and expressing concern over the rise in communal violence against minorities including Muslims, Christians, and Dalits since Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took power in 2014.
Mani Ratnam was not satisfied with his job as a consultant as he found it to be a mere extension of his academics. During this time his friend Ravi Shankar, son of director B. R. Panthulu, was in the process of making his first film. Mani Ratnam, Ravi Shankar and another friend Raman, son of filmmaker S. Balachander, worked on the script of the film. Mani Ratnam took a sabbatical from his job to ensure his participation in the making of the film. Being inexperienced, the makers were largely dependent upon the American Cinematographer magazine. The principal cast included Vishnuvardhan, Srinath, Ambareesh, Lakshmi, and Roja Ramani. When the filming was about to begin in Kolar, Karnataka, Mani Ratnam left his consulting job and joined the crew. The film, however, did not take off and was eventually shelved. Nevertheless, he was firm in his idea of becoming a film-maker. Although not impressed with many of the films made in Tamil cinema, he was "amazed" at Bharathiraja's 16 Vayathinile (1977), K. Balachander's Apoorva Raagangal (1975), and Mahendran's Mullum Malarum (1978) and Uthiripookkal (1979). During this time, he befriended a group of people namely P. C. Sreeram, Santhana Bharathi, and P. Vasu, who shared his interest of entering into the film industry.
With a script in hand, Mani Ratnam had an idea to either get a producer for his film or to narrate the script to a "celebrated" film-maker, so that he could get a chance to work along with them and get to know about the various aspects involved in film-making. He chose three directors—Balachander, Bharathiraja, and Mahendran. As the attempts to meet and convince all the three proved to be unsuccessful, he decided to look out for a producer. In the process, he along with P. C. Sreeram—who would collaborate with him in most of his future projects—met around 20 people; however, all the efforts turned out to be unsuccessful.
Early years and struggle: 1983–1986
Mani Ratnam developed a script—originally written in English—into a film and named it Pallavi Anu Pallavi. His uncle Krishnamurthy agreed to produce the film but imposed a condition that it should be made under a limited budget in Kannada, to which he agreed. He persuaded Balu Mahendra to do the cinematography as he found the latter's work to be very impressive. He managed to get other crew members B. Lenin (for Film editing), Thota Tharani (for art direction) and Ilaiyaraaja (for composer music), all leading craftsmen in their respective fields. For the male lead, he cast Anil Kapoor after watching his performance in the Telugu film Vamsa Vruksham (1980). Lakshmi was signed up as the female lead. The film explored the relationship between a young man and an older woman. Although an average grosser at the box-office, the film fetched Mani Ratnam the Best Screenplay Award from the Karnataka State Government for the year 1983. After watching Pallavi Anu Pallavi, N. G. John offered him a chance to direct a film in Malayalam. Scripted by T. Damodaran and featuring Mohanlal as hero, Unaroo was about the corruption in labour unions of Kerala. The film was completed within two months and released in April 1984. Mani Ratnam attributed the failure of the film to the conflict of interests that he and the producer had. Following this, he entered Tamil cinema when G. Thyagarajan of Sathya Jyothi Films offered him a chance to direct Pagal Nilavu (1985). The film had Murali and Revathi playing lead roles. It was different from his previous two films in that it included dance sequences and a "comedy track". The same year, he directed another Tamil film Idaya Kovil, a romantic drama. He remodelled a ready made script on the lines of Charlie Chaplin's Limelight (1952). Despite being unsatisfied with the final product, the film was a major box-office success. The phase between 1983 and 1986 was the toughest of his career with only Pallavi Anupallavi feeling satisfactory; the other three completed with a lot of "compromises".
In 1986, Mani directed the Tamil romantic drama Mouna Ragam, which starred Revathi and Mohan. The film was critically acclaimed for portraying urban Tamils in a "realistic" manner. Specifically, it told the story of the friction between a newly-wed couple. The score by Ilaiyaraaja was appreciated along with SPB in background score and became popular upon release. Mouna Raagam was subsequently dubbed into Telugu under the same title and became a hit in Andhra Pradesh as well. The film elevated Mani's status as a director, and won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil at the 34th National Film Awards. He won his first Filmfare Award for directing the film.