Selvaraghavan is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and actor who has directed and acted predominantly Tamil films and few Telugu films credited himself as Sri Raghava. He had his directorial debut with Thulluvadho Ilamai (2002). Still, his father is credited for business reasons, which stars his brother Dhanush, Selvaraghavan went on to make a series of romantic drama films with Kadhal Kondein (2003) (also starring Dhanush) and 7G Rainbow Colony (2004) before also venturing into coming-of-age films Pudhupettai (2006) and Mayakkam Enna (2011), both starring Dhanush. He has also ventured into making science fiction and fantasy films, such as depicting a fantasy Chola kingdom in Aayirathil Oruvan (2010) and a parallel universe in Irandam Ulagam (2013). He has been critically acclaimed for his directorial skills. He made his film acting debut in the 2022 film Beast.
Early life Selvaraghavan was born to Tamil film director Kasthuri Raja and Vijayalakshmi on 5 March 1975. He has a brother, Dhanush, who is an actor, and two sisters, who are both doctors. In his youth, one of his eyes was removed after he developed retinal cancer.
Despite coming from a family from the film industry, Selvaraghavan and his sisters were persuaded by their parents to seek a career with an academic background. He subsequently went on to attain a B.E. in Mechanical Engineering, though his exam performances were unremarkable and he acknowledges he was "never going to become one of the best". During his studies, he engaged part-time in different career paths in a process he describes as "soul-searching", before finding satisfaction as a writer. After he graduated in 1997, he approached producers to fund his screenplay writing, but was unsuccessful and often remained at home as an unemployed graduate.
Personal life On 15 December 2006, he married actress Sonia Agarwal, with whom he had previously worked with on three films. After their two-year marriage, Sonia Agarwal and Selvaraghavan filed for divorce with mutual consent in a Chennai family court on 9 August 2009.
Selvaraghavan married Gitanjali Raman on 19 June 2011, daughter of former Advocate General of Tamil Nadu P. S. Raman. Gitanjali had worked as his assistant director in Mayakkam Enna. The couple have a daughter named Leelavathi born on 20 January 2012, and a son born on 7 October 2013 named Omkar. The couple had their third child, a baby boy on 7 January 2021 who they named Rishikesh.
Career 2002–2004
His family faced financial pressures in the early 2000s with his father being out of work, and subsequently they decided to put their remaining earnings into a venture titled Thulluvadho Ilamai (2002), which Selvaraghavan had written. Featuring his brother Dhanush in his first role, alongside Sherin and Abhinay, the film told the coming-of-age story of six high school students and featured a hit soundtrack by Yuvan Shankar Raja. After taking a small opening, the film began to get teen audiences to cinema halls for its adolescent themes, while also being publicised in quarters as a "soft porn" film. It subsequently went on to become a sleeper hit and won positive reviews from critics for breaking the stereotypes of Tamil films. After release, Selvaraghavan stated that he had also directed the film, but was forced to credit his more established film-maker father Kasthuri Raja as the sole director, in order to help the project find a distributor.
Following the success of the previous film, the team chose to collaborate again with the psychotic romantic thriller Kaadhal Kondein (2003), credited as Selvaraghavan's first film. The venture, produced by his home production, also marked the first collaboration of Selvaraghavan with cinematographer Arvind Krishna, whom he would later associate with regularly. Selvaraghavan had written the script for the film in the late 1990s and had first narrated the story to Dhanush in their shared bedroom at home, before asking him to play the lead role of Vinod after the success of Thulluvadho Illamai. The story explores the mind of a youth who is mentally and physically abused in his childhood. The lack of a mother's love haunts the protagonist throughout the film as the girl of his infatuation is killed. Becoming a psychopath, he desperately tries to woo his newly found lady love and his efforts culminate in a thrilling climax. The film opened in July 2003 to unanimously positive reviews, with a reviewer from The Hindu noting: "his story, screenplay, dialogue and direction are focused and hit the bull's eye straightway — hardly missing the mark." The film subsequently went on to become a blockbuster and provided career breakthroughs for both Selvaraghavan and Dhanush in the Tamil film industry. Since its release, the film has been remade into several Indian languages, while Selvaraghavan was briefly associated with the Hindi remake to be produced by Boney Kapoor in 2004, but the project did not eventually materialise.
Selvaraghavan's next venture was another juvenile love story, the bilingual 7G Rainbow Colony, which saw him collaborate with Yuvan Shankar Raja and Arvind Krishna again. He revealed that the film's inspiration came from his college days when he had been fascinated with a Punjabi girl called Ruchika, during his education in KK Nagar. He based several of the scenes on real-life happenings with his friends, revealing that the film was "75% biographical" and the lead character was an "average guy" like himself, who "no one would make a film on". He cast Ravi Krishna, son of the film's producer A. M. Rathnam, in the leading role after a successful screen test while choosing to retain Sonia Agarwal as the lead actress, due to her Punjabi origin. The film opened in October 2004 to positive reviews, with a critic from Sify.com noting: "Unlike other contemporary film-makers running after superstars and making formula films, Selvaraghavan pushes the cinematic envelope and brings savvy freshness to the form, hitherto unexplored". Another reviewer from Rediff.com added: "Selvaraghavan has once again displayed his skill making a movie that is touching without being mushy, and believable because of its realism", noting that "7G Rainbow Colony remains with you, disturbs you and lingers like the glowing embers of a fire long burnt." Consequently, the film and its Telugu version went on to become amongst the most profitable films of the year. Selvaraghavan later committed to begin work on a Hindi version of the film starring Vivek Oberoi in 2007, but the venture subsequently did not materialise. While making 7G Rainbow Colony, Selvaraghavan began pre-production work on a gangster film titled Pudhupettai – unrelated to his later film – and planned to cast Suriya, Dhanush, Silambarasan, Jayam Ravi, Ravi Krishna and Genelia D'Souza in the lead roles. The film however did not develop into production.
In 2004, he began pre-production on another gangster film titled Kasimedu for producer Salem A. Chandrasekharan, which would feature Ajith Kumar, Dhanush and Bharath in the leading roles. The film was later cancelled, and the director became involved in a legal tussle in 2010 for failing to return his advance payments for the project. He later also tried to make the film during 2005 with Vijay in the lead role for producer Ramesh Babu, with the producer again bringing up legal proceedings in late 2016 about the failure to return an advance. Likewise, another project titled Doctors featuring Dhanush and Sonia Agarwal was shelved after a photo shoot had been held.
2006–2008 The following year, he began work on a different gangster film titled Oru Naal Oru Kanavu for Lakshmi Movie Makers with Dhanush and Sonia Agarwal, based on the gang culture of North Chennai. The title was later changed to Pudhupettai (2006), with Sneha also selected to play the role of prostitute. Featuring acclaimed technical work by Yuvan Shankar Raja and Arvind Krishna again, the film told the story of a slum kid's growth into a notorious gangster. Talking about the making of the film, Selvaraghavan called it "an experiment" and stated it had "one of the most complicated screenplays", while revealing he was more nervous with the final product in comparison to his previous ventures. It also became the first Tamil film to be shot in Super 35 mm instead of the Cinemascope format, as well to be released in digital format. The film opened to negative reviews in July 2006, with a reviewer from Sify.com adding it was "heartbreakingly disappointing and is nowhere in the league of his earlier films", citing that it "doesn't unfold quickly and moves at snail pace, puffs and pants with too many characters, subplots and quite long for a gangster genre film". A reviewer from The Hindu also added "Selvaraghavan dishes out a protracted bloodbath and somehow you feel he has let you down", while the critic at Rediff.com stated that "coming from a director like Selvaraghavan, Puthupettai is unbelievable. He loses grip over the plot and the narration goes haywire". It went on to have an average run at the box office despite taking a grand opening, with Selvaraghavan suggesting the excessive bloodshed scenes may have kept family audiences away.
Selvaraghavan then moved on to direct a Telugu film which he had committed to make since 2003 with Venkatesh in the leading role. Titled Aadavari Matalaku Arthale Verule, he wrote the script, taking experiences from life experiences of friends who were unemployed graduates, like the film's main character. Featuring an ensemble cast also including Trisha Krishnan, K. Vishwanath, Swati Reddy and Srikanth, the film marked a move away from Selvaraghavan's hard-hitting films and was a simple romantic drama film. Aadavari Matalaku Arthale Verule opened to positive reviews in April 2007, with critics noting: "Selva reads the safe path in AMAV, and is most likely to emerge with a winner." Another reviewer added: "Selva Raghavan succeeds in touching the right chord by directing a big hero for the first time", adding "he concentrated on entertainment in the first half and mixed strong emotions in the second half to make sure that audience will have certain positive heaviness in their hearts when they leave the theatre." The film went on to gain recognition at award ceremonies the following year, while becoming amongst the biggest commercial successes in the Telugu film industry for 2007.
After the disappointing reception to his previous Tamil film, Selvaraghavan took a sabbatical to plan future projects and set up a production company, White Elephants, along with Yuvan Shankar Raja and Arvind Krishna, whose first project Idhu Maalai Nerathu Mayakkam began filming in November 2006. The team began shooting with Karthi, whose first film Paruthiveeran (2007) was awaiting release, and Sandhya. The film was stalled in early 2007 due to cinematographer Arvind Krishna's decision to leave White Elephants and the project was eventually shelved. In 2008, the screenplay and the story Yaaradi Nee Mohini are both by Selvaraghavan.
2010–2019