Vikraman

Early career

Vikraman made his debut with the movie Pudhu Vasantham, a story of four unemployed friends who are musical experts. This movie was released in 1990 was successful. Its hero Murali went on to become a famous romantic actor who donned the mike-wielding singer role in subsequent movies. The trio of Vikraman-S.A.Rajkumar(musician)-R.B.Choudari came commercially successful. But a flop in Pudhiya Mannargal forced him to go back. He worked as an assistant to actor cum director R. Parthiban in Pudhea Paadhai, which was the latter's debut film as a director and an actor. Director K. S. Ravikumar apprenticed under him as an assistant director.^[8] Director Lingusamy was also an assistant to Vikraman.

Success

Vikraman was recalled once again by R. B. Choudary to make a film with Vijay titled Poove Unakkaga in 1996. It was the first breakthrough in the young actor's career. His next movie Suryavamsam with Sarath Kumar and Devayani was a major success. Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen made in 1998 gave a fresh lease of life to Karthik and Roja who were once dominating the film industry. In 2000, he made a movie Vanathai Pola with an ensemble cast, another blockbuster which gave back the superstardom to Vijaykanth. It also won the National Film Award for Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment in 2001 and also many state awards.^[9] He then began pre-production work in 2000 for a film starring Surya and Laila,and the said project Unnai Ninaithu did well.^[10][11]

However, his next movie Priyamana Thozhi produced by the AVM Productions was a hit again. Its simultaneously shot Telugu version, Vasantham in (helmed by himself) was one of the top grossers of 2003. But he had to face another dud in 2004 in Cheppave Chirugali, a Telugu remake of his hit Tamil film starring Suriya and Sneha, Unnai Ninaithu. Taking a two-year break, he had started work again for a Tamil movie called Chennai Kadhal with Bharath in the lead. However, the movie was unsuccessful at the box office. He made a comeback with Mariyadhai in 2009, another Tamil film starring Vijayakanth, Meena, Meera Jasmine and Ambika playing the lead roles. His latest film Ninaithathu Yaaro featuring newcomers release in January 2014.

During 1990s, Vikraman was an inspiration for so many upcoming directors and they try coming up with story lines having strong family bonding, sentiments etc. targeting family audiences. Vikraman decided to move away from his usual style of film making and tried his luck with Chennai Kadhal which was promoted as a city based film targeting youth audience. However the movie didn't perform well which prompted him to go back to his usual style of film making in Mariyadhai.