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AR Murugadoss
Indian film director

Murugadas Arunachalam (born 25 September 1974), known professionally as AR Murugadoss, (pronunciationⓘ) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and film producer who predominantly works in the Tamil film industry. He is best known for directing action films mainly on social issues. In addition, he has worked in Telugu films and Hindi films. Murugadoss won the Filmfare Award for Best Director for his 2014 Tamil action drama Kaththi.

Murugadoss' first break in the film industry was as an assistant director of Ratchagan (1997). He then worked with S. J. Surya for the film Kushi (2000) before directing his first film, the Ajith starrer Dheena (2001). His first Bollywood film was Ghajini (2008), a Hindi remake of his Tamil film of the same name. It became the first Bollywood film to gross over ₹100 crore (US$12 million) domestically. In 2012, he directed the action thriller Thuppakki, starring Vijay, which became the second Tamil film to gross ₹100 crore at the domestic box office alone. He worked with Vijay again with the box office hits Kaththi (2014) and Sarkar (2018).

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Personal life

Murugadoss was born in Kallakurichi, Tamil Nadu.7 The initials "AR" refer to his father's name Arunachalam and were added after Murugadoss signed his first film, Dheena, in 2001.8 Murugadoss currently resides in Virugambakkam, Chennai.9 Murugadoss had his schooling at the Government Higher Secondary School10 and studied BA in Bishop Heber College, Tiruchirapalli. His brother, Dileepan made his acting debut with Vathikuchi, which is Murugadoss' production venture.

Career

During his college days, Murugadoss was active in cultural events, particularly in mimicry and drawing.11 He subsequently became a cinephile watching up to seven films a week in his hometown and started writing jokes as well. After Ananda Vikatan published them, Murugadoss began to think of becoming a story writer.12 At Bharathidasan University he started to write sketch comedies and acted in them.13 After college he tried to join the Madras Film Institute, but was rejected. Nevertheless, Murugadoss stayed in Chennai in multiple functions. First, he became an assistant writer of P. Kalaimani and wrote dialogues for the Tamil film Madurai Meenakshi. He became assistant director of Ratchagan (1997) for half of the film and continued as assistant script director for the Telugu film Kalusukundam Ra.14 Murugadoss then worked with S. J. Surya for the film Kushi.

In 2003, he contemplated making a film titled Varathan with Vikram in the lead role for producer Oscar Ravichandran, but later moved on to other projects.15

S. J. Suryah recommended Murugadoss to Ajith Kumar for directing his debut film, Dheena. His next films were Ramana, Ghajini, and Stalin. His fifth film was Ghajini, which was a Hindi remake of his same-titled 2005 film and marked his Bollywood debut. It released on 25 December 2008 and became the first Bollywood film to gross over ₹100 crore domestically.16 His next Tamil film 7aum Arivu, was released on Diwali 2011. Murugadoss signed a deal with Fox Star Studios to produce two Tamil films.17

In 2012, he directed the action thriller Thuppakki, starring Vijay and produced by S. Dhanu released on Diwali 2012 to mostly positive reviews and became the second Tamil film to enter the ₹100 crore club domestically alone18 after Enthiran. Thuppakki collected over ₹180 crores end of its run as reported by the producer. He also directed the Hindi remake of the film, Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty.19 In 2014, he was the writer and producer for the fantasy film Maan Karate starring Sivakarthikeyan which was directed by his former assistant Thirukumaran.

In 2014, he directed the action drama Kaththi starring Vijay and produced by Lyca Productions released on Diwali 2014 and emerged as one of the top-grossing films in Kollywood for 2014, collecting an estimated ₹131 crores. In 2016, he directed Akira starring Sonakshi Sinha. It is a remake of the Tamil film Mouna Guru. Then, he directed Spyder starring Mahesh Babu and Rakul Preet Singh.2021 He joined with Vijay once again for the movie Sarkar which is produced by Sun Pictures Kalanithi Maran which released on 6 November 2018 for the Diwali. It was released in over 3000 screens around the world.22 The next, his film Darbar starring Rajinikanth was released on 9 January 2020.23

After a gap of 5 years, Murugadoss made his directorial comeback in 2025 with two highly anticipated films - Sikandar with Salman Khan which released on Eid-ul-Fitr,24 and Madharasi with Sivakarthikeyan.25

Filmography

Key
†Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released

As director

YearFilmLanguageNotes
2001DheenaTamil
2002Ramanaa
2005Ghajini
2006StalinTelugu
2008GhajiniHindiRemake of Ghajini (2005)
20117 Aum ArivuTamilSpecial appearance as director in the interview
2012ThuppakkiSpecial appearance in the song "Google Google"
2014Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off DutyHindiRemake of Thuppakki (2012)
KaththiTamilSpecial appearance as a common man
2016AkiraHindiAlso producerRemake of Mouna Guru (2011)
2017SpyderTamilTeluguBilingual film
2018SarkarTamilSpecial appearance in the song "Oru Viral Puratchi"
2020Darbar
2025SikandarHindi
Madharasi †Tamil

As producer, writer and actor

This is a list of films in which AR Murugadoss worked for other directors.

YearFilmCredited asNotes
ProducerWriterActor
1997PoochudavaNoDialoguesYes
2011Engaeyum EppothumYesNoNo
2013VathikuchiYesNoNo
Raja RaniYesNoNo
2014Maan KarateYesYesYesCameo in the song "Open the Tasmac"
2015IsaiNoNoYesCameo
10 EndrathukullaYesNoNo
2017RangoonYesNoNo
2018NOTANoNoYesCameo
2022RaangiNoStoryNo
2023August 16 1947YesNoNo

Awards

FilmAwardCategoryResultRef.
RamanaaTamil Nadu State Film AwardsBest Dialogue WriterWon26
Tamil Nadu State Film AwardsBest FilmWon27
Ghajini53rd Filmfare Awards SouthBest Director – TamilNominated28
Tamil Nadu State Film AwardsBest FilmWon29
GhajiniStardust AwardsHottest New FilmmakerWon30
54th Filmfare AwardsBest DirectorNominated31
Producers Guild Film AwardsBest DirectorWon32
10th IIFA AwardsBest DirectorNominated33
7aum Arivu59th Filmfare Awards SouthBest DirectorNominated34
ThuppakkiThe Chennai Times Film AwardsBest DirectorNominated35
Best ScreenplayNominated
4th Edison AwardsBest DirectorNominated36
Best ScreenplayNominated
60th Filmfare Awards SouthBest DirectorNominated37
2nd SIIMA AwardsBest DirectorNominated38
7th Vijay AwardsFavourite DirectorWon39
Best DirectorNominated
Raja RaniNorway Tamil Film Festival AwardsThe Most Popular FilmWon40
8th Vijay AwardsFavourite FilmNominated41
3rd SIIMA AwardsBest FilmNominated42
Kaththi62nd Filmfare Awards SouthBest DirectorWon43
1st IIFA UtsavamBest DirectorNominated44
4th SIIMA AwardsNominated45
9th Vijay AwardsFavourite DirectorWon46
Best Story, Screenplay WriterNominated
Sarkar66th Filmfare Awards SouthBest DirectorNominated47
8th SIIMA AwardsBest DirectorNominated48
Darbar10th SIIMA AwardsNominated

References

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