Lokesh Kanagaraj

Lokesh Kanagaraj ( born 14 March 1986) is an Indian film director and screenwriter who works in Tamil films. He started his career with a short film in the 2016 anthology Aviyal. He later directed his first feature film Maanagaram (2017). He created the Lokesh Cinematic Universe franchise owing to the commercial success of Kaithi (2019), making it the franchise's first installment. He directed Master (2021) featuring Vijay which emerged a commercial success followed by Vikram (2022) as the second installment in his LCU, with Kamal Haasan in the lead role, which emerged as one of the highest grossing Indian films. And then he worked on Leo (2023), a commercially successful project collaborating with Vijay again and serving it as the third installment in the Lokesh Cinematic Universe franchise. Early life Lokesh Kanagaraj was born in Kinathukadavu, Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu, India. In PSG College of Arts and Science, he majored in Fashion Technology before pursuing an MBA. He did his schooling in Palanayiammal Matric Hr. Sec. School Kalliyapuram, Pollachi. He is an ex-bank employee. He pursued his passion towards film making by participating in a corporate short film competition. The judge of the competition was Karthik Subbaraj. Impressed with his short film, he encouraged Lokesh to pursue a directorial career making films. Career Lokesh's career began with the short film, Acham Thavir (2012), which won him the best director, best film and best actor awards at the short film festival Clubace. In 2016, his short film, Kalam, was included in the anthology film, Aviyal, produced by Karthik Subbaraj. In 2017, Lokesh made his directorial feature debut with the hyperlink film, Maanagaram. In late 2018, he began working on a film for Dream Warrior Pictures, the same production company behind Maanagaram. His next venture featured Karthi in the lead role in the action-thriller Kaithi.