Dharani Dharan


Dharani Dharan is an Indian film director and screenwriter, working primarily in the Tamil film industry, he made his directorial debut with Burma in 2014. His second directorial venture Jackson Durai is a horror comedy released in July 2016 under Sri Green Productions. His third directorial venture Raja Ranguski is a murder mystery, music composed by Yuvan Shankar Raja and produced under his own banner "Burma Talkies".

Career

After quitting his IT job he worked as assisting director for Susi Ganesan in Kanthaswamy and Shortcut Romeo wrote a couple of "off-beat scripts" but found out that there was "no market for them" as no big production house approved of the scripts. Sudharshan Vembutty, however, liked the script of Burma and agreed to fund the film. Dharani Dharan had plans to cast popular actors for the lead roles in Burma and met many "top heroes" but said that nobody believed in his script or that they were not interested in the project since it was not produced by a known studio. Therefore, he decided to work with newcomers and cast Michael Thangadurai and Reshmi Menon, who had both appeared in few low-profile films only, in the lead roles. Atul Kulkarni was recruited for a pivotal role, that of a "car financier, who appoints people to recover the car, if funds don't come on time", with the actor telling that he experimented with his hairdo, and got a new hair colour. According to Dharani Dharan, Kulkarni and Sampath Raj, the only two popular actors in the cast, agreed to work for lesser remuneration than what they usually charge.
Before the actual shoot began, Dharani Dharan shot every scene with Michael, on a 5D camera for one month, like a rehearsal. A luxury vehicle was needed for the film and he approached a BMW team and showed them the script, who were impressed with it and lent a BMW X6 worth 1.5 crores for the shoot. Most of the story takes place in real places in north Chennai and the team shot in highly crowded places like Royapuram, Pudhupet and Ennore, with the director stating that filming in those locations was "extremely challenging".

Filmography

YearFilmDirectorWriterProducerLanguageGenreNotes
2014BurmaTamilCrime comedy
2016Jackson DuraiTamilHorror comedy
2018Raja RanguskiTamilSuspense Thriller