A. Venkatesh (director)
A. Venkatesh is an Indian film director and actor working in Tamil cinema. Beginning his career as an assistant, he directed his first film, Mahaprabhu, in 1996. Career Initially, he worked as an assistant to director K. Rajeshwar on Nyaya Tharasu (1989) and Idhaya Thamarai (1990). He assisted Pavithran on Vasanthakala Paravai (1991) and Suriyan (1992), then he was an associate director to director Shankar on Gentleman (1993) and Kadhalan (1994). During the shooting of the film Kadhalan, producer G. K. Reddy approached him to direct a film. In 1996, he made his directional debut through Mahaprabhu starring R. Sarathkumar, Sukanya and Vineetha. He has directed Vijay's movies including action film Selva (1996) and romance film Nilaave Vaa (1998). In 1999, he directed a drama film Pooparika Varugirom starring Sivaji Ganesan, Vikram Krishna and Malavika. Following the death of director Thirupathisamy in 2001, Venkatesh was briefly announced as the new director of the film Velan featuring Vijay and Priyanka Chopra, but the project was later shelved. He started directing action movies with Prashanth's Chocolate (2001), Vijay's Bhagavathi (2002), and Silambarasan's Dum (2003) and Kuthu (2004). These were followed by Sarathkumar's Aai (2004), Chanakya (2005) and Arjun's Vathiyar (2006). During 2008,