“I studied in Tiruvannamalai, in a school that felt more like a home than a campus. When I look back, it was not the buildings or uniforms that shaped me. It was the life happening around me. Basketball practice, cricket matches, competitions, friends, laughter and a childhood that moved faster than I realised.
In the middle of all this were the people who made me who I am today. My Tamil teachers. My first stage mentors. The ones who put a mic in my hand when I was still a tiny boy who did not know what was what. They pushed me into public speaking. They encouraged me to stand on stages where everyone else was older, taller and louder. They taught me that a small voice can still carry big meaning. Whatever I am today began with those gentle pushes from them.
But life was not always so clear.
When I was in seventh grade, I wanted nothing more than to become a cricketer. That dream began the day I watched the CSK Juniors play. Something inside me fired up further. I came home, dropped my bag and ran outside with a bat almost every day. I was stubborn. I wanted cricket more than anything. For a while, life was simple like that.
Growing up, it was time to realise that the dream shift is where I can actually belong. With them came the fears, the doubts and the questions every boy carries quietly. Some days I felt unstoppable. Some days I felt like I would never figure out who I was meant to become. But the people around me, my teachers, friends and mentors, kept reminding me that I was more capable than I believed.
Today, I work in movies and also a creative visual storyteller/songwriter. I create, I shoot, I experiment and I try to stay curious. I have worked on many kinds of projects and no matter how difficult they get, I find happiness in the act of creating something from nothing. My work gives me the same feeling that childhood gave me, that sense of play. Then there is Chennai.This city is everything to me. It holds every version of my life. The place that continues giving so many friends with whom I am co-writing my life with. When I came back to Chennai after 3.5 years being at my hometown, I came with only one unchanged, unmatched confidence – “ Chennai ku pona Cinema la vela Paakalam “ and this city didn’t fail in that too.
The boy who dreamed of cricket. The student who was pushed onto stages. The young man trying to find his own voice in front and behind the camera. The adult who finds home working in cinema. Chennai is the rhythm I am de-aging with. The streets where I laughed and learned. The place where every dream I have ever had began to make sense.
Today, when I create something, I carry all of that with me. My childhood. My teachers. My stubborn will. My failures and small victories. And the city that raised me in its own quiet and patient way.
I am excited where my journey will take me. But I know this.
I want to honour the people who believed in me before I believed in myself. I want to create work that feels honest. I want to stay rooted in the city that shaped me. And most importantly, be the native தமிழ் voice wherever I go.
Every story I tell, in some way, begins with Chennai. Because, Chennai is what that keeps giving me my story.”