Hari (director)

Hari was born on 26 December 1973 in the Thoothukudi district in Tamil Nadu, India. His father, Gopalakrishnan, runs a grocery store.^[3] Later, his family moved to Chennai, where Hari graduated with a degree in commerce.^[4]

Hari first joined as an assistant, gaining experience by working with various directors, including Senthilnathan, Jeevabalan, Ameerjan, K. Natraj in Valli, Alex Pandian, and Nassar in Avatharam.^[4] Later, he assisted K. Balachander in his film Kalki and worked as an associate director with Saran in the films Amarkalam, Parthen Rasithen and Alli Arjuna.^[5][6][7]

Hari's first film, in 2002, was Thamizh, with Prashanth and Simran. Film critic Balaji commented that it was "one of the few movies in recent times where a lot of importance seems to have been attached to the script. In spite of the flimsy story and routine screenplay where a youth grows to be a "dada", the dialogs elevate the quality of the movie and make it very enjoyable".^[8] His second film, Saamy, under the Kavithaalaya banner, starred Vikram. It was named the year's biggest hit,^[9] grossing ₹160 million.^[10] Its success led to remakes in Telugu (Lakshmi Narasimha),^[11] Kannada (Ayya)^[12] and Hindi (Policegiri).^[13] His next two were films Kovil, with Silambarasan and Arul with Vikram. In 2005, he made Ayya, starring Sarathkumar, which introduced Nayantara to Tamil cinema. His next film was Aaru, with Suriya in 2005. In 2007, he directed two films, Thaamirabharani with Vishal and Vel, with Suriya. In 2008, he directed Seval, with Bharath. Ayyappa Prasad from Nowrunning.com stated that Hari "panders to the taste of his rural audience all the way, but the movie is bound to disappoint city-dwellers, since neither the story nor its treatment appeal to anyone with high IQ."^[14]

In 2010 Hari directed his tenth film Singam, with Suriya, marking their third collaboration. The film was one of the top box office films of the year,^[15] although reviewers identified it as a standard masala entertainer.^[16][17] Following its success, the film was remade in Hindi (Singham), Kannada (Kempe Gowda) and Bengali (Shotru).^[18][19] After directing Venghai, a film with Dhanush and Tamannaah Bhatia in the lead, he made a sequel to Singam, with Suriya reprising his role as Duraisingam. It was named one of the biggest box office hits of 2013,^[20][21] with Sify stating that it was "the biggest theatrical earner" of the year.^[22] He worked for the second time with Vishal, in a film titled Poojai,^[23] which had Shruti Haasan as the female lead.^[24] Hari joined with Suriya for the fifth time for Singam 3 (2017). In 2018, he directed Saamy Square, the sequel of Saamy starring Vikram in the lead role. The film marks the third collaboration between Hari and Vikram. The film has met with mixed response.^[25]

Hari started working with actor and also his brother-in-law, Arun Vijay, in their first collaboration, Yaanai, which was released in 2022.^[26] In 2024, he joined with Vishal in their third collaboration with Rathnam (2024), which received mixed reviews from movie critics.^[27]

After Saamy Square, Hari will most likely team up with Suriya yet again. Earlier, director Hari revealed that his next project with Suriya would not be Singam 4, but a fresh script. In an interview with an entertainment portal, Hari has disclosed details about this untitled film. In February 2020, Studio Green officially announced that Hari's next movie with Surya would be titled "Aruvaa" and would be released in Diwali 2020, but now Suriya has proceeded with his other projects, and it is uncertain whether Aruvaa will happen or not.^[28]

Hari is married to former actress Preetha Vijayakumar, the daughter of Vijayakumar and Manjula, half-sister of actor Arun Vijay, and has three sons.^[29]

Hari's films are usually fast-paced and are primarily in the action and masala genres. Due to his preference for such films, Hari has been nicknamed the "Aruva director" as the aruva (sickle) is present in most of his films. Hari's films often include recurring elements such as ferocious protagonists, humorous subplots, and item numbers.^{[30][31][32][33][34][35][36]}