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Mohan G.
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Mohan G., also known as Mohan G Kshatriyan,[1] is an Indian film director, producer, and screenwriter, who primarily active in the Tamil cinema. He is best known for Pazhaya Vannarapettai (2016), Draupathi (2020), Rudra Thandavam(2021) and Bakasuran (2023).
Key Information
Personal life
[edit]Mohan resides in Royapuram, Chennai.[2] He belongs to the Vanniyar community. Mohan G revealed that he had used his name "Mohan G Kshatriyan" during the release of his film Pazhaya Vannarapettai (2016) and claimed to have an attraction towards the name. He also claimed that "Kshatriyan" is a name which represents warrior spirit and also said that he has his caste name written as "Vanniya Kula Kshatriya" in his birth certificate.[3] During an interview in February 2020, Mohan G said the suffix "Kshatriyan" in his name means as “someone who defends society” and said that he is totally unaware of what other varnas do.[4]
Career
[edit]Mohan began his directorial career with Pazhaya Vannarapettai (2016), before making Draupathi (2020). The film had to be crowdfunded as no producer was willing to produce the film, fearing it would incite controversy.[5][6][7] Opening to negative reviews,[8] the film was criticized for its alleged intent to uphold casteism.[9]
He worked with Richard Rishi again on Rudra Thandavam (2021).[10] The film claimed that people belonging to the scheduled castes misuse the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, an affirmative action legislation meant to protect them from discrimination and violence. It echoed the political views of the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) party.[11] The film, criticised for allegedly promoting caste-pride and encouraging communalist hostility,[12][13][14] received mostly negative reviews.[15]
In 2023, Mohan worked on Bakasuran featuring Selvaraghavan and Natty in the lead roles.[16] Following the film's release, Mohan noted that he had been approached by Telugu film producer Bellamkonda Suresh to direct the Telugu version of the film.[17]
Mohan's upcoming film will also be with Richard, marking his third collaboration with the actor.[18]
Arrest
[edit]The district Cyber Crime Police arrested Mohan G in Chennai on 25 September 2024 for hurting the sentiments of Hindu devotees and Hindus during a YouTube interview where Mohan claimed that impotency-inducing pills were mixed with panchamirtham at the Palani Arulmigu Dhandayuthapani temple.[19] His arrest was after a case filed by the Samayapuram police after the Manager of the Samayapuram Arulmigu Mariamman temple submitted a complaint against Mohan G.[20] The next day Mohan G was represented by a lawyer from Pattali Makkal Katchi and he was released in his own bail by the Judicial Magistrate Court-III in Trichy.[19][21] After his request of Anticipatory bail, the Madurai high court granted him anticipatory bail on several conditions including giving apologies in Social media and popular English and Tamil newspapers in Tamil Nadu, attending the Palani police station everyday for three weeks to sign and that he should not be a mouth-militant and verify information before making any claims. The Judge also suggested that if Mohan G really cared about the Palani temple, he can go there and do cleanliness work.[19] In November 2024, Mohan G released a video of his apology saying "I express my deepest regret. I will not make any claims like that again without verifying."[22]
Filmography
[edit]Films
[edit]| Year | Film | Director | Producer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Pazhaya Vannarapettai | Yes | No | |
| 2020 | Draupathi | Yes | Yes | |
| 2021 | Rudra Thandavam | Yes | Yes | |
| 2023 | Bakasuran | Yes | Yes | |
| 2026 | Draupathi 2 | Yes | No |
References
[edit]- ^ "Director Mohan G Kshatriyan's next film with Selvaraghavan titled 'Bakasuran'". 16 April 2022.
- ^ "Mohan G gets bail after being arrested for his controversial statement on Pazhani Panchamirtham". 25 September 2024 – via The Economic Times - The Times of India.
- ^ "Mohan G opens up about his name in social media". 24 February 2023.
- ^ "Morale Boosters for the Unsettled Mighty". 3 May 2020.
- ^ Sangeetha, P. "A film on Chennai's 2013 fake marriage cartel". The Times of India.
- ^ "உண்மையை சொன்ன திரௌபதி படம்... வரிந்து கட்டி வக்காளத்து வாங்கும் கருணாஸ்..!". Asianet News Network Pvt Ltd.
- ^ "Director of 'Draupathi' says similarities with popular leader are unintentional". The Hindu. 7 January 2020.
- ^ Thirumurthy, Priyanka (28 February 2020). "'Draupathi' review: A vile casteist film that was better off not made". The News Minute.
- ^ "Films on inter-caste marriages stoke intense political debate in Tamil Nadu". The New Indian Express. 29 February 2020. Retrieved 25 September 2021.
- ^ "ருத்ர தாண்டவம் - சினிமா விமர்சனம்". BBC News தமிழ் (in Tamil).
- ^ Ganeshan, Balakrishna (22 December 2021). "How cinema is used as a vehicle for hate politics in Tamil Nadu". The News Minute. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
- ^ Rajamani, Rajesh (28 December 2021). "The Super and Snoozy Seven: Presenting the best, and worst, of Tamil cinema in 2021". Newslaundry. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
- ^ Singaravel, Bharathy (9 October 2022). "How recent Tamil cinema has tackled gender, caste and communalism on screen". The News Minute. Retrieved 23 November 2024.
- ^ "Why Tamil Nadu-Style Coalitions of Non-Elite Social Groups are Vital to Politics | NewsClick". 18 October 2021.
- ^ "என்னது மிஷ்கின் கையால் இயக்குநர் மோகன் ஜிக்கு விருதா ? அதிர்ச்சியில் ரசிகர்கள்". Dinamani (in Tamil). 15 August 2022.
- ^ "Bakasuran first look out: Selvaraghavan looks fierce in Mohan G's next". 26 August 2022.
- ^ "Bakasuran remake on the cards". Cinema Express.
- ^ "Richard Rishi and Mohan G to collaborate again!". Only Kollywood. 28 February 2023.
- ^ a b c மு.பூபாலன், செ.சல்மான் பாரிஸ்,அ.பாலாஜி (1 October 2024). "Madurai high court Slams and Condition Bail to Director G Mohan". www.vikatan.com/ (in Tamil). Retrieved 28 November 2024.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Desk, Online (24 September 2024). "Palani panchamirtham row: Filmmaker Mohan G held, left out on bail; judge says arrest made in haste". dtnext. Retrieved 26 November 2024.
{{cite web}}:|last=has generic name (help) - ^ The Hindu Bureau (24 September 2024). "Palani panchamirtham row: Director Mohan G arrested, released on own bail". The Hindu. Retrieved 28 November 2024.
- ^ Natarajan, Malavica (25 November 2024). ""நான் அப்படி செய்திருக்கக் கூடாது.. ஆழ்மனதிலிருந்து மன்னிப்பு கேட்கிறேன்".. சரணடைந்த இயக்குநர்". Tamil Hindustan Times (in Tamil). Retrieved 28 November 2024.
External links
[edit]Mohan G.
View on Grokipediafrom Grokipedia
Early life and background
Upbringing and family
Mohan G. was born on May 28, 1985, in Tamil Nadu, India, into a Hindu family from a non-upper caste background.[10][5] He spent his childhood in Old Washermanpet and grew up in the Royapuram area of North Chennai, regions characterized by working-class demographics.[3][11] In interviews, Mohan G. has described his early family environment as largely non-religious and secular, despite its Hindu roots, which contrasted with his later public expressions of cultural and religious identity.[5] He completed his secondary education at P.A.K. Palanisami Higher Secondary School in Chennai before pursuing engineering studies, reflecting a modest socioeconomic trajectory typical of his neighborhood.[11]Entry into filmmaking
Mohan G., having been raised in the Royapuram area of North Chennai, entered Tamil cinema in the mid-2010s by writing and directing his debut feature Pazhaya Vannarapettai, released in 2016.[12] The film, a political crime thriller centered on events in the Washermanpet locality, represented his first professional engagement with directing and screenwriting in the industry.[13][14] No prior assistant roles, short films, or formal training in available records precede this project, suggesting a direct transition to feature-length production amid the competitive Kollywood landscape.[3] The debut starred newcomers like Prajin Padmanabhan and addressed local political dynamics, aligning with Mohan G.'s roots in North Chennai's urban environment.[14]Professional career
Early projects
Mohan G. directed and wrote Pazhaya Vannarapettai, his feature film debut, a Tamil-language political crime thriller released on December 2, 2016.[14] Produced by Sri Krishna Talkies, the film featured lead actors Prajin Padmanabhan and Ashmitha, with supporting roles filled by character actors such as Karunas, Richard Rishi, and Nishanth, lacking involvement from major commercial stars typical of high-budget Tamil productions.[14][15] The narrative follows five friends detained as suspects in a political murder, highlighting police tactics to maintain public image amid pressure.[14] It received mixed critical reception, including a 3/5 rating from The Times of India, and an average user score of 5.2/10 on IMDb from 194 ratings.[16][14] Specific box office figures remain unreported in major trade sources, reflecting the distribution hurdles often faced by independent Tamil films with limited marketing and theater allocations.[14]Directorial breakthroughs
Mohan G.'s breakthrough as a director came with Draupathi (2020), a social drama that navigated pre-release protests and threats over its depiction of inter-caste tensions and alleged promotion of upper-caste narratives, yet secured theatrical release through crowdfunding efforts when traditional producers demurred. The film grossed Rs. 11.30 crore in its opening week and Rs. 2.60 crore in the second, establishing it as the first Tamil blockbuster of 2020 despite boycott calls from activist groups accusing it of casteism. Mohan G. defended the content as drawn from documented cases of fictitious inter-caste marriages and rackets exploiting social divisions, rather than ideological advocacy, paralleling empirical patterns of violence in such scenarios often underreported in mainstream discourse.[17][18] Building on this momentum, Rudra Thandavam (2021), an action thriller starring Richard Rishi alongside Gautham Vasudev Menon, Radha Ravi, and Thambi Ramaiah, centered on a cop ensnared in false charges amid mafia conflicts, earning Rs. 7.16 crore net in India over its first six days. While commercial performance reflected audience interest in its procedural elements, critical reception split along ideological lines, with left-leaning outlets like The Hindu decrying its "dangerous" handling of caste protection themes as propaganda, countered by assertions of fidelity to real-life protective caste dynamics underrepresented in dominant narratives. The film's direct rebuttal to Draupathi detractors underscored Mohan G.'s persistence against institutional resistance in Tamil cinema.[19][20][21] Bakasuran (2023), featuring Selvaraghavan in the lead and probing cyber-enabled prostitution networks, further elevated Mohan G.'s profile by opening to Rs. 1 crore on day one—deemed exceptional for its Rs. 6 crore budget—amid mixed critiques that praised its urgency on exploitation but faulted preachy tones from progressive media perspectives. This output highlighted his pattern of surmounting production hurdles to deliver low-budget hits tackling causal chains of social predation, with box office resilience evidencing appeal beyond elite disapproval.[22][23]Thematic focus and style
Mohan G.'s films recurrently examine caste dynamics in Tamil Nadu, portraying inter-caste conflicts and the exploitation of marginalized communities by political and religious entities, often drawing from real-world patterns of violence. For instance, his narratives highlight how dominant castes and intermediate groups like Vanniyars face retaliatory aggression, while critiquing the instrumentalization of Scheduled Caste grievances for electoral gain, amid NCRB data indicating a 68% rise in atrocities against Scheduled Castes in Tamil Nadu from 1,144 cases in 2019 to 1,921 in 2023.[24] This approach stems from causal observations of societal fractures, where caste pride is depicted not as inherent supremacy but as a defensive response to existential threats like forced conversions, which he links to broader cultural erosion.[5] A key motif is skepticism toward religious proselytism, framed as predatory rather than benign outreach, with conversions portrayed as tools for demographic shifts and loss of indigenous traditions, echoing historical patterns of colonial disruption extended into modern evangelism targeting vulnerable castes.[5] Anti-establishment undertones pervade his work, challenging entrenched Dravidian ideologies that prioritize anti-Brahmin rationalism and secularism, which he views as masking deeper hypocrisies in addressing temple governance or caste-based reservations without empirical scrutiny of outcomes like persistent violence.[25] These narratives amplify voices from non-upper-caste Hindu backgrounds, such as his own Vanniyar roots, by foregrounding unvarnished rural grit over sanitized urban progressivism. Stylistically, Mohan G. employs low-budget aesthetics to evoke raw realism, relying on crowd-funding and minimal production values—as seen in Draupathi's independent financing—to prioritize narrative intensity over spectacle, fostering an unpolished authenticity that mirrors the subjects' lived precarity.[26] He leverages social media platforms like X for direct promotion, debate, and controversy generation, bypassing traditional gatekeepers to engage audiences on contentious issues, though this invites accusations of sensationalism from outlets aligned with Dravidian orthodoxy.[27][6] While praised for exposing hypocrisies in social justice rhetoric—such as selective evangelism amid caste crimes—his oeuvre draws fire for allegedly stoking majoritarian sentiments through Hindu-centric defenses, yet such critiques often overlook analogous unchallenged portrayals in pro-Dalit cinema, revealing selective outrage tied to ideological alignments rather than uniform standards.[28][29] This tension underscores his commitment to causal realism over consensus, prioritizing empirical societal data over politically calibrated narratives.[5]Controversies
Disputes over film content
Mohan G.'s directorial debut Draupadi, released on January 3, 2020, drew protests and petitions from activists alleging it promoted casteist violence and honor killings against inter-caste couples, portraying lower-caste men as luring upper-caste women into exploitative relationships.[30][31][32] A petition was filed in the Madras High Court challenging the film's censor certification on these grounds, but it was dismissed by a single judge bench, permitting release.[18] Mohan G. rebutted the claims, stating the narrative addressed fictitious love marriages and fake rackets preying on upper-caste families, drawing from documented instances of reverse discrimination rather than endorsing caste hierarchies.[18] The film underwent censor-mandated cuts, including blurring of community-specific imagery, which Mohan attributed to board sensitivities.[33] His follow-up story credit for Bakasuran, released on February 17, 2023, faced similar scrutiny for its depiction of online sex rackets, with critics arguing it reinforced regressive stereotypes about women's morality and offered superficial solutions to exploitation.[34][35][36] Mohan preemptively denied rumors of anti-caste bias, positioning the film as a procedural exposé on real trafficking networks without targeting communities, and urged educational screenings to highlight preventive awareness.[37][38] Despite vocal critiques from media outlets prone to favoring narratives critical of traditional structures, Bakasuran achieved theatrical release and subsequent OTT availability without successful boycott campaigns or judicial halts.[39] These film-specific disputes illustrate a pattern in Tamil cinema where scripts depicting upper-caste vulnerabilities or procedural realism on social ills encounter activist petitions and media backlash, often from sources aligned with Dravidian or anti-caste ideologies, while counterparts emphasizing atrocities against scheduled castes, such as Jai Bhim (2021), receive acclaim with minimal equivalent challenges.[6][29] Mohan G.'s works, including Draupadi's court-upheld certification, suggest such oppositions may reflect selective sensitivities rather than uniform application of content standards, as evidenced by the rarity of dismissed petitions against ideologically opposed films.[18]2024 arrest for temple remarks
In September 2024, Tamil film director Mohan G stated in a YouTube interview that contraceptive pills or impotency-inducing medication had been mixed into the panchamirtham—a traditional sweet prasadam distributed at the Palani Arulmigu Dhandayuthapani Swamy Temple dedicated to Lord Murugan—alleging it was part of a deliberate effort to target Hindu fertility and demographic decline.[40][41] He framed the claim amid discussions of the recent Tirupati laddu adulteration controversy, asserting based on unverified hearsay from temple staff that such adulteration had been suppressed and evidence destroyed, without providing empirical proof.[42][40] The statement prompted a complaint from devotee M. Kaviarasu, who accused Mohan of disseminating false information that outraged religious sentiments and threatened communal harmony in Tamil Nadu.[42] On September 24, 2024, Tiruchi district cybercrime police arrested Mohan at his Chennai residence, transported him to Tiruchy, and registered a case under provisions of the Information Technology Act for promoting enmity and hurting religious feelings through online content.[40][41] Mohan was produced before the Judicial Magistrate Court-III in Tiruchy later that day and granted bail on his own surety, with his counsel highlighting procedural irregularities in the arrest, such as lack of prior family notification.[42] Mohan defended his remarks as an exercise in free speech to question temple administration oversight, insisting they were grounded in reported internal issues rather than malice, though no subsequent lab tests or corroborating evidence from him materialized.[40] Critics, including temple authorities and state officials, condemned the claims as blasphemous fabrications akin to prior unsubstantiated conspiracies, emphasizing that while prasadam quality concerns like contamination have arisen historically in Indian temples, allegations of targeted demographic sabotage via pharmaceuticals lack scientific validation and risk inflaming divisions.[42][41] Tamil Nadu ministers subsequently warned of stringent action against similar unverified online assertions to safeguard public trust in religious institutions.[41]Works
Feature films
- Pazhaya Vannarapettai (2016): Mohan G.'s directorial debut, an independent Tamil-language action thriller released on December 2, 2016, with a runtime of 125 minutes.[43][44]
- Draupathi (2020): Independent Tamil-language drama directed by Mohan G., released on February 28, 2020.[45]
- Rudra Thandavam (2021): Tamil-language action drama independently directed by Mohan G., released on October 1, 2021, with a runtime of 167 minutes.[46][20]
- Bakasuran (2023): Mohan G.'s independent Tamil-language action film, released on February 17, 2023, with a runtime of 156 minutes.[47]
- Draupathi 2 (2025): Sequel to Draupathi, a Tamil-language historical action drama directed by Mohan G., announced on February 26, 2025, with principal photography completed by September 23, 2025; produced independently in association with Netaji Productions and G. M Film Corporation.[48][49]
Writing and production credits
Mohan G. has screenplay credits for Pazhaya Vannarapettai (2016), a political crime thriller centered on systemic corruption, where he crafted the narrative drawing from observed societal dynamics.[12] His writing extends to Draupathi (2020), an action drama addressing inter-caste tensions and legal inequities, scripted to highlight unfiltered causal chains of violence and retribution without narrative softening. For Bakasuran (2023), Mohan G. authored the screenplay for the vigilante thriller, incorporating elements of real-world exploitation patterns in labor and gender dynamics, as evidenced by the film's basis in documented societal vulnerabilities rather than fictional invention.[50][51] In production roles, Mohan G. independently financed Draupathi through crowdfunding on February 14, 2020, after major studios rejected the project due to its unflinching portrayal of caste-based atrocities, enabling circumvention of potential pre-release alterations.[12] He also produced Bakasuran, released on February 17, 2023, with a budget emphasizing practical storytelling over commercial concessions, resulting in a reported gross of approximately ₹10 crore against a modest outlay reflective of targeted distribution.[50][52] These efforts underscore his approach to backing scripts that prioritize empirical depictions of social causation over sanitized interpretations favored by institutional gatekeepers.[51]| Film | Writing Role | Production Role | Release Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pazhaya Vannarapettai | Screenplay | None | October 7, 2016[12] |
| Draupathi | Screenplay, Dialogue | Producer (crowdfunded) | February 21, 2020[12] |
| Bakasuran | Screenplay, Story | Producer | February 17, 2023[50] |