Lokesh Kanagaraj Age, Family, Biography & More

Some Lesser Known Facts About Lokesh Kanagaraj

• Lokesh Kanagaraj is an Indian film director and screenwriter who is well-known for working in the Tamil film industry. He rose to popularity with his directorial film Kaithi in 2019; the film proved to be his career’s turning point as it became a massive hit at the box office.

• Lokesh’s father worked as a bus conductor.

• During his college days, Lokesh got inclined towards filmmaking. After completing his master’s degree in management, he worked with a private bank in Chennai for almost five years. Out of sheer interest, Lokesh participated in the Clubace Short Film Festival, a corporate short film competition; one of the judges on the panel was the Indian director Karthik Subbaraj. In the competition, he presented his short film Acham Thavir, which received immense appreciation as the short film won the Best Director award at the competition. Karthik, who was charmed by the directorial abilities of Lokesh, encouraged him to pursue his career in filmmaking. Following his advice, Lokesh quit his job and pursued his passion as his career. In an interview, Lokesh revealed that he never received any professional training in direction, it was only Kamal Haasan‘s films through which he learnt the concepts of filmmaking.

• In 2014, Lokesh directed the short film Customer Delight, which won the Best Shortfilm Award at the All India Corporate Film Competition.

• On 16 March 2017, Lokesh was invited as a judge at the film festival AVTAR (Amateur Visualizers Talents Awards and Recognitions), which was held at Dr G R Damodaran College of Science, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

• In 2019, Lokesh gained recognition for directing the action thriller film Kaithi, which starred Karthi in the lead role; the film was nominated at the South Indian International Movie Awards for the Best Director Award.
  

  Lokesh Kanagaraj (right) while directing the film Kaithi (2019)

• Following the massive success of Kaithi, Lokesh directed the film Master in 2021, starring Vijay and Vijay Sethupathi; the film became the highest-grossing Tamil film of 2021. ^[2]News18 Additionally, Lokesh made a small appearance in the film Master.
  

  Lokesh Kanagaraj in a still from the film Master (2021)

• In 2022, Lokesh shot to fame for directing the action thriller film Vikram, starring Kamal Haasan; the film went on to become a huge success at the box office.
  

  Lokesh Kanagaraj on the sets of the film Vikram (2022)

• In 2023, Lokesh collaborated for the second time with actor Vijay in his directorial film Leo after the film Master, which was theatrically released in 2021.

• Following the massive success of the film Vikram (2022), Kamal Haasan gifted a Lexus ES 300h luxury car to Lokesh. ^[3]The Quint

• Lokesh launched Lokesh Cinematic Universe (LCU), a film franchise, which was the fusion of Lokesh’s directed Tamil action thriller films; the name “LCU” was suggested by his fans.

• In an interview, Lokesh talked about the person he was most inspired by and stated that the Indian actor Kamal Haasan was one of his favourite actors since his childhood, and he was immensely motivated by him to pursue a career in the film industry. He further stated due to Kamal Haasan’s influence on him, he questioned his mother that why she didn’t name him Vikram as Kamal Haasan’s film Vikram (1986) was released the same year Lokesh was born.

• The story of the Bollywood film Bholla, starring Ajay Devgan and Tabu, was adapted from Lokesh’s Tamil film Kaithi (2019)

• In 2023, Lokesh made a brief appearance in the Tamil film Singapore Saloon.