Personal life

P. Vasu's father, Peethambaram Nair, worked as a make-up man for M.G.R. and N.T.R. in their films during his time. He was one of the leading make-up artists during his period and was elected as the president of the make-up union Tamil Nadu for 30 years. He later went on to become a producer.

He produced about 25 films in Tamil and Telugu and became one of the leading producers in the south. He produced with his brother M.C. Sekhar, who was a cinematographer. M.C. Sekhar had worked as a cinematographer for more than 150 films. Peethambharam died on 21 February 2011 at the age of 89.

Vasu is an alumnus of Wesley High School, Chennai. Vasu is married to Shanthi and has a son, Sakthi Vasu, who is an actor and a daughter, Abhirami Vasudevan. His mother is Kamala. Vasu's brothers are Vidyasagar and Vimal, and his sisters are Vijaylakshmi, Vasantha and Vanaja.

Career

Vasu joined director C. V. Sridhar as an assistant. Vasu started his career with Santhana Bharathi as a co-director and made films like Panneer Pushpangal, Mella Pesungal, Sahasame Jeevitham, Neethiyin nizhal and Madhumalar. "We compromised on certain things as we had different approaches to the subject. That's the reason why some of our other movies failed to make a big impression in the box office, prompting us to take our own paths," he says.

He has directed more than 60 movies in several languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi, including Aptha Mitra and Chandra mukhi.

The director went through a career slump in the mid-1990s after a series of failures in 1995, through the Prabhu-starrers Kattumarakaran and Mr. Madras, while his high budget romantic musical Love Birds also received poor reviews and collections.

In June 2013, P. Vasu revealed that he was set to direct an English film titled Curry in Love with an apparent star cast of Sonam Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Vijay, Eddie Murphy and Jon Voight. However the supposed cast denied the reports as baseless and P. Vasu postponed the film, citing a delay in production. Similarly in early 2014, P. Vasu released an official statement claiming that his next film would be an animatronics venture titled Aishwaryavum Aayiram Kaakkavum and that Aishwarya Rai would feature in the leading role. Aishwarya Rai's team later denied claims citing that such allegations of an agreement were premature. He is currently directing the Kannada version of the 2013 Malayalam film Drishyam.

Style of Working

His films are usually made with a commercial format in the masala genre, with action, family sentiment, comedy, betrayal, revenge and redemption appearing as key themes. Family sentiment (i.e. melodrama) is the recurring themes in all of his directorials. Indiaglitz wrote: "Vasu ruled the early 90's with his sentimental tearjerkers. He started using sister-brother-mother-father sentiment". According to Behindwoods, "Vasu’s style of storytelling has pervasive dramatization with a more-than-usual touch of sentiment".

Vasu learnt the finer nuances of direction from Sridhar, under whom he started off as an assistant director, and added that he never followed Sridhar's style of filmmaking and has always tried to be original. Vasu said that during childhood, "I found myself watching films and narrating the stories to my friends in school. If the school would begin at nine I would reach there by eight and narrate the story for an hour".

Accolades

Vasu has won recognition for his work from the film fraternity and the state government. He won state awards for three years in a row from 1990, for Best Screenplay and Dialogues in Nadigan, in 1991 as Best Director in Chinna Thambi, and in 1992 for Best Screenplay and Story in Walter Vetrivel. He was awarded the Filmfare award for Best Direction in the movie Aaptha Mithra. He was awarded the Kalaimaamani Award in 2004, with his father Shri M. Peethambaram who was an awardee for his contribution in the field of make-up.

Vasu is a member of the state award selection committee and jury member of the committee for tax-free movies.

Filmography

As director

Year	Film	Cast	Language	Notes
1981	Panneer Pushpangal	Suresh, Shanthi Krishna	Tamil	Co-directed with Santhana Bharathi
1982	Madhu Malar	Pratap Pothan, Suhasini	Tamil	Co-directed with Santhana Bharathi
1983	Mella Pesungal	Vasanth, Bhanupriya	Tamil	Co-directed with Santhana Bharathi
1983	Guri	Rajkumar, Archana	Kannada	Super Hit 100 Days
1984	Sahasame Jeevitham	Balakrishna, Lizy	Telugu	Co-directed with Santhana Bharathi
1985	Kathanayaka	Vishnuvardhan, Sumalata Ambarish	Kannada	Super Hit 100 Days
	Needhiyin Nizhal	Sivaji Ganesan, Prabhu Ganesan	Tamil	Co-directed with Santhana Bharathi
1987	Jayasimha	Vishnuvardhan, Mahalakshmi	Kannada	Super Hit 25 weeks
	Samarappanam		Malayalam
	Jeevana Jyothi	Vishnuvardhan, Ambika	Kannada	Super Hit 100 Days
1988	Daada	Vishnuvardhan, Sangeeta Bijlani	Kannada	Super Hit 100 Days
	En Thangachi Padichava	Prabhu Ganesan, Rupini	Tamil	Remade in Hindi as Aaj Ka Arjun Remade in Telugu as Muddula Mavayya
1989	Vaathiyaar Veettu Pillai	Sathyaraj, Shobhana	Tamil	100th film of Sathyaraj
	Ponmana Selvan	Vijayakanth, Shobhana	Tamil
	Pillaikkaga	Prabhu Ganesan, Gowthami	Tamil
1990	Panakkaran	Rajinikanth, Gowthami	Tamil	Remake of Hindi film Laawaris
	Velai Kidaichuduchu	Sathyaraj, Gowthami	Tamil	Remade in Telugu as Assembly Rowdy Remade in Hindi as Loafer
	Nadigan	Sathyaraj, Kushboo	Tamil	Remake of Hindi film Professor
1991	Chinna Thambi	Prabhu, Kushboo	Tamil	Remade in Telugu as Chanti Remade in Kannada as Ramachari Remade in Hindi as Anari Best director Tamil Nadu State Award for 1992 the film
	Kizhakku Karai	Prabhu Ganesan, Kushboo	Tamil
	Adhikaari	Arun Pandiyan, Gowthami	Tamil
1992	Rickshaw Mama	Sathyaraj, Gowthami, Kushboo	Tamil
	Senthamizh Paattu	Prabhu Ganesan, Sukanya	Tamil
	Idhu Namma Bhoomi	Karthik Muthuraman, Kushboo	Tamil
	Amma Vandhachu	K. Bhagyaraj, Kushboo	Tamil
	Mannan	Rajinikanth, Vijayashanti, Kushboo	Tamil	Remake of Anuraga Aralithu
1993	Walter Vetrivel	Sathyaraj, Sukanya	Tamil	Remade in Telugu as S. P. Parasuram Remade in Hindi as Khuddar
	Uzhaippali	Rajinikanth, Roja	Tamil
	Udan Pirappu	Sathyaraj, Rahman, Sukanya	Tamil
1994	Sethupathi IPS	Vijayakanth, Meena	Tamil
	Sadhu	Arjun, Raveena Tandon	Tamil
1995	Kattumarakaran	Prabhu Ganesan, Anjali	Tamil
	Coolie	Sarath Kumar, Meena	Tamil
	Mr. Madras	Prabhu Ganesan, Sukanya	Tamil
1996	Love Birds	Prabhu Deva, Nagma	Tamil
1997	Vaimaye Vellum	R. Parthiban, Rakshana	Tamil
	Paththini	Jayaram, Kushboo	Tamil
1999	Suyamvaram	Sathyaraj, Prabhu Ganesan	Tamil
	Malabar Police	Sathyaraj, Kushboo	Tamil
	Ponnu Veetukaaran	Sathyaraj, Preetha Vijayakumar	Tamil
	Hogi Pyaar Ki Jeet	Ajay Devgan, Neha	Hindi
2000	Seenu	Karthik Muthuraman, Malavika	Tamil	Remake of Malayalam film Bharatham
	Vanna Thamizh Pattu	Prabhu Ganesan	Tamil
	Kakkai Siraginilae	R. Parthiban, Preetha Vijayakumar	Tamil
2001	Asathal	Sathyaraj, Ramya Krishnan	Tamil
2002	Prudhvi Narayana	Srihari, Vijayalakshmi	Telugu
2003	Hrudayavantha	Vishnuvardhan, Nagma	Kannada	Super Hit 100 Days
	Kadhal Kisu Kisu	Bala, Charmy Kaur	Tamil
2004	Apthamitra	Vishnuvardhan, Ramesh Arvind	Kannada	One Year Kannada Blockbuster Hit Remake of Malayalam Film Manichitrathazhu
2005	Chandramukhi	Rajinikanth, Prabhu Ganesan	Tamil	One year Tamil Blockbuster Hit Remake of Malayalam Film Manichitrathazhu
2006	Paramasivan	Ajith Kumar, Laila	Tamil	Remake of Hindi film Kartoos
2007	Maharadhi	Balakrishna, Meera Jasmine	Telugu
	Thottal Poo Malarum	Sakthi Vasu, Gowri Munjal	Tamil
2008	Krishnarjuna	Vishnu Vardhan Babu, Mamta Mohandas	Telugu
	Kuselan	Pasupathy, Rajinikanth, Prabhu	Tamil	Remake of Malayalam film Katha Parayumbol
	Kathanayakudu	Jagapathi Babu, Rajinikanth	Telugu
2010	Aptharakshaka	Vishnuvardhan, Sandhya	Kannada	35 Weeks Blockbuster
	Nagavalli	Venkatesh, Anushka	Telugu	Remake of Aptharakshaka Kannada
2011	Puli Vesham	R. K., Karthik, Sadha	Tamil	Remake of Kannada film Muniya
2012	Arakshaka	Upendra, Ragini Dwivedi, Sadha	Kannada	Hit 100 days
2014	Drishya	V. Ravichandran, Navya Nair	Kannada	Remake of Malayalam film Drishyam
2016	Shivalinga	Shiva Rajkumar, Vedhika	Kannada

As an actor

Year	Film	Role	Language	Notes
2000	Vallarasu	Kandhasamy	Tamil
2000	Seenu		Tamil
2001	Ee Parakkum Thalika	R. K. Santhanam	Malayalam
2001	Thenkasi Pattanam	Devaraj	Tamil
2002	Sundara Travels	Gayathri's father	Tamil
2003	Banda Paramasivam		Tamil
2003	Kadhal Kisu Kisu		Tamil
2004	Arasatchi		Tamil
2004	Maha Nadigan	Arivanandan	Tamil
2005	Chandramukhi		Tamil	Special appearance in song "Devuda Devuda"
2007	Manikanda		Tamil
2008	Dasavatharam	J. Ragavendra (Jaa Raa)	Tamil
2008	Kuselan		Tamil	Special appearance
2010	Naane Ennul Illai	himself	Tamil
2010	Aptharakshaka		Kannada	Special appearance in song "Chamundi Thaayiyaane"
2010	Thanthonni		Malayalam

As a writer

Year	Film	Credited as			Language	Notes
		Story	Screenplay	Dialogue
1986	Ee Jeeva Ninagagi	Yes	Yes		Kannada
1988	En Thangachi Padichava	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1988	Nammoora Raja	Yes			Kannada
1989	Vaathiyaar Veettu Pillai	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1989	Ponmana Selvan	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1990	Nadigan	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil	Best dialogue writer Tamil Nadu State Award for 1990 for the film
1990	Velai Kidaichuduchu	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1990	Panakkaran		Yes	Yes	Tamil
1991	Assembly Rowdy	Yes			Telugu	Remake of Velai Kidaichuduchu
1991	Chinna Thambi	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1991	Kizhakku Karai	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1992	Gharana Mogudu	Yes			Telugu	Remake of Anuraga Aralithu
1992	Chanti	Yes			Telugu	Remake of Chinna Thambi
1992	Rickshaw Mama	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1992	Senthamizh Paattu	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1992	Idhu Namma Bhoomi	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1992	Amma Vanthachu	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1992	Mannan		Yes	Yes	Tamil
1993	Anari	Yes			Hindi	Remake of Chinna Thambi
1993	Purusha Lakshanam	Yes			Tamil
1993	Walter Vetrivel	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1993	Uzhaippali	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1993	Udan Pirappu	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1994	Sethupathi IPS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1994	Sadhu	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1994	S. P. Parasuram	Yes			Telugu	Remake of Walter Vetrivel
1994	Bhale Pellam	Yes			Telugu
1994	Khuddar	Yes			Hindi	Remake of Walter Vetrivel
1994	Laadla	Yes			Hindi	Remake of Mannan
1995	Mr. Madras	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1995	Kattumarakaran	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1995	Coolie	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1995	Amma Koduku	Yes			Telugu	Remake of Senthamizh Paattu
1996	Love Birds	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1996	Aaj Ka Arjun	Yes			Hindi	Remake of En Thangachi Padichava
1996	Loafer	Yes	Yes		Hindi	Remake of Velai Kidaichuduchu
1997	Vaimaye Vellum	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1998	Ayushman Bhava	Yes			Malayalam
1999	Malabar Police	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
1999	Ponnu Veetukkaran	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
2000	Kakkai Siraginilae	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
2000	Vanna Thamizh Pattu	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
2001	Asathal	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
2003	Kadhal Kisu Kisu	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
2005	Chandramukhi		Yes	Yes	Tamil	Remake of Manichitrathazhu
2007	Thottal Poo Malarum	Yes	Yes	Yes	Tamil
2007	Paramasivan		Yes	Yes	Tamil
2008	Kuselan		Yes	Yes	Tamil
2010	Peddainti Alludu	Yes			Telugu
2011	Puli Vesham		Yes	Yes	Tamil
2016	Shivalinga	Yes	Yes		Kannada

As producer

Year	Film	Cast	Language	Notes
1993	Walter Vetrivel	Sathyaraj, Sukanya	Tamil	Produced by his wife Shanthi
1994	Sadhu	Arjun Sarja, Raveena Tandon	Tamil
1999	Malabar Police	Sathyaraj, Kushboo	Tamil	Produced by his wife Shanthi
2007	Thottal Poo Malarum	Sakthi Vasu, Gowri Munjal	Tamil

[ Source: Wikipedia ]