P. Vasu

P. Vasu's father, Peethambaran Nair, worked as a make-up man for N. T. Rama Rao and M. G. Ramachandran in their films during his time.[3] 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. Peethambharan died on 21 February 2011 at the age of 89.[4]

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.[5] He is a Malayali from Nedumbal, a beautiful village in Thrissur district, Kerala settled in Tamil Nadu.

Vasu joined director C. V. Sridhar as an assistant. Vasu started his career with Santhana Bharathi as a co-director and made films such as Panneer Pushpangal, Madhu Malar, Mella Pesungal, Sahasame Jeevitham and Needhiyin Nizhal. "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.[6]

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 average reviews and collections.[7][8]

Vasu also acts in other films. He usually portrays a supporting role or an antagonistic role. He has directed more than 60 movies in several languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi, including Apthamithra and Chandramukhi. His Apthamithra went on to cross the one-year mark, while legendary Chandramukhi has had a record run of 800 days and more.

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.[9][10] Later in April 2017, Vasu revealed that he still had intentions of making the film if he found a producer to help finance the project.[11] 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.[12][13] In 2018, Vasu announced intentions of making a live action film featuring an animated version of M. G. Ramachandran.[14]

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 90s with his sentimental tearjerkers. He started using sister-brother-mother-father sentiment".[15] According to Behindwoods, "Vasu's style of storytelling has pervasive dramatization with a more-than-usual touch of sentiment".[16]

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.[6] 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".[17]

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. He was awarded the Filmfare award for Best Direction for the movie Apthamitra. He also won the Tamil Nadu State Film Honorary Award - J. Jayalalithaa Award in 2002.[18] He was awarded the Kalaimaamani Award in 2004, reminiscent of his father Shri M. Peethambaram who was an awardee for Best make-up.

Vasu is a member of the state award selection committee and jury member of the committee for tax-free movies.[19]