Ameer (director)

Early life and career

Ameer Sultan was born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu India. He initially studied economics and worked as an entrepreneur before starting to work as an assistant director to Tamil filmmaker Bala on his award winning film Sethu in 1999 Shortly after, he directed his first film, the romantic comedy Mounam Pesiyadhe (2002). The film starred Suriya in the lead and became Trisha Krishnan's first release featuring her in a leading role. The same year, he began his own production company, Teamwork Production House. His second directorial was the mystery thriller Raam, which he produced himself and released A three years later. The film, which revolves around an autistic teenager, portrayed by Jiiva, who is highly attached to his mother, but becomes suspected of having murdered her, received critical acclaim, with Jeeva and the film's composer Yuvan Shankar Raja winning awards at the 2005 Cyprus International Film Festival. It also became Jeeva's breakthrough in the film industry, who till then had appeared in two unsuccessful home productions only. In 2007, he directed the drama Paruthiveeran set in a village in Tamil Nadu, which marked the debut of Karthi, younger son of Sivakumar and brother of Suriya. Critics heaped high praise on the film and Ameer's direction, while Karthi as well as Priyamani, who performed the female lead, won several notable prizes for their performances. Paruthiveeran remains Ameer's most acclaimed work, having received six Filmfare Awards South including the Best Film and Best Director trophies, two National Film Awards, two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and four Vijay Awards. The film further fetched accolades at international platform, winning the Best Film Award at the Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema and Netpac Special Mention award at the Berlin International Film Festival. He did his fourth directorial, Aadhi Bhagavan, featuring Jayam Ravi and Neetu Chandra in the lead roles, released 2013 for positive reviews. Ameer's next film is Jihad which is his own production.That is a love story.

Controversy

On 24 October 2008, Ameer was arrested. Being a Tamil activist, he took part in a film rally condemning state atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka, organised by director Bharathiraja, also a Tamil activist, and other prominent Tamil directors, actors, and producers. The rally was part of statewide protests across Tamil Nadu in 2008 condemning Sri Lanka. During the rally, Ameer and fellow director Seeman made speeches criticising the Indian government and expressing support to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a Tamil separatist group on the island and condemning the genocide of Tamils in Sri Lanka. The two were later released on bail with the help of their assistant directors, Bharathiraja, and actor R. Sarath Kumar. Other Film directors such as Balu Mahendra, Bhagyaraj, Cheran, R K Selvamani, V Sekar, Bala, Rajkapoor, lyricists Arivumathi, Snehan and others waited from 8 am for the two directors' release. Ameer has expressed strong support to Eelam Tamils right to self-determination and the independence of Tamil Eelam.

On November 2016, Ameer criticized Rajinikanth for supporting demonetization scheme introduced by Indian Government questioning the integrity of Rajinikanth on black money.

Awards

Filmfare Awards South
Best Movie (Tamil)
2007 Paruthiveeran
Best Director (Tamil)
2007 Paruthiveeran
Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema's Award for Best Film
2007 Paruthiveeran
Berlin Film Festival – Netpac Award – Special Mention
2007 Paruthiveeran