Sriram Raghavan is an Indian film director and screen writer, who is popularly known for producing a 45 minute document fiction on Indian serial killer
Raman Raghav. His other notable movies include
Ek Hasina Thi and
Agent Vinod, but
Badlapur shot him to instant fame.
Early life
Sriram was born in Mumbai, Maharashtra, in a Tamil family. His father was a botanist and his mother, a movie lover. He grew up in Pune where he did his schooling at the St. Vincents High School. He graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.
Movie Career
After graduating from FTII, Sriram made a documentary
Raman Raghav, which was liked by
Ram Gopal Varma who got him to direct the thriller film
Ek Hasina Thi in 2004. The screenplay of the movie, starring
Urmila Matondkar and
Saif Ali Khan, was also written by Sriram.
Ek Hasina Thi revolves around a woman Sarika (Urmila Matondkar), who wants to take revenge with everyone who wronged her, especially Karan (Saif Ali Khan), who ruined her life. Aditya Srivastava, Seema Biswas, and Kavita Kaushik played other significant roles in the film.
After three years,
Sriram directed another thriller film
Johnny Gaddaar in 2007 with
Neil Nitin Mukesh in the lead alongside
Dharmendra,
Zakir Hussain,
Rimi Sen,
Vinay Pathak, and
Ashwini Kalsekar. The movie garnered critical acclaim and eventually became the sleeper hit of the year. It was also remade in Malayalam as Unnam and in Telugu as
Kamina. The film won the Filmfare Award for Best Sound Design, Star Guild Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role Neil Nitin Mukesh, and IIFA Award for Fresh Face of the Year Neil Nitin Mukesh, along with nominations for Stardust Superstar of Tomorrow Male Neil Nitin Mukesh, and Star Screen Award for Most Promising Newcomer Male Neil Nitin Mukesh.
Sriram then ventured into directing
Agent Vinod in 2012 with a star cast including
Saif Ali Khan and
Kareena Kapoor in the lead, while
Prem Chopra,
Adil Hussain,
Ravi Kishan and
Ram Kapoor were seen in other important roles. The movie revolves around an agent who sets out on a secret mission to figure out the reason behind the death of his colleague, but is taken by surprise when he gets to know of a huge conspiracy. Agent Vinod received a lot of buzz mainly because of good songs, but it garnered only mixed reviews, and was also declared a flop at the box office.
The directors 2016 release
Badlapur was one of the huge successes in his career, and was considered his breakthrough. This action thriller starred
Varun Dhawan and
Nawazuddin Siddiqui in leading roles with
Huma Qureshi,
Yami Gautam,
Vinay Pathak,
Divya Dutta and
Radhika Apte in supporting roles. The movie, which revolves around a man who tries to avenge the murder of his family members, was a huge box office success and received positive critical praises. Not only this, critics appreciated the director for making the film well, and also highlighted the good storytelling and excellent performances. The film got 15 nominations at the Stardust Awards including Best Film at the 61st Filmfare Awards. Sriram is also associated with the 2016 short film anthology
Shor Se Shuruaat that consists of seven unrelated short stories.