Pa. Ranjith

Some Lesser Known Facts About Pa. Ranjith

• Pa. Ranjith was initially not much interested in movies. In fact, according to him, he started watching movies after he entered college.

• It was after watching political movies that he developed an interest in cinema.

• Ranjith has a keen interest in politics and has been very open about his views on politics, caste and other social issues.

•  He was enamoured by how cinema could make him feel what the characters on screen were feeling and how he could identify with them, emotionally and politically even without knowing the language.

• Ranjith is an atheist now, but once in high school, he turned to Christianity.

• Explaining to why is he an atheist, he said that in his college time, he did a play called How To Kill God. He decided to be an atheist for a day just to see what happens. Nothing happened, and so, he stayed an atheist.

• Pa. Ranjith met his wife in college, and they got married. They also have a daughter. 

• Though Ranjith is an atheist, his wife is a devout Christian.

• Ranjith has been quite vocal about his Dalit identity as well as the caste politics he sees in the film industry and society at large.

• He bagged the SIIMA Award for Best Director- Tamil in 2015, for the film Masras (2014), which was his second film.

• Ranjith has directed 4 films; till now two of which were with the south superstar Rajinikanth. 

• The director still feels better directing the low budget films; as he claims that he does not get the desired freedom while directing a big movie where he has to make compromises like heroism and unrealistic sequences.