Pradeep Ranganathan

Pradeep Ranganathan is an Indian film director and actor from Chennai, who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. He is known for directing Comali (2019) and Love Today (2022). He debuted as a lead actor through Love Today. He also runs a Youtube channel which has over 5 lakh subscribers.

He began his career by making several short films including Whatsapp Kadhal (2015) and he used to multi-task by doing acting, editing and directing. He received his first feature film directorial debut opportunity from Jayam Ravi and Vels International who were impressed after watching some of his short films.

He made his directorial debut with Comali in 2019 which starred Jayam Ravi and Kajal Aggarwal and the film became a commercial success at the box office. Pradeep Ranganathan also eventually made a cameo appearance during the climax portion of Comali. He was the subject of controversy before the theatrical release of Comali as Rajinikanth demanded the film to be boycotted due to the depiction of the flashback of Rajinikanth where he promised to enter the politics in 1996 being mentioned in a portionof the film trailer. It was also a major talking point and highlight in the trailer of the film. The scene was subsequently removed from the film following the backlash.

In an interview, he had revealed that he took inspiration from the 1985 American science fiction film, Back to the Future, which he first saw the film as a kid on television as a dubbed version. He usually refers to Back to the Future whenever he begin working on his films. He also revealed that he takes notes from the Hindi filmmaker, Rajkumar Hirani, especially crediting his two most popular films, Munna Bhai MBBS (2003) and 3 Idiots (2009).

His second directorial venture, Love Today (2022) was based on his short film App(a) Lock and was a modest small budgeted theatrical release in Tamil Nadu. However, upon release, it became an instant blockbuster and surpassed expectations. Ranganathan rose to prominence and became an overnight sensation with Love Today. He also made his full-fledged acting debut with the film, playing the main male lead. He later revealed that Love Today is a reflection of some of his past personal life memories indicating the film as a sweet dedication to his ex-girlfriend instead of being a revenge film.

As director, writer, and actor