A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Alias:
லோகேஷ் கனகராஜ்
Birthplace:
Kinathukadavu, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Born:
March 14, 1986
Lokesh Kanagaraj is an Indian film director who works primarily in the Tamil film industry who started his film career with the 2016 anthology film called Aviyal. He is best known for writing and directing the action-thriller films Maanagaram (2017), Kaithi (2019), Master (2021) and Vikram (2022). Kanagaraj's films have been described as being oriented around the hyperlink crime cinema subgenre, with his work earning him comparisons to Quentin Tarantino. His films are known for depicting the dark underbelly of metropolitan cities through various characters, with the nexus between the police force and organized crime syndicates being a key feature of his work. Kaithi (2019), Vikram (2022), and Leo (2023) take place in the same cinematic universe, dubbed the LCU (Lokesh Cinematic Universe), and share interrelated subplots, themes and characters.
Dialogue:
2017 Maanagaram
2019 Kaithi
2021 Master
Director:
2016 Aviyal
2017 Maanagaram
2019 Kaithi
2021 Master
2022 Vikram
2023 Leo
2025 Coolie
???? Chapter Zero
???? Irumbu Kai Maayavi
???? Kaithi 2
???? Rolex
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj Next Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Prabhas Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Sivakarthikeyan Project
???? Vikram 2
Original Story:
2016 Aviyal
2017 Maanagaram
2019 Kaithi
2021 Master
2022 Vikram
2023 Bholaa
2023 Leo
2023 Mumbaikar
2025 Coolie
???? Chapter Zero
???? Irumbu Kai Maayavi
???? Kaithi 2
???? Rolex
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj Next Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Prabhas Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Sivakarthikeyan Project
???? Vikram 2
Presenter:
2016 Aviyal
2017 Maanagaram
2019 Kaithi
2021 Master
2022 Vikram
2023 Bholaa
2023 Leo
2023 Michael
2023 Mumbaikar
2025 Coolie
???? Chapter Zero
???? Irumbu Kai Maayavi
???? Kaithi 2
???? Rolex
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj Next Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Prabhas Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Sivakarthikeyan Project
???? Vikram 2
Producer:
2016 Aviyal
2017 Maanagaram
2019 Kaithi
2021 Master
2022 Vikram
2023 Bholaa
2023 Leo
2023 Michael
2023 Mumbaikar
2025 Coolie
???? Benz
???? Chapter Zero
???? Irumbu Kai Maayavi
???? Kaithi 2
???? Lokesh Kanagaraj 01
???? Mr. Bhaarath
???? Rolex
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj Next Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Prabhas Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Sivakarthikeyan Project
???? Vikram 2
Screenplay:
2016 Aviyal
2017 Maanagaram
2019 Kaithi
2021 Master
2022 Vikram
2023 Bholaa
2023 Leo
2023 Michael
2023 Mumbaikar
2025 Coolie
???? Benz
???? Chapter Zero
???? Irumbu Kai Maayavi
???? Kaithi 2
???? Lokesh Kanagaraj 01
???? Mr. Bhaarath
???? Rolex
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj Next Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Prabhas Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Sivakarthikeyan Project
???? Vikram 2
Story:
2016 Aviyal
2017 Maanagaram
2019 Kaithi
2021 Master
2022 Vikram
2023 Bholaa
2023 Leo
2023 Michael
2023 Mumbaikar
2025 Coolie
???? Benz
???? Chapter Zero
???? Irumbu Kai Maayavi
???? Kaithi 2
???? Lokesh Kanagaraj 01
???? Mr. Bhaarath
???? Rolex
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj Next Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Prabhas Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Sivakarthikeyan Project
???? Vikram 2
Writer:
2016 Aviyal
2017 Maanagaram
2019 Kaithi
2021 Master
2022 Vikram
2023 Bholaa
2023 Leo
2023 Michael
2023 Mumbaikar
2025 Coolie
???? Benz
???? Chapter Zero
???? Irumbu Kai Maayavi
???? Kaithi 2
???? Lokesh Kanagaraj 01
???? Mr. Bhaarath
???? Rolex
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj Next Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Prabhas Project
???? Untitled Lokesh Kanagaraj/Sivakarthikeyan Project
???? Vikram 2
Story:
2018 Vella Raja
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.