Eashvar Karthic

Eashvar Karthic is an Indian film director and actor who primarily works in Tamil and Telugu cinema. He made his directorial debut in Tamil with the mystery-thriller film Penguin (2020).

Early life
Eashvar grew up idolizing Jackie Chan and was inspired by the action films Rumble in the Bronx (1995) and Who Am I? (1998). However, it was after watching Mani Ratnam's Idhayathai Thirudathe on television that he decided to be a part of the film industry. Prior to his career in cinema, Eashvar had worked in the software industry and later in banking before transitioning into filmmaking in 2013.

Career
He initially set out to become an actor after leaving his bank job and worked in theatre, where he also discovered his talent for writing. After a struggle of seven years, he got an acting role in Magalir Mattum (2017) and V1 Murder Case (2019). By then, he realized that he was more inclined to film direction.

For over two years, he struggled to find opportunities until his friend Linga, who also acted on Penguin introduced him to Vijay Sethupathi. Vijay Sethupathi was impressed with one of his scripts and asked him to reach out to Stone Bench Films, leading to the inception of Penguin (2020). Eashvar completed the shoot for Penguin in thirty six days. His debut directorial has also been mentioned in several research journals that discuss women-centric films, OTT during the COVID-19 pandemic and representation of the subaltern. It was also the first major Tamil film to get a direct OTT release during the pandemic.

Eashvar is currently working on his Telugu directorial debut Zebra, a financial crime thriller film starring Satyadev, Dhananjaya, Priya Bhavani Shankar, and Amrutha Iyengar. Ravi Basrur was roped in as the music director. Zebra is currently in its post-production phase since 2023.