User:G Kalpana/sandbox

= Aju Karthick =



G Karthick, (born 26 May 1987) is an Indian documentary filmmaker, director and screen writer, primarily working in Tamil cinema. In a career span of 8 years, he has directed some of the most recognizable and well-known Tamil documentary films and short movies. His documentary movies are outcome of his research on temples in India which reveal many unknown facts and disclose its history. Although working in the mainstream medium, his short movies are known for social awareness. As recognition of his work, the University of Texas, honoured him with “Doctor of fine arts” in the year 2017. In his very short journey, he achieved 4 International and 3 National awards.

Early life
Karthick was born in Thiruvarur, Tamil nadu, Inida in a middle class family. His father, Ganeshiyer familiarly known as Deva bagam Ganeshan, well known Master Chef in Chennai and mother Lalitha is a home maker. His Grandfather Rajapatai P K. Jaganathan, from “Madurai original boys company” (a professional Tamil theater company) was a well known artist in drama industry since 1940. Aju Karthick studied in Ayyapa matriculation higher secondary school, Chennai and completed his school days in 2003. In schools, he actively participated and won prizes in athletic events.

Career
Karthick got a chance pursue a quality practice in Indian National Army for 3 years as a professional bodybuilder and achieved many state & national medals. Later he decided to quit the same and started to chase both his and his Grandfather’s dreams. As he was always dreaming to be a director, he chose visual communication in B.Sc(2006) ( Annamalai University, Chennai). He became a model and got many medals like Mr. Tamil Nadu, Mr. Kerala. Particularly, he won Mr. Chennai title for five times. More than all, he won the title of Mr. India in 2009. His thirst did not end with these medals; he continued his studies too and completed his Master of mass communication and journalism at ICFAI Business School of 2012. The pursuit towards his dream started again. He started his career as a director after crossing many hurdles.

Style of working
Karthick is well recognized for research & documentary films on ancient Hindu God and Goddess and his short movies create a social awareness.

Documentary movies
His documentaries mainly give descriptions about the history, tradition and various unknown facts of the Hindu temples, Hindu festivals, holy rivers of India, etc. In 2015, the first documentary movie “Sri Sastha Vijayam” manifested the complete details and solved widespread mysteries about Lord Sastha. Another notable work of Karthick is “My awesome days of Mahamaham” (in the year 2016) which was screened about the one of the most famous Hindu festivals, celebrated every 12 years in Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, India. In addition, the documentary “Gangathreeth” revealed the significance of river Ganga in the lives of people in the town Kasi, Uttar Pradesh, India and depicted the 64 Ghats of its shores.

Short movies
The main intention of most of his short movies is to create awareness among the people. It projected problems that every human being comes across in his day to day life and gave impetus to think on solutions towards positive changes. ‘ThotalSudum’, ‘NaanTheringeketaNeegaYapo’, ‘AarvaKolaru’, ‘Naan Dr’,  ‘Vanmam’, etc are few Tamil short movies added to his credits.

Best Social Cause Film Award:
2013- For ‘Joy of Sharing’ by Austin film society.

Young Debut Documentarian:
2014 – From Austin film society.

Best Young Documentarian Award:
2015 – From Austin Film Society.

Best young documentarian of India:
2016 – For ‘My Awesome Days of Maha magam’ from Global Indian Society Awards.