He easily is one of our most favorite directors, not just because of the fact that we have liked most of his movies and all but one of his movies have been huge successes at the box office, but his movies have just been a treasure hove of some truly landmark & path breaking filming locations, hitherto unseen and unexplored in Tamil movies. But it wasn’t this way when he first came into the scene in 2000. When his debut movie Minnale was released and looking at the way the songs (especially vaseegara) were picturized, it was safe to say that he wasn’t our favorite director. But then over the course of his next few films, he has introduced such beautiful filming locations not just inside India (recall Alleppey in Vinnaithaandi varuvaaya) but also across the continents of Europe and North America, that he has rapidly climbed and claimed himself a spot among the best directors in Tamil cinema, when it comes to picturization of songs. (At this juncture, we also have to mention that in a recent interview, he did mention the fact that he had only 4 hours to shoot the entire Vaseegara song and that kind of explained why it was badly picturized.)

And on top of all that, he is one of those very few Tamil directors who releases the DVD of his movies with a decent Director’s commentary section in the special features. He also makes sure that he thanks everyone associated with the various filming locations that was used in the movie, as part of the end credits, which makes our job that much more easier.

This page lists the compilation of his filming locations and we are pretty confident that this list will only grow longer and he will continue to enthrall us with never before seen filming locations.

His filming locations:
Anchor Bay, Malta
Au Coquelet Cafe – Berkeley, California
Azure Window – Gozo, Malta
Blair Hall – Princeton University, New Jersey, USA
Chalice Sculpture – Christchurch, New Zealand
Church of St. Publius – Floriana, Malta
Doe Memorial Library – University of California at Berkeley
Elliot’s Beach – Besant Nagar, Chennai
Fisherman’s Cove – Chennai, India
Fort Totten Park – New York, USA
Gandhi Statue – San Francisco, California
Gateway of India – Mumbai, India
Green Sergeant’s Covered Bridge – Stockton, New Jersey, USA
Hard Rock Cafe – San Francisco, California
Holder Hall – Princeton University, New Jersey
India Gate – New Delhi
Kempty Falls – Mussoorie, India
Lombard Street – San Francisco, California
Our Lady of the Mount Chapel – Goa, India
Palace of Fine Arts Theater – San Francisco, USA
Princeton University Chapel – Princeton, New Jersey, USA
Ross Island – Andaman & Nicobar Islands, India
Sri Venkateswara Temple – Bridgewater, New Jersey, USA
St. Joseph Parish Church – Kalkara, Malta
St. Mary’s Forane Church – Pulincunnoo, Kerala, India
St. Mary Magdalene Church – Dingli, Malta
Hosanna song – St. Paul’s Square – Mdina, Malta
Taj Mahal – Agra, India
Thalankuppam – Chennai, India
Thorsen House – Berkeley, California, USA
Upper Barakka Gardens – Valletta, Malta
Van Sandt Covered Bridge – Bucks County, Pennsylvania

His movies:
Gharshana
Kaakka Kaakka
Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein
Vaaranam Aayiram
Vettaiyadu Vilaiyaadu
Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa
Ye Maaya Chesave