Pa. Ranjith (born 8 December 1982) is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer who works in Tamil cinema. Born into a Dalit family on the edge of Chennai, he is the first major film-maker in the industry to tell stories about Dalit communities from the inside and to place the image and ideas of B. R. Ambedkar openly on screen. Through his company Neelam Productions and its cultural wing he has also launched other directors, musicians and writers.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Pa. Ranjith |
| Born | 8 December 1982, Karalapakkam, near Avadi, Tamil Nadu |
| Age | 43 |
| Occupation | Film director, screenwriter, producer |
| Years active | 2012–present |
| Known for | Attakathi, Madras, Kabali, Kaala, Sarpatta Parambarai, Thangalaan |
| Education | Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai |
| Production company | Neelam Productions |
| Spouse | Anitha |
| Children | 2 |
Early Life
Ranjith grew up in Karalapakkam, a village near Avadi on the outskirts of Chennai. He has spoken of the everyday humiliations of caste that he saw as a child, including being made to stand apart at shops and on the way to school. He studied painting at the Government College of Fine Arts in Chennai, where the college film society’s screenings of world cinema, and in particular of films about ordinary people such as Children of Heaven and City of God, decided him on becoming a director. He worked as an assistant to Venkat Prabhu.
Films
Attakathi and Madras
Attakathi (2012), a light comedy about a suburban youth who keeps falling in love, was notable for showing a Dalit neighbourhood as a place of ordinary pleasures. Madras (2014), with Karthi, centred on a wall in a north Chennai housing board colony which rival political factions fight to paint with their leaders’ portraits, and showed how such parties use and discard young Dalit men.
With Rajinikanth
Rajinikanth then chose to work with him twice. In Kabali (2016) the star played an ageing gangster who defends Tamil plantation workers in Malaysia and insists on wearing a suit because his people were told they could not. In Kaala (2018) he was the protector of the Dharavi slum in Mumbai against a politician who wants its land; the film reversed the imagery of the Ramayana, with the dark-skinned hero in black and the villain in white.
Later films
Sarpatta Parambarai (2021) recreated the boxing clans of north Madras in the 1970s against the background of the Emergency and is widely considered his best work. Natchathiram Nagargiradhu (2022) examined love, caste and sexuality within a theatre group. Thangalaan (2024), with Vikram, was a historical fantasy about tribal labourers recruited by a British officer to find gold at Kolar. His next film, Vettuvam, was shadowed by the death of a stunt performer in an accident during shooting in July 2025.
Neelam
He founded Neelam Productions in 2016; its name means blue, the colour of the Ambedkarite movement. It has produced Mari Selvaraj’s Pariyerum Perumal (2018), Irandam Ulagaporin Kadaisi Gundu, Writer, Seththumaan, Blue Star and J Baby, most of them by first-time directors. The Neelam Cultural Centre runs an annual arts festival, a publishing house and a magazine. In 2017 he helped form The Casteless Collective, a band that joins the gaana street music of north Chennai with rock and rap in songs against caste and manual scavenging.
Views
He describes himself as an Ambedkarite and has said that he makes commercial films so that his politics will reach the largest audience. His remarks on Tamil history and on caste among the non-Brahmin castes have several times led to police complaints and public controversy.
Personal Life
He is married to Anitha, and they have a daughter and a son.
Featured image: Pa. Ranjith in April 2018. Photo by Hemalataeditor, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
