P. Vasu is an Indian director, writer and actor who works in Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Malayalam films. In a career spanning three decades, Vasu has directed over 50 films.
P. Vasu’s father, Peethambaram Nair, worked as a make-up man for M.G.R. and N.T.R. in their films during his time.He was one of the leading make-up artists during his period and was elected as the president of the make-up union Tamil Nadu for 30 years.He later went on to become a producer.
He produced about 25 films in Tamil and Telugu and became one of the leading producers in the south. He produced with his brother M.C. Sekhar, who was a cinematographer. M.C. Sekhar had worked as a cinematographer for more than 150 films. Peethambharam died on 21 February 2011 at the age of 89.
Vasu is an alumnus of Wesley High School, Chennai. Vasu is married to Shanthi and has a son, Sakthi Vasu, who is an actor and a daughter, Abhirami Vasudevan. His mother is Kamala. Vasu’s brothers are Vidyasagar and Vimal, and his sisters are Vijaylakshmi, Vasantha and Vanaja.
Vasu joined director C. V. Sridhar as an assistant. Vasu started his career with Santhana Bharathi as a co-director and made films like Panneer Pushpangal, Mella Pesungal, Sahasame Jeevitham, Neethiyin nizhal and Madhumalar. “We compromised on certain things as we had different approaches to the subject. That’s the reason why some of our other movies failed to make a big impression in the box office, prompting us to take our own paths,” he says.
He has directed more than 60 movies in several languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi, including Aptha Mitra and Chandra mukhi.
The director went through a career slump in the mid-1990s after a series of failures in 1995, through the Prabhu-starrers Kattumarakaran and Mr. Madras, while his high budget romantic musical Love Birds also received poor reviews and collections.
In June 2013, P. Vasu revealed that he was set to direct an English film titled Curry in Love with an apparent star cast of Sonam Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Vijay, Eddie Murphy and Jon Voight. However the supposed cast denied the reports as baseless and P. Vasu postponed the film, citing a delay in production.Similarly in early 2014, P. Vasu released an official statement claiming that his next film would be an animatronics venture titled Aishwaryavum Aayiram Kaakkavum and that Aishwarya Rai would feature in the leading role. Aishwarya Rai’s team later denied claims citing that such allegations of an agreement were premature.He is currently directing the Kannada version of the 2013 Malayalam film Drishyam.