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Natty Subramaniam

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Natty Subramaniam
Born
Natarajan Subramaniam

23 June 1971 (age 53)
Occupations
  • Cinematographer
  • Actor
Years active1999–present

Natarajan "Natty" Subramaniam (/nətti/ born 23 June 1971) is an Indian cinematographer and actor who has worked in blockbuster and highly acclaimed Hindi and Tamil films. As an actor, he achieved recognition through his performance as a con artist in Sathuranga Vettai (2014).

Early life

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Born into a Tamil-speaking family, Natarajan "Natty" pursued an interest in photography and quit school at 18, choosing to take up a series of odd jobs to fund his interest rather than going through college. He worked as a still photographer at weddings, and then performed as a videographer at ceremonies. He briefly assisted cinematographer B. R. Vijayalakshmi but was unable to get a break in the film industry, so he chose to work on documentaries instead, before venturing into work on commercials and music videos. He shot videos of the music band Euphoria's first album, and his work was well received.[1]

Career

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Natty became acquainted with director Ram Gopal Varma and the pair discussed a film project which did not materialise, before he was recommended by Varma to Anurag Kashyap, whom he worked with for three Hindi projects - Last Train to Mahakali (1999), Paanch (2003), and Black Friday (2004). In between he had also worked for Tamil romantic-comedy Youth (2002) starring Vijay, and had briefly agreed to be a part of AR Murugadoss's Ramanaa (2001), which he later opted out from.[1] Despite being active in Tamil films, he has chosen to prioritise work as a cinematographer in Hindi films, working on successful films including Jab We Met (2007), Golmaal Returns (2008), Raanjhanaa (2013) and Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty (2014).[2]

Away from cinematography in big-budget Hindi films, Natarajan has embarked on an alternate career as an actor in small-budget Tamil films. He initially appeared in two films by his friend Uday Mahesh, Naalai (2006) and Chakkara Viyugam (2008), both of which went unnoticed at the box office but he won positive acclaim for his performance in Naalai.[3] He starred in two further action-masala films aimed at the village and town audiences, Milaga (2010) and Muthukku Muthaaga (2011), which received similar lukewarm responses.[4]

In 2014, Natarajan featured in the Tamil caper film, Sathuranga Vettai directed by newcomer Vinoth and produced by Manobala. The film opened to positive reviews and became a surprise success at the box office, with a critic noting Natarajan "is brilliant as Gandhi Babu. He does his part with relish using his brains more than brawn with expressive body and eye language".[5] However, his 2015 action film Katham Katham is not very impressive.[6] Once again, Natty plays the good-man-turned-evil-mind, whose biggest weakness is spondulicks. His dialogue delivery is titch and screen presence, casual, on a believable act of bad cop.[7] In 2017, he had three film releases including Enkitta Mothathe, Bongu and Richie. In 2018, Natty was approached by the duo directors Hari and Harish for a thriller titled "Silk" which is supposed to be a Kanchipuram-based storyline, but the shooting has not yet been started.[8] In Pandiraj's Namma Veettu Pillai (2019), he has a muscular presence, perfect for a character actor.[9] He acted in the lead role in Sandimuni (2020) and Godfather (2020).[10][11] He has played an important role in Sibi's cop drama Walter (2020), which was directed by U. Anbarasan. Natty experienced playing the ruthless cop Kannabiran in Mari Selvaraj in Karnan (2021). The film was Natty's second collaboration with Dhanush, the first being as the cinematographer of the latter's Hindi debut, Raanjhanaa.[12] In 2022, he was cast in the Tamil-Malayalam bilingual Yugi and play in the drama film Gurumoorthi.[13][14] Then, he has starred in thriller films such as Infinity (2023), Web (2023) in lead roles, who have suffered failures.[15][16] Natty has grabbed the attention of the audience through his role as a cop in Maharaja (2024) featuring Vijay Sethupathi in the lead role.[17] Maharaja garnered widespread critical and commercial acclaim.[18]

Filmography

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As actor

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Key
Denotes films that have not yet been released
Year Film Role Notes
2002 Youth Customer Uncredited
2006 Naalai Natty
2008 Chakkara Viyugam Kanna
2010 Milaga Azhagar
2011 Muthukku Muthaaga Raman
2014 Sathuranga Vettai Gandhi Babu
Jeeva Man at bar Special appearance in "Oru Rosa" song
2015 Katham Katham Pandiyan
2017 Enkitta Mothathe Ravi
Bongu Deva
Richie Selva
2019 Namma Veetu Pillai Ayyanar
2020 Sandimuni Sandimuni
Godfather Adhyamaan
Walter Arjun Sampath
2021 Karnan Kannabiran
2022 Yugi Sethu
Gurumoorthi Gurumoorthi
2023 Bakasuran Arulvarman
Infinity Evvy
Web Veera
2024 Maharaja S. Varadharajan
Kadaisi Ulaga Por Kingmaker Nataraj
Brother Aravind
Kanguva Koduvan
Sorgavaasal Ismail
2025 Seesaw Post-production

TV

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Year Title Role Network
2022 Victim Madasamy SonyLIV

As cinematographer

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Year Film Language Notes
1999 Last Train to Mahakali Hindi Short Film
2002 Youth Tamil Debut Tamil film
2003 Paanch Hindi Debut Hindi film
Unreleased
2004 Black Friday
2005 Parineeta
2007 Eklavya: The Royal Guard
Jab We Met
2008 Phir Kabhi
Halla Bol
Golmaal Returns
2009 Love Aaj Kal
2010 Lafangey Parindey
Knock Out
2011 Desi Boyz
2012 Thuppakki Tamil "Vennilave" song only
2013 Raanjhanaa Hindi
2014 Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty
2015 Puli Tamil
2016 A Aa Telugu Debut Telugu film
2017 My Story Malayalam
2018 Chal Mohan Ranga Telugu
2024 Bad Newz Hindi "Raula Raula" song only

References

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  1. ^ a b "Shrewd Business: The Natarajan Subramaniam Interview - Silverscreen.in". silverscreen.in. 26 May 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  2. ^ "An exclusive interview with cinematographer Natarajan Subramanian". behindwoods.com. Archived from the original on 6 August 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  3. ^ "It's buddies, animus and action again - Naalai". The Hindu. 23 June 2006. Archived from the original on 10 December 2021. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  4. ^ "I love the action masala films: Natrajan". indiatimes.com. Archived from the original on 13 August 2017. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  5. ^ "Review". www.sify.com. Archived from the original on 15 March 2015. Retrieved 6 August 2017.
  6. ^ Saraswathi, S. "Review: Katham Katham is a total waste of time". Rediff. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  7. ^ "Katham Katham review. Katham Katham Tamil movie review, story, rating". IndiaGlitz.com. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  8. ^ Akash (3 April 2018). "A Thriller Starring Natty Titled 'Silk'". Behindwoods.
  9. ^ "Namma Veettu Pillai Movie Review By Baradwaj Rangan". Film Companion. 27 September 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  10. ^ Sandimuni Movie Review: The rehash of several done-to-death horror films, archived from the original on 4 December 2020, retrieved 30 November 2021
  11. ^ Subramanian, Anupama (22 February 2020). "Review: Godfather is enjoyable in parts". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 2 May 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  12. ^ "'The response to Karnan comes as a huge validation for my acting'". Cinema Express. Retrieved 30 November 2021.
  13. ^ "Kathir's 'Yugi' set for November release".
  14. ^ "Gurumoorthy". Archived from the original on 9 December 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
  15. ^ "Infinity". Archived from the original on 8 July 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
  16. ^ "Web". Archived from the original on 11 August 2023. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
  17. ^ "Natty credits director Nithilan Saminathan for his role in 'Maharaja'". Archived from the original on 4 December 2024. Retrieved 2 December 2024.
  18. ^ "Following China, Vijay Sethupathi's 'Maharaja' is to hit the big screens in Japan".
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