, [1]  before essaying his first lead role in  Kadhal Azhivathillai  (2002), under his father's direction as well. He achieved recogniton for his work in  Manmadhan  (2004), which was also "ghost-directed" by him  [2]  and became his first major commercial success. He made his full-flegded directorial debut with  Vallavan (2006), while