He started his career in the chemical industry — but realised his passion was for cinema. After a couple of years selling chemicals used in the tanning industry, he decided to take the plunge and took a position as an assistant to film director B.R. Vijayalakshmi. And there was no looking back.

Today, Udhayabanu Maheshwaran, better known as Mahesh in industry circles, has made his debut as a director with "Naalai." The film has found favour with the audience and also made the distributors happy.

Mahesh is not too worried about the stiff competition his film will face from others of the genre. "Though Naalai is also a gangster film, it focuses on the friendship between two characters. That makes it unique, and I am happy that this aspect has come out very well in the film," he says.

He built his career slowly but steadily, working on scripts with Sangeeth Sivan, and as an assistant director for films such as "Thalattu," "Paattu Paadava," "Sundara Purushan" and "Iraniyan."

Seeking to expand his horizons, he moved to Mumbai in 1997, and worked on ad films directed by Shoojit Sarkar. And when Shoojit decided to make a feature film, Mahesh was roped in to write the story and screenplay along with scriptwriter Sabapathy. "Shoojit wanted his first film to be a patriotic film. He wanted to do something for the country," says Mahesh.

The duo are now busy working on the story and screenplay for Shoojit's next, "Amarjeet," which stars Lara Dutta and Vivek Oberoi.

The movie is based on the proposed ban on on-screen smoking. "We are going to defend the ban. We will attempt to convince the people with proper evidence and data about the harm caused by tobacco. We have done research for more than four months now, and it is still continuing even as we work on the script."

- Hindu.com