In tragic news, popular Tamil film art director T. Santhanam, who became famous after his work in the 2010 cult classic Aayirathil Oruvan, has passed away. He was 50. According to reports, Santhanam died due to cardiac arrest on the night of Sunday, October 23. The news of the art director's sudden passing has left many in the film industry in a state of grief, with fans as well expressing their heartfelt condolences on social media. Acclaimed Tamil filmmaker Vasanthabalan was one among those in the film fraternity to pay his tributes in a heartfelt post on his Facebook page and shared his working experience with Santhanam during the filming of Kaaviya Thalaivan in 2014. He also shared a photo featuring them both, which was taken right after the late art director had won the Tamil Nadu State Award for his work in Kaaviya Thalaivan.
After working under Selvaraghavan's direction in Aayirathil Oruvan, which starred Karthi, Reema Sen, and Andrea Jeremiah in the lead roles, and featured chart-buster music by G. V. Prakash Kumar, T. Santhanam's next big film was Deiva Thirumagal featuring 'Chiyaan' Vikram, Sara Arjun, Anushka Shetty, and Amala Paul, and was helmed by A. L. Vijay in 2011. The film turned out to be a massive critical and commercial success, with the entire technical team garnering praise, including Santhanam's work in the art direction department. He followed it up with commendable work in Sudha Kongara's hit Irudhi Suttru in 2016, which had Madhavan and Ritika Singh in the lead roles, with the film turning out to be yet another critical success, and Santhanam earning appreciation for his skills yet again.
T. Santhanam's career took flight soon after when he landed big gigs in ventures namely the 2018 box office blockbuster, Sarkar, starring 'Thalapathy' Vijay and Keerthy Suresh under A. R. Murugadoss' direction. Produced by Sun Pictures, the film went on to become a massive commercial success and one of the highest-grossing ventures in Vijay's career. Santhanam's next biggie was the 'Superstar' Rajinikanth and Nayanthara-starrer Darbar in 2020, which once again reunited him with filmmaker A. R. Murugadoss, and expected the film turned out to be a huge money-spinner at the box office. There was no stopping the hit art director thereafter as he signed up for Karthik Subbaraj's Jagame Thandhiram starring Dhanush and Mahaan, which saw the father-son duo 'Chiyaan' Vikram and Dhruv Vikram share screen space for the first time. T Santhanam's next big film is the upcoming period action drama, August 16, 1947, directed by NS Ponkumar under the AR Murugadoss Productions banner and stars Gautham Karthik in the lead role.
