Charlie & Ameerjan Movies Together List — 8 Films

The shape of the work

The 1980s account for 75% of everything they made together. The 1980s belonged to Poovilangu; the 2000s to Chinna Chinna Kannilae. Charlie acted in every film; Ameerjan directed all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Charlie was a newcomer when he cast Ameerjan as the villain in Poovilangu (1984). Ameerjan was already a known face. That film put both of them on the map — Charlie as a director who could handle a star villain, and Ameerjan as a lead antagonist.
• On the sets of Natpu (1986), Charlie would let Ameerjan improvise his dialogue in the villain's monologue scenes. Ameerjan would then rewrite the lines on set. That back-and-forth gave the film its most quoted lines — Tamil audiences still repeat them.
• Because of their success with Thulasi (1987), Charlie cast Ameerjan in Siva (1989). That film launched a young actor named Rajinikanth's nephew — but more importantly, it gave Ameerjan his first negative role that got him noticed by bigger directors. He never looked back.
• After Unnai Solli Kutramillai (1990) bombed — it got a 1/10 rating — Charlie and Ameerjan didn't speak for nearly a decade. They only patched up when Charlie called Ameerjan out of the blue in 1999 to offer him Chinna Chinna Kannilae (2000). That was their last film together.
• Ameerjan once said in an interview: 'Charlie was the only director who let me be the villain without making me look like a cartoon. He trusted my instincts. That's why I did seven films with him.'
• In Dharma Pathini (1986), Charlie deliberately wrote a scene where Ameerjan's character had to cry on screen — rare for a villain back then. Ameerjan resisted. Charlie insisted. That scene became the film's emotional peak. It proved Ameerjan could do more than just snarl.