A.R.Murugadoss, the man who gave us commercial classics like Thuppaki, Kaththi, Ghajini, Dheena, 7am Arivu and Ramana celebrates his 42nd birthday today.

Murugadoss shortly called as ARM is undoubtedly one of the most powerful directors at the box office. His debut film Dheena with Ajith ended up as the biggest blockbuster that year. Ajith is fondly called by his fans as "Thala" only after this film. Also, Dheena gave a new image to Ajith. Post Dheena, ARM did Ramana with Vijayakanth and Ghajini with Suriya. Both the movies turned out to be huge blockbusters which helped Murugadoss to get into the elite directors of South India's list.

ARM's Hindi debut "Ghajini' opened up the 100 Crore club in Indian Box Office. His first film with Vijay-Thuppaki was the first Non-Rajini film to achieve a 100 crore club status at Box office. The successful combo which reunited for Kaththi and the film ended up into the 100 crore club with records like- The first film to gross 100 crores (with a Tamil release alone). There is yet another stunning record Kaththi made – Enthiran was the only movie till Kaththi to have an opening day TN gross of 10+ Crores whereas Kaththi surpassed it and set a record of 12.5 Cr.

Besides the moolah factor, people find ARM a socially responsible director. The reason behind that is, he is one amongst the very few directors who works only with top stars of the industry and those stars would become socially responsible characters in ARM's movies. His Ramana spoke about corruption, Kaththi dealt with the importance of agriculture and 7am Arivu cultivated patriotism in us.

He is not only a director, but he is also the man behind funding few movies like Raja Rani, Engeyum Eppodhum and Maan Karate. Most of his assistants are successful directors now. To name a few, Irumugan's director Anand Shankar, Kanithan's maker TN Santhosh, Imaikkaa Nodigal's director Ajay Gnamuthu and Maan Karate's maker Thirumurugan were all from his school. His movies have mostly been remade into other languages.

Ramana was remade in 4 other languages; Stalin was remade by Salman Khan as Jai Ho; Thuppaki was remade in Hindi with Akshay Kumar and in Bengali with Jeet; Kaththi's Telugu version and Hindi version are currently being worked with Chiranjeevi and Akshay Kumar respectively.

Even after becoming an important director, he has always represented himself to his colleagues as a friendly person. When asked about him Samantha, his Kaththi lead, she said, “From day 1 of shoot, Murugadoss sir made a great impact on me. I value his judgment and opinion very much. He is one of the most intelligent people I have met and also he has a great sense of humor. Collectively it is one hell of a combination to have both available in a single person".

Sampath, an associate of ARM in Dheena, Ramana and Ghajini says, "He is the simplest person anybody can socialize. His world comprises of script and assistants and he is as equally socially responsible as his movies are. He takes care of the education of many poor kids and even helps them with their career". Sampath is not only an associate of ARM but also a friend of the director since their AD days.

S.J.Suriya says, "People breathe oxygen to live but people like A.R.Murugadoss breathe cinema. I have hardly seen him speaking or thinking other than cinema. That dedication and commitment have taken him from Kallakurichi to Mumbai".

TN Santhosh, Kanithan director says, "Though sir has reached this place in life, he never spends time for his personal pleasures. He considers script discussion as his favorite job. He hardly spends time with family. He always spends time with his assistants. The quality which everyone tries to learn from him is his punctuality."

In every decade there comes a creator who gets name and fame nationwide. A Very Happy Birthday Murugadoss sir! Thanks for inspiring and entertaining us. We just can't wait to witness Mahesh 23 on screen.