Adhiyaman apprenticed under director
K. Vijayan for eight films in the late 1980s, before deciding to become a film maker. After beginning his directorial career with a relatively unnoticed film in
Thoorathu Sondham (1992), Adhiyaman wrote the dialogues for Suresh Menon's well received films
Pudhiya Mugam (1993) and
Paasamalargal (1994) and subsequently bagged the opportunity to make another film.
Thotta Chinungi, a relationship drama featuring an ensemble cast of
Raghuvaran,
Karthik,
Revathi,
Devayani,
Rohini and
Nagendra Prasad, won critical acclaim and performed well at the box office. He then featured as an actor in
Thalaimurai (1998) directed by Saravana Pandian and won acclaim for his performance, while making another family drama titled
Swarnamukhi which had
Parthiban and
Prakash Raj in leading roles. Adhiyaman then chose to direct his first Hindi film and began remaking
Thotta Chinungi in Hindi as
Aap Mere Hai Sanam in early 1998. Notably, the film featured an ensemble cast of several leading actors including
Salman Khan,
Shah Rukh Khan and
Madhuri Dixit while several music composers also worked on the film. The film languished in
development hell and was eventually released in 2002 as
Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam earning mixed reviews and below average collections, with a critic noting Adhiyaman's "overly simplistic direction lacks both pace and creativity." He then began making a project titled
Mujhse Shaadi Karogi in 2002, a romantic drama starring
Salman Khan and
Shilpa Shetty. The project's title was changed to
Dil Chura Ke Chal Diye and then to the eventual title
Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar and the film was completed within a year, though the producers delayed the film's release indefinitely. Delays meant that Adhiyaman chose to remake the film and release it swiftly in Tamil as
Priyasakhi (2005) with
R. Madhavan and
Sadha playing lead roles.
Shaadi Karke Phas Gaya Yaar was finally released in August 2006, with the films earning mixed reviews in both languages. In between the ventures, he also started a film titled
Hot featuring
Neha Dhupia and
Parvin Dabbas, but despite completing shoot has not released. Adhiyaman made another family drama film titled
Thoondil starring
Shaam,
Sandhya and
Divya Spandana. Extensively shot in London, Thoondil began shoot in mid 2006 and progressed slowly before releasing to average reviews in February 2008, with reviewers calling it "melodramatic" and noting that it "starts promisingly and turns unsatisfying". Adhiyaman initially planned to remake
Thoondil in Hindi with
Vivek Oberoi and
Bipasha Basu, as well revealing he was set to remake the 2004 Tamil film
Ghilli in Hindi with
Harman Baweja and
Deepika Padukone. He then announced that he was set to remake the Malayalam film
Chinthamani Kolacase with
Sunny Deol in Hindi as
Judgement and would incorporate real life events of the death of journalist
Shivani Bhatnagar into the script. Neither of the three films eventually materialised. In early 2010, he began a comedy film titled
Amali Thumali featuring
Nakkhul,
Shanthanu Bhagyaraj,
Santhanam,
Swathi Reddy and
Nikesha Patel in lead roles. The film was initially titled
Nanba and had a tagline of
2 Idiots, and thus the media mistook this film for
Shankar's
Nanban, the remake of the 2009 Hindi film
3 Idiots. The film was later renamed
Amali Thumali. The film title was based on the
song of the same name from
Ko. Despite filming scenes in locations including
Fiji in 2012, the film is yet to be complete and have a theatrical release. In 2014, it was reported that the director was considering directing a Tamil project featuring
Nivin Pauly,
Amala Paul and
Nazriya Nazim in lead roles. In August 2018, Adhiyaman began production on a horror film titled
Angel starring
Udhayanidhi Stalin,
Payal Rajput and
Anandhi. After eighty percent of the shoot was finished, the film became delayed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Udhayanidhi Stalin subsequently announced his retirement from films to focus on his full-time politics, citing that
Maamannan (2023) would be his final release and refused to cooperate with the producers to complete the project. == Filmography ==