He started his career in 1981, joining as an assistant director to Nellai Sunderrajan and went on to continue such roles for the next fifteen years, while appearing in a few supporting roles as actor notably in
Nethiyadi and
Jadikketha Moodi (1989). He then apprenticed for a series of films under director
K. Shankar, while looking for a producer for his first script. Meanwhile, he also worked as a distributor for films, releasing
Guna and
Pandiyan in Tirunelveli. Bharathi Kannan made his first film
Aruva Velu in 1996 and won average reviews for his work. He was given the opportunity to produce a medium budget action film
Thirunelveli (2000) by
R. B. Choudary featuring
Prabhu in the lead role, but the film became a box office failure. He then made a series of Hindu devotional films
Sri Raja Rajeshwari (2001) and
Sri Bannari Amman (2002), with a critic labelling the latter as "terrible", noting that "the director of the film has specialised in making such films, which is meant for illiterates." In 2004, he directed
Vayasu Pasanga, a coming-of-age story of youngsters though critics gave the film's negative reviews with a reviewer noting "after directing some devotionals, Bharathi Kannan tries his hand at a different subject. But if this is the stuff he has to offer, he would do better to stick to his socio-religious genre". He later started making a film titled
Kaadhal Kaaviyam starring
Livingston and
Vindhya, but the film was later stalled. His most recent directorial venture in Tamil was
Karagattakkari which went unnoticed and Bharathikannan opted against directing any films and started acting in supporting roles in films and television serials notably
Kolangal and
Rajakumari. ==Filmography==