Career
Manivannan attended the Sulur Government Boy's High School and later enrolled at Government Arts College. While completing his pre-university course in Kovai, he became acquainted with Sathyaraj and became friends. According to Sathyaraj, he provided poor guidance to Manivannan and made him pursue a degree in history in advanced English, which made him struggle with topics such as Shakespeare, forcing him to drop out later. While still at college, Manivannan was bitten by the stage-bug and consequently he staged a few performances. Inspired by the impact the film Kizhake Pogum Rail (1978) made on him, he wrote a fan mail to the film-maker Bharathiraja and the letter ran to more than a hundred pages. Bharathiraja took him under his fold as an apprentice. Manivannan joined Bharathiraja's camp around 1979, when the director was acting in and was directing by P S Nivas, Kallukkul Eeram.
He penned the story and dialogues for some of his mentor's films between 1980 and 1982 like Nizhalgal, Tick Tick Tick, Alaigal Oivathillai and Kaadhal Oviyam. Manivannan assisted Bharathiraja in a handful of films like Red Rose (Hindi) starring Rajesh Khanna, Kotha Jeevithalu (Telugu), and Lovers (Hindi). He learned trade hard and fast within two years under Bharathiraja.
As a director, he made films in different genres – from romance to thriller to drama. He made his directorial début with Gopurangal Saivathillai in 1982. He had also penned the story and dialogues for a bunch of other films like Lottery Ticket acted by Mohan and Prabhu, Agaya Gangai acted by Karthik, Nesam acted by Ajith Kumar. In Rajinikanth's Kodi Parakuthu, directed by Bharathiraja, Manivannan did the villain's role.
He was most known for his acting skills among public. He was considered unique in the industry for his wisdom and his character roles. He had acted alongside many stars including Sivaji Ganeshan, Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, Sathyaraj, Vijayakanth, Mohan, Karthik, Sarathkumar, Murali, Vijay, Ajith Kumar, Madhavan and among others.
Manivannan directed 50 films including a few ventures in Telugu and Hindi. The Hindu wrote that his film Amaidhi Padai (1994) "has set the standards for political satire in Tamil cinema".
His protégés include directors Vikraman, R K Selvamani, Sundar C, Seeman, K Selva Bharathy, Radha Bharathi, C V Sasikumar, E. Ramdoss, Jeeva Balan and Rasu Madhuravan.
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Manivannan prioritised his acting career. At the height of his acting career, six of his film released on the same day in January 1998. Certain directorial ventures which he had started including Aaruvathu Sinam featuring Sathyaraj and Prabhu, were delayed and then dropped. He directed his 50th and last film Nagaraja Cholan MA, MLA (2013), a sequel to Amaidhi Padai. Manivannan directed his best friend Sathyaraj in a good 25 films
