From Mohanlal-Pranav to Jayam and Aarav Ravi, real-life father-son duos are ruling the screen in southern cinema

Jayam Ravi’s Tik Tik Tik and Gautham Karthik’s Mr Chandramouli, Kollywood’s two recent releases, have something in common: both feature real-life father-son duos. In Tik Tik Tik, Ravi plays an escape artist-cum-magician and father to (real life) son Aarav Ravi, who made his acting debut in this project. In last week’s release Mr Chandramouli, veteran actor Karthik and his son Gautham Karthik played father-son on screen for the first time. These are not rare occasions as the trend seems to have caught on. Malayalam superstar Mohanlal and Pranav are set to work together in Priyadarshan’s Marakkar: Arabikadalinte Simham. However, in this case, Pranav will be seen playing the younger version of his father in the film. Likewise, popular Tamil character Thambi Ramaiah will be seen sharing screen space with his son Umabathy in upcoming film Maniyar Kudumbam. [caption id=“attachment_4688951” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Mohanlal with son Pranav/Image from Twitter.[/caption] On sharing screen space with his son, Jayam Ravi told Firstpost: “It was director Shakti Soundar Rajan’s idea to cast my son. When he asked me, I wasn’t quite sure because I thought it was too early for Aarav to even think about acting. I wanted him to focus on studying. But when Shakti told me that at the heart of Tik Tik Tik, there’s a beautiful father-son relationship and convinced me that it’d look natural if I act with my own son, I was finally convinced.” Talking about the experience of working with his son, Ravi said: “I was quite taken aback by his level of patience. He’s someone who can’t sit in a place for more than five minutes. On the set, even after his shot got over, he’d sit in his place and just observe the shoot. I really didn’t know what to interpret, but it felt like he belonged on the set.” For Gautham Karthik, it was a long-time desire to share screen space with his father. “Ever since I started acting, I wanted to act alongside dad but a good opportunity never came along. When director Thiru approached me with the script of Mr. Chandramouli, he insisted that I talk to dad and convince him to act in this film. It’s an emotional story of a father and son whose life is turned upside down by an incident. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to work with dad and he was equally excited when I took the story to him.” Gautham went on to add: “It was an emotional moment to work alongside dad. Even though I come from a film family, I never got to spend time on film sets because I was away from home, studying in Ooty. This was the first time I really got to see dad act from close quarters and the experience made me realize why he’s a legend. This is a memory for a lifetime and I’ll cherish it.” In upcoming Tamil comedy Maniyar Kudumbam, Thambi Ramaiah returns to direction after a decade. The film stars his son Umabathy in the lead and Ramaiah plays his father. On choosing to direct his son and also work alongside him, Ramaiah recently said at the film’s audio launch: “This is my son’s second film. His first film didn’t garner the kind of response we expected. As a father, I want to create the best platform for my son to shine and therefore, decided to return to direction and work with him. He’s a trained dancer and he’s very camera-friendly. We had a great time working together.” Kannada veteran star Ambareesh’s son Abhishek is gearing up for his acting debut. The industry grapevine is that Ambareesh might share screen space with his son in the project.