Eashvar Karthic

Eashvar Karthic is an Indian film director and actor who primarily works in Tamil and Telugu cinema. He made his directorial debut in Tamil with the mystery-thriller film Penguin (2020).^[1][2][3]

Eashvar Karthic
Occupation(s)	Film director, Actor
Years active	2017 – present

Early life

Karthic says that he grew up idolizing Jackie Chan and was inspired by the action films Rumble in the Bronx (1995) and Who Am I? (1998). However, it was after watching Mani Ratnam's Idhayathai Thirudathe on television that he decided to be a part of the film industry.^[2] Prior to his career in cinema, he had worked in the software industry and later in banking before transitioning into filmmaking in 2013.^[2][4]

Career

He initially set out to become an actor after leaving his bank job and worked in theatre, where he also discovered his talent for writing.^[4][5] After a struggle of seven years, he got an acting role in Magalir Mattum (2017) and V1 Murder Case (2019). By then, he realized that he was more inclined to film direction.^[2]

For over two years, he struggled to find opportunities until his friend Linga, who also acted on Penguin introduced him to Vijay Sethupathi. Vijay Sethupathi was impressed with one of his scripts and asked him to reach out to Stone Bench Films, leading to the inception of Penguin (2020).^[2] Eashvar completed the shoot for Penguin in thirty six days.^[6] His debut directorial has also been mentioned in several research journals that discuss women-centric films, OTT during the COVID-19 pandemic and representation of the subaltern.^[7][8] It was also the first major Tamil film to get a direct OTT release during the pandemic.^[6]

In 2024, Eashvar made his Telugu directorial debut Zebra, a financial crime thriller film starring Satyadev, Dhananjaya, Priya Bhavani Shankar, and Amrutha Iyengar. Ravi Basrur was roped in as the music director.^[9] Zebra was in its post-production phase in 2023.^[10]

Filmography

Key

†	Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released

List of Eashvar Karthic film credits

Year	Title	Credited as			Role	Notes	Ref.
		Director	Writer	Actor
2017	Magalir Mattum	No	No	Yes			[2]
2019	V1 Murder Case	No	No	Yes	Avinashi
2020	Penguin	Yes	Yes	No	—		[11]
2024	Zebra	Yes	Story, screenplay	No	—	Telugu film	[12]