Kaarthekeyen Santhanam
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Kaarthekeyen Santhanam’s story? Kinda wild, honestly. Dude went from clocking hours in the IT grind—more than eight years, mind you—straight into the unpredictable chaos of film production. Not exactly your average career jump, right? Somewhere along the way, he figured out that spreadsheets and code weren’t really his thing, so he rounded up a few friends and kicked off Stone Bench Creations in 2013. The big idea wasn’t just about churning out movies for the sake of it. Nope. He wanted to shake things up, to give fresh, gutsy filmmakers a shot in the Indian cinema scene. You know, the kind of folks who’d probably never get a call-back from the big studios.
Since then, he’s been hustling behind the scenes, producing five films—each one a little different, never boring. But here’s the real kicker: every movie brought a brand-new director into the spotlight. Five new voices, five new visions, all thanks to Kaarthekeyen rolling the dice. It takes guts to back newbies in an industry that usually just recycles the same old names. But that’s his thing—taking risks, tossing out lifelines to the next generation of storytellers, and basically refusing to play by the stale rulebook. Makes you wonder how many hidden legends are out there, just waiting for their shot. If you’re into films that don’t play it safe, Stone Bench is probably already on your radar. If not, well, now you know who’s behind all the cool, offbeat stuff popping up in Indian cinema lately.