The story behind the name.

I wanted to be a Radio Jockey. That was the whole plan.

South Indian cinema, Tamil music, Tamil literature — growing up in a Tamil household in Colombo in 1985, stories were everything. Not background noise. Not entertainment. The actual fabric of how we understood things. I absorbed all of it.

In 2010, I walked into Sooriyan FM. The dream, lived.

The long way round

Before the radio, there was debate. School competitions, inter-school rounds, the discipline of holding an argument under pressure without losing yourself in the process. I still judge those competitions. I still believe in what they teach.

After Sooriyan FM came Malaysia. Practical reasons — money, family, a door that was open. I worked in IT from 2011 to 2013. It paid. It wasn't me. I came home.

Finding the language

I stumbled into advertising and felt immediately right. The Tamil language — the thing that shaped my childhood, the thing that was always just there — wasn't a liability here. It was the actual skill.

Tamil creative writer. Creative lead. Head of Tamil Creatives at Sarva Colombo. Then something bigger: Roar Tamil.

The role that changed things

2018. Roar Global asked me to run Roar Tamil — one of the first Tamil digital channels in Sri Lanka. Nobody had built it at that scale before. The brief was simple and enormous: make something that matters. I ran it for two years. People I worked with in that room are still among the people I trust most.

2019. Easter Sunday. Sri Lanka changed in a single morning. I was the news coordinator on CNN's coverage of the attacks. Real journalism on one of the most significant days in the country's modern history. You're either ready for something like that or you're not.

Building

Co-founded Cloud9 in 2020. CCO and Director of Creative Operations until 2022. Then Sri Lanka's economic crisis. I freelanced — served brands across three continents under Pradas Originals. Survival teaches things a salary never does.

Joined Manthram Digital in 2024. Director of Operations, then General Manager within a year. Grew the team from 3 to 15. Delivered 65% profit in the first year. Cleared the deficits.

Now, for the first time, I'm building something that's mine.