his quick schedules and his prompt completion of films, with Sify noting he is often considered a "film producer's delight" for his ability to stay within time and budget allotments. He made an exception for his quick paced schedules with Kamal Haasan's Dasavathaaram (2008), indicating it was significantly more difficult to make than his previous ventures and involved extensive simultaneous CGI work to production. The shooting for Lingaa, one of the most expensive films in Tamil film history, was completed within 120 days. The duration was significantly smaller than any other Tamil film of equal budget, as well as for any recent film starring a leading actor, such as Rajinikanth, in the main role. Ravikumar has also made cameo appearances in most of his directorial ventures, likening them to Alfred Hitchcock's cameo appearances. Approach to actors Ravikumar has often chosen to work with established actors rather than newcomers, indicating that they are commercially more viable than newcomers, and are easier to handle them as they are more experienced. He has regularly worked on his scripts only after finalising the lead actor, adding changes in the original plot line in order to blend it into the actor's image. Describing his collaborations with Rajinikanth, Ravikumar noted he ensured that each scene was discussed with the actor during the making of Padayappa (1999) and that Rajinikanth decided exactly where to place punch dialogues in order to attract audiences. Referring to his work with Kamal Haasan, he noted that the actor would describe a detailed scene on how to make his core audience of "city-slickers" laugh during the making of Thenali (2000) and Panchatanthiram (2002), and then request Ravikumar to add a slapstick element to make it applicable to village audiences too. Ravikumar has also often collaborated with Sarath Kumar, who has since dedicated his success to the director's opportunities, with the pair working on several quickly shot village action films in the 1990s. Ravikumar's temper with technicians has often been described to be "constantly on the edge", with assistant directors often remarking that Ravikumar yells regularly on set to ensure the production team work more efficiently. Director Cheran revealed that during his stint as an assistant director, he fell out with Ravikumar and was subsequently left out of the team of Purusha Lakshanam (1993) after irking the director. Filmography All films are in Tamil, unless otherwise noted.'' As director As producer As writer