titled Dhun during late 2008, and the pair agreed to work on the film. The script was inspired by Hrishikesh Mukherjee's Abhimaan (1973) but failed to take off after the actors became busy with other projects. Menon then agreed to work on a biopic of Carnatic singer M. S. Subbulakshmi for producer Somaprasad during January 2012, which would be based on the book MS, A Life In Music by T. J. S. George. However, in February 2013, Menon confirmed that he would begin work on an unrelated project with a similar script and a bigger budget, and that Vidya Balan had agreed to essay the lead role of the singer. Soon after the project was confirmed, Somaprasad filed for a stay on the film's production and subsequently won a court case to prevent Menon from making the film. Apart from writing and scrapping potential film ideas, Menon continued work as a teacher at his film institute and as a director for advertisements. He also worked with Mani Ratnam as the cinematographer for the director's films, Guru (2007) and Kadal (2013). After a brief gap in feature films, he is coming back with his latest creation, Sarvam Thaala Mayam (2019) featuring G. V. Prakash Kumar. The film is set in a musical background and tells the story of an aspiring percussionist. Style of work Rajiv Menon has worked across several regional film industries in India, contributing towards English, Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu films. As a multilingual speaker, he revealed that during the making of his first few films, he would think of the dialogues in Malayalam, tape it and send it to writer Sujatha, who would help interpret them into Tamil. Although he has previously stated his desire to make a Malayalam language film, Menon has stated that the larger global reach of Tamil and Hindi films means that he is more regularly associated with such projects. For films which he has directed, Menon has selected other cinematographers to handle the camera work, despite his own proficiency. In his directorial projects to date, he has worked with Venu, Ravi K. Chandran and Ravi Yadav. Menon stated that he prefers to be available for the cast and crew as a director, and prefers not to have cutters covering him during the process of directing the film. In the past, Menon has actively turned down acting offers citing that he prefers to