Lokesh Kanagaraj is an Indian film director who primarily works in Tamil cinema. He started his film career by directing one of the four segments in the anthology film Aviyal (2016). Lokesh has carved a niche for himself in Indian cinema through a string of extremely successful action and crime thrillers including Maanagaram (2017), Kaithi (2019), Master (2021) , Vikram (2022) and Leo (2023). Lokesh's films are oriented around the hyperlink crime cinema subgenre where most of the story takes place during nighttime, with Lokesh citing Quentin Tarantino as a major inspiration for his style of filmmaking. His films are known for depicting the dark underbelly of metropolitan cities through multiple grey characters, with the nexus between the police force and organized crime syndicates being a key feature. Lokesh is also credited with the creation of LCU (Lokesh Cinematic Universe) where his films Kaithi (2019), Vikram (2022), and Leo (2023) share interrelated subplots, themes and characters.