Pawan Kumar is a film director, actor and screenwriter in the Kannada film industry. He is well known for the films Manasaare, Pancharangi, his directorial debut Lifeu Ishtene and the 2013 psychological thriller Lucia became one of the biggest turning points of his career. Being from a theatre background, he wrote scripts for plays on stage before working as an associate director with Yograj Bhat.