Kartikeya (Tamil: Kārttikēyaṉ Sanskrit कार्त्तिकेय Kārttikēya "son of Kṛttikā" ) (/ˌkɑːrtɪˈkeɪjə/), also known as Murugan, Skanda, Kumaran, Kumara Swami and Subramaniya, is the Hindu god of war. He is the Commander-in-Chief of the army of the devas and the son of Shiva and Parvati.

Murugan (Tamil Murukaṉ) is often referred to as Tamiḻ kaṭavuḷ ("God of the Tamils") and is worshiped primarily in areas with Tamil influences, especially South India, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Réunion. His six most important shrines in India are the Six Abodes of Murugan, temples located in Tamil Nadu. In Bengal, Odisha and Maharashtra, he is popularly known as Kartikeya.

Other names

The several names of Murugan of Tamil origin would include the following, Seyon, Senthil, Vēlaṇ, Kumāran ("prince, child, young one"), Svaminatha ("smart, clever"), Saravaṇa, Arumugam or Shanmuga ("having six faces"), Dandapani ("god with a club"), Guhan or Guruguha ("cave-dweller"), Subrahmanya, Kartikeya and Skanda "attacker". He was also known as Mahasena and the Kadamba dynasty worshiped him by this name.

Karthikeya is a 2014 bilingual Mystery thriller written & directed by Chandoo Mondeti shot in Telugu & Tamil languages simultaneously. It was produced by Venkat Srinivas on Magnus Cine Prime Pvt. Ltd. and featured Nikhil Siddharth, Swati Reddy, Tanikella Bharani and Rao Ramesh in important roles. Sekhar Chandra composed the film's music while Karthik Ghattamaneni and Karthika Srinivas were its cinematographer and editor respectively. The film revolves around a closed Kartikeya temple on the border of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu and showcases the life of a curious medico Karthik and his nexus with the temple.

It was launched on 10 June 2013 at Hyderabad and its Principal photography began on 5 July 2013 which lasted till 21 February 2014. It was shot in Vishakhapatnam, Araku and Kumararama temple in Samarlakota. However, the temple shown in the film is the Udayarpalayam Shiva temple near Kumbakonam in Tamilnadu. Also nearly 50% of the film was shot in and around Tamil Nadu. After few postponements, the film released on 24 October 2014 as a Diwali release to positive reviews from critics.