A.V.M. Rajan | |
---|---|
Born | Shanmugasundaram 26 July 1935 |
Other names | A.V.M Rajan |
Occupation(s) | Preacher, actor, film producer |
Spouses | Meenakshi (m.1957) Pushpalatha (m.1964-present) |
Children | Rajan Rathnavel Rajan Amuthan Saraswathi (Sachu Venkat) Ganesh Rajan Sis.Rachel (Formerly Mahalakshmi) Dr. Catherine (Formerly Abhirami) |
Shanmugasundaram, known by his stage name A.V.M. Rajan, (26 July 1935) is an Indian preacher and former actor who was active in Tamil cinema during the 1960s and 1970s.
Born in Pudukottai, Shanmugasundaram was very eager to join cinema though he held a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Madras University. [1] His higher secondary was at Christian Sweden Mission High School. His parents wanted to see him as a police officer. He came to Madras to write the examination, but didn't fit for the exam. He was not confident as he couldn't straighten his left hand fractured at the age of 14. Instead, while working at Raj Bhavan Guindy Chennai, he tried his luck in cinema knocking on the doors of every film company to earn a better income. At long last, his relentless efforts yielded result by getting him the opportunity to enter cinema through the film Aayiram Kaalathu Payiru in which he was introduced as "Raja B.A.". Soon after, he was signed to act in the AVM's film Naanum Oru Penn also. [2]
Rajan acted in a movie produced by AVM Productions called Naanum Oru Penn, a film that starred S.S.Rajendran in the lead role. Hence he became 'A.V.M.' Rajan. Tamil actress Pushpalatha appeared in the same picture, and they became a couple and later married. They subsequently acted as a pair in many films, including Karppooram (1967) which he won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor. AVM Rajan has two daughters, the elder daughter Mahalakshmi was an actress between the 80s–90s. On 19 January 1984, [3] through a personal encounter with God, Rajan converted and there after became a full-time Christian preacher since 1988 [4] and since then has stopped acting in movies and dramas. His wife Pushpalatha is a Catholic by birth. She hails from Coimbatore. Following Rajan's conversion, his family too is serving full-time Ministry. [5]
Edappal Ponnamkuzhi Veettil Parameswaran Sukumaran Nair, known mononymously as Sukumaran, was an Indian actor and producer of Malayalam films. Sukumaran became a popular film star in Malayalam cinema during the 1970s. He was considered one of the superstar trios of Malayalam cinema during the late 1970s and early 1980s along with Soman and Jayan.
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C. R. Vijayakumari is an Indian actress in the Tamil film industry from 1953 to 2003.
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Pushpalatha is an Indian actress, who has worked predominantly in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam language films. She has acted as heroine and character roles in more than 100 films. Her debut film was Sengottai Singam, released in 1958. When Pushpalatha co-starred with A. V. M. Rajan in Naanum Oru Penn, the two fell in love and got married. In 1964, she was a model for Lux soap.