Prabhu | |
---|---|
Born | Prabhu Ganesan 25 December 1956 [1] |
Alma mater | Loyola College, Chennai |
Occupation(s) | Actor, film producer |
Years active | 1982–present |
Spouse | Punitha (m. 1982) |
Children | Aishwarya Prabhu Vikram Prabhu |
Parent(s) | Sivaji Ganesan (father) Kamala (mother) |
Relatives | Ramkumar Ganesan (brother) Dushyanth Ramkumar (nephew) Adhik Ravichandran (son-in-law) |
Prabhu Ganesan (born 25 December 1956), known professionally as Prabhu, is an Indian actor, businessman and film producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. He is the youngest son of veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan. Prabhu was one of the leading actors in Tamil cinema in the later 1980s and 90s. He is popularly known as Ilaya Thilagam. He has worked in more than 220 films in lead and supporting roles in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films.
After making his debut in Sangili (1982), Prabhu played various leading and supporting roles, earning the Best Actor award recognition by the Tamil Nadu State for his portrayal in Chinna Thambi (1991).
After leaving Bishop Cotton Boys' School in Bangalore, Prabhu got involved in film production as an executive producer and worked alongside his uncle and mentor V. C. Shanmugam, who insisted that Prabhu learn the film making process in a disciplined way, giving him general tasks such as pulling up chairs for artistes. Before entering into acting in cinema, he was working for the films produced by Sivaji Productions notably his father's 200th film Thirisoolam , which was the highest-grossing Tamil film at the time of its release. [2]
Prabhu's father, actor Sivaji Ganesan, had initially expressed reluctance in allowing Prabhu to pursue an acting career, but through his work in the industry, he began to receive offers from film-makers to feature in their films. [3] [4] [5]
He subsequently made his acting debut in C. V. Rajendran's Sangili (1982), a remake of the Hindi film Kalicharan , where he was cast in a supporting role. [5] By the time Sangili released, Prabhu was working on six films, including Charuhasan's Pudhiya Sangamam and Gangai Amaren's romantic film Kozhi Koovuthu , which became his first commercially successful venture.
Initially, Prabhu acted in several films with his father Sivaji Ganesan, most of which were commercially successfull. In 1983 Prabhu co-starred with Sivaji Ganesan in films such as Neethibathi and Sandhippu , which became huge hits and became silver jubilee films. [6] After featuring in about thirty films, including nineteen with his father, Prabhu's career graph registered a drop and he began to reconsider the type of films he had signed.
Prabhu opted against featuring in films co-starring his father and consciously began to choose subjects rather than accept as many offers as possible. Among the first films he signed after taking the break included G. M. Kumar's Aruvadai Naal (1986) and Manivannan's Paalaivana Rojakkal , alongside Sathyaraj, both proving successful. Subsequently, the following period saw a series of commercial successes in 1988 for the actor, notably S. P. Muthuraman's Guru Sishyan with Rajinikanth, Mani Ratnam's Agni Natchathiram with Karthik and P. Vasu's family drama En Thangachi Padichava . [3] The success of the latter film prompted more successful collaborations in the same genre between Prabhu and Vasu with Chinna Thambi (1991) and Senthamizh Pattu (1992) also receiving a similar reception, with the actor earning the Best Actor award recognition by the Tamil Nadu state. [7]
He subsequently worked in his hundredth film R. V. Udayakumar's Rajakumaran , before portraying well received roles in K. Balachander's romantic film Duet (1994) and Priyadarshan's Malayalam period film Kaalapani (1996) alongside Mohanlal. Prabhu went through another barren spell in the late 1990s, when several films after the success of Panchalankurichi failed to do well, prompting another image change away from his village do-gooder roles. [3]
Prabhu has given opportunity to more than 30 debutant directors, including Seeman, R. V. Udayakumar, Gangai Amaran, Pandiarajan, Raj Kapoor, G. M. Kumar, Panchu Arunachalam, Velu Prabhakaran, K. Subash, Sivachandran, R. K. Kalaimani and Cheyyar Ravi.
Moving away from action films, Prabhu selected scripts which would appeal to family audiences in the early 2000s and collaborated with film-makers including Rama Narayanan and T. P. Gajendran, working in a series of "minimum guarantee" return films. [8]
Prabhu then made another career change and began accepting film offers in which he would play a supporting rather than the leading role and featured alongside Kamal Haasan and then Rajinikanth in two big budget ventures Vasool Raja MBBS (2004) and his home production Chandramukhi (2005). [9] Since then, he has gained acclaim portraying characters including a caring guardian in Unakkum Enakkum , Thaamirabharani and Ayan , while he has also been seen in detective roles in action films, notably Billa (2007) and then Kanthaswamy (2009). He has also played other acclaimed supporting roles in Mani Ratnam's Raavanan (2010) and Aishwarya Dhanush's 3 (2012), while he has ventured into playing similar roles in Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam films. [10] In 2016, Prabhu featured in his 200th film, the romantic comedy Meen Kuzhambum Mann Paanaiyum produced by his nephew, Dushyanth Ramkumar. [11]
The director Sakthi Chidambaram has attempted a sequel Charlie Chaplin 2 (2019) sixteen years later which has nothing in common with the original including comedy excepting for the two male leads. [12]
Prabhu was born to veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan and Kamala on 25 December 1956. [13] [14] His elder brother Ramkumar is a film producer and he has two sisters Shanthi and Thenmozhi.
Prabhu is married to Punitha in 1982 and has two children Vikram Prabhu, and Aishwarya Prabhu. Vikram Prabhu is also an actor who made his acting debut in the 2012 film Kumki . [15] While still married to Punitha, Prabhu had a live-in relationship with actress Khushbu, and got married on 12 September 1993. The pair subsequently decided to split four months later. [16] [17]
In 1979, a petition was filed against Prabhu, accusing him of attempting to shoot himself, but the Madras High Court dismissed this petition. Prabhu himself denied a suicide attempt, saying he was cleaning his father's gun when he was injured; he was found writhing in pain after a gunshot was heard, although no serious injury happened. [18]
Year | Film(s) | Category | Outcome |
---|---|---|---|
1988 | Manasukkul Mathappu | Best Actor | Won |
Prabhu was nominated six times at the Filmfare Awards South
Year | Film(s) | Category | Outcome |
---|---|---|---|
1986 | Aruvadai Naal | Best Actor | Nominated |
1988 | Agni Natchathiram | Nominated | |
1991 | Chinna Thambi | Nominated | |
1994 | Duet | Nominated | |
2002 | Charlie Chaplin | Nominated | |
2005 | Chandramukhi | Best Film | Nominated |
2009 | Ayan | Best Supporting Actor | Nominated |
Year | Film(s) | Category | Outcome |
---|---|---|---|
1991 | Chinna Thambi | Best Actor | Won |
2002 | Charlie Chaplin | Special Prize | Won |
2005 | Chandramukhi | Best Film | Won |
Villupuram Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy, better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, was an Indian Actor and Film producer. He was active in Tamil cinema during the latter half of the 20th century. Sivaji Ganesan is acknowledged as one of the greatest Indian actors of all time and among the most imitated one by other actors. He was known for his versatility and the variety of roles he depicted on screen, which gave him also the Tamil nickname Nadigar Thilagam. In a career that spanned close to five decades, he had acted in 288 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. Sivaji Ganesan is the only Tamil actor to have played the lead role in over 250 films.
Chandramukhi is a 2005 Indian Tamil-language psychological comedy horror film written and directed by P. Vasu. It is a remake of Vasu's Kannada film Apthamitra (2004) which itself is based on the Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu (1993). The film stars Rajinikanth, Prabhu and Jyothika along with an ensemble supporting cast, including Vadivelu, Nayanthara, Nassar and Sheela. It revolves around a woman who suffers from dissociative identity disorder that affects a family, and a psychiatrist who intends to solve the case while risking his life.
Rangaraj Subbiah, professionally known as Sathyaraj, is an Indian actor, producer, director and a media personality who appears predominantly in Tamil films. He also appears in works in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.
Jaishankar was an Indian actor known for his work in Tamil cinema. He was a notable lead actor in the 1960s and 70s, who was credited onscreen with title of Makkal Kalaingnar or Makkal Thamizhan in most of the films starring him. He was also referred to as Thennakathu James Bond because of his roles in films such as Vallavan Oruvan and CID Shankar.
Janagaraj is an Indian actor who has appeared in over 200 films predominantly in Tamil cinema as a comedian or in supporting roles. He also starred in few Malayalam, Telugu and Hindi films.
S.S. Manivannan, better known by his mononym Manivannan, was an Indian film director, actor and activist who worked in Tamil cinema. In a career spanning three decades, he went from being a story and dialogue writer for director Bharathiraja from 1980–82 to a successful director who thrived in experimenting with different genres, before becoming an actor. With over 400 films to his name, Manivannan was one of the most experienced actors in the field and directed exactly 50 films. Manivannan was mainly a supporting actor in films and often played the comedian, supporting character and villainous roles.
The Filmfare Best Actor Award is given by the Filmfare as part of its annual Filmfare Awards South for Tamil film lead actors. The Filmfare Awards South Awards were extended to "Best Actor" in 1972. The year indicates the year of release of the film.
Vasudevan, known as Malaysia Vasudevan, was a Malaysian-Indian playback singer and actor in Tamil cinema.
Vasudevan Peethambaram, known professionally as P Vasu, is an Indian director, writer and actor who works predominantly in Tamil and Kannada films apart from a few Telugu, Hindi, and Malayalam language films. In a career spanning three decades, Vasu has directed over 64 films to his credit.
Ramkumar Ganesan is an Indian film producer and actor. He is the head of Sivaji Productions, a film productions company that has produced several films, particularly featuring his father Sivaji Ganesan or his younger brother Prabhu.
Sivaji Productions was an Indian film production and distribution company based in Chennai. Established in 1958, it was involved mainly in Tamil and Hindi-language films until 2010.
R. V. Udayakumar is an Indian film director, lyricist and actor who worked predominantly in the Tamil film industry throughout the 1990s, making films including Yejaman and Chinna Gounder. He has also directed some Telugu films.
Chinna Thambi is a 1991 Indian Tamil-language romantic musical drama film written and directed by P. Vasu. The film stars Prabhu as the titular character, an uneducated village simpleton and Khushbu as Nandini, a homeschooled wealthy girl. Manorama, Radha Ravi, Uday Prakash, Rajeshkumar, and Goundamani play supporting roles. The music was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, and the film released on 12 April 1991.
Anandaraj is an Indian actor and comedian. He has acted in villain roles in several Tamil films and has appeared in over a three hundred films in different languages including Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.
Virudhunagar Kanthan Ramasamy was an Indian actor, comedian and producer who was known for his versatility in various character roles, he played in Tamil films from 1947 to 2001.
Srikanth was an Indian actor who has performed in around 200 Tamil films since his debut in 1965. He is also referred to as Venniradai Srikanth. He has played the lead hero in around 50 films between 1965 and 1979 and has also played supporting roles in films with actors Sivaji Ganesan, Muthuraman, Ravichandran and Jaishankar in the lead roles. In the late seventies to early nineties, he appeared as a villain opposite actors including Sivakumar, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan.
Meen Kuzhambum Mann Paanaiyum is a 2016 Indian Tamil language fantasy comedy movie filmed in parts of West Malaysia, Indonesia and Cambodia. It was written and directed by Amudheshwar and produced by Dushyanth Ramkumar. The film stars Prabhu, Kalidas Jayaram, Ashna Zaveri and Pooja Kumar in the lead roles. It was promoted as Prabhu Ganesan’s 200th film. Principal photography of the film commenced in November 2015 in Chennai and the film got released exactly a year later. Kamal Haasan shot for a cameo appearance in the film. It also marked the feature film debut of Kalidas Jayaram- son of noted film actors Jayaram and Parvathy having appeared as a child artist during the early 2000s and also his official Tamil debut.
Karikol Raju was a Tamil film veteran actor who appeared in Tamil-language films. He acted in more than 500 films in a career spanning over five decades. He had started his career as a dramatist and stage actor and went on to act as a character actor, villainous roles in films. He has acted along with four generation actors like as M. G. Ramachandran, Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan, Jai Shankar, Muthuraman, Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, Vijayakanth, Mohan, K. Bhagyaraj, Arjun Sarja, Karthik, Prabhu.
Bindu Ghosh is a movie and stage actress and choreographer who has performed in Tamil and south Indian Languages. Her debut film was Kozhi Koovuthu released in 1982.