Villupuram Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy, better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, was an Indian actor and 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 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.
Rangaraj Subbiah, professionally known as Sathyaraj, is an Indian actor, producer, director and a media personality who predominantly appears in Tamil and Telugu films. His 240 films also include works in Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi.
Prashanth Thiagarajan, known professionally as Prashanth, is an Indian actor and businessman, known for his works predominantly in Tamil cinema. Besides Tamil films, he has also appeared in few Telugu, Hindi and Malayalam films. At the peak of his career in the late 1990s, Prashanth was one of the popular actors in South India. He has won a Kalaimamani Award from the Government of Tamil Nadu. The son of actor-director Thiagarajan, Prashanth began his career at 17 by appearing in Vaigasi Poranthachu (1990) and went on to feature in other films including Balu Mahendra's Vanna Vanna Pookkal (1992), R. K. Selvamani's Chembaruthi (1992), K. Rushendra Reddy's Tholi Muddhu (1993), and Mani Ratnam's action-comedy Thiruda Thiruda (1993). Prashanth rose to stardom with Shankar's romantic comedy Jeans (1998) in which he played a dual role alongside Aishwarya Rai. The success of this film saw him garner opportunities to work in bigger film projects and in the late 1990s, he featured in a series of breakthrough films such as Kannedhirey Thondrinal (1998), Kaadhal Kavithai (1998), Jodi (1999), Parthen Rasithen (2000) and Piriyadha Varam Vendum (2001).
Gopishantha, better known by her stage name Manorama, also called Aachi, was an Indian actress, playback singer and comedian who had appeared in more than 1000 films and 5000 stage performances and several television series predomninantely in the Tamil language until 2015. She was a recipient of the Kalaimamani award. In 2002, Government of India awarded Manorama the Padma Shri for her contribution to the arts. She received the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the film Pudhiya Padhai (1989) and Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award – South (1995).
Jaishankar was an Indian actor known for his work in Tamil cinema. He was a very popular lead actor in the 1960s and 70s. He was credited onscreen with title of Makkal Kalaingnar or Makkal Thamizhan in most 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.
Vasundhara Devi, known by her stage name Kanchana, is an Indian actress who worked in Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada films, in addition to Malayalam and Hindi films.
Sankaramanchi Janaki, popularly known as Shavukaru Janaki (Telugu) or Sowcar Janaki (Tamil) or Sahukar Janaki (Kannada), is an Indian actress who has appeared in over 300, films, predominantly in Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada languages. She also performed on stage in over 300 shows and was a radio artist during her earlier years. She is the recipient of two Nandi Awards, Kalaimamani and India's fourth-highest civilian award Padma Shri. Her younger sister Krishna Kumari, is also a noted actress.
Rohini Molleti, known professionally as Rohini, is an Indian actress, screenwriter, and lyricist. She has mainly acted in Malayalam, Telugu, Tamil films along with few Kannada films. Having started her acting career at five, she has about 130 south Indian films to her credit. She received National Award of Special Mention and Andhra Pradesh state Nandi Special Jury Award for Best Performance in 1995 for the film Stri.
Pandiarajan is an Indian actor, director and comedian who has played leading roles in many humorous Tamil films and currently plays supporting and comedy roles.
Kovai Sarala is an Indian actress and comedian, who prominently plays supporting roles in Tamil and Telugu films. She has won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Comedian three times, for her performances in Sathi Leelavathi (1995), Poovellam Un Vasam (2001) and Uliyin Osai (2008). She has also won the two Nandi Awards for Best Female Comedian and the Vijay Award for Best Comedian for her performance in Kanchana (2011). She is now part of Kamal Haasan's Makkal Needhi Maiam Party.
S. D. Murali was an Indian actor who appeared in Kannada and Tamil films. He was famous for roles that portrayed him as a perceptive singer or a tragic lover. His son, Atharvaa, debuted as an actor in the 2010 film Baana Kaathadi.
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.
Balaji Mohan is an Indian filmmaker and actor in Tamil-language films. After discontinuing his engineering studies to pursue his passion and become a director, he enrolled at a film academy and attended courses and workshops, besides participating in short film contests. After shooting more than half-a-dozen short films, he directed his first full-length bilingual film romantic comedy Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi (Tamil) based on one of his own short films.
Hamsavardhan is an Indian actor who has acted in Tamil language films.
Murugashankari Leo is a Bharatanatyam artiste and teacher, theatre actor, and research scholar. Bharatantyam is an ancient Indian classical dance form which is known for its beauty, grace and uniqueness. Murugashankari performs this art and has given many recitals across India and other countries. She runs the institution Kalai Koodam – Academy of Performing Arts in Chennai and Madurai, where training in Bharatanatyam is imparted. She is also trained in Carnatic music and Nattuvangam.
J. Suresh is an Indian film director, who has directed Tamil films. After making his debut in 1998 with Velai, he has directed other films, including Ennavale and Junior Senior. In junior senior he has worked with Mammootty in 2002. He has done hundreds of advertisement in Tamil. He has also done an album with Yuvan Shankar Raja and Ulaganayagan Kamal Haasan. He directed international films in Burma in 2018.
Tanya S. Ravichandran is an Indian actress who has worked in predominantly Tamil-language films. She had roles in Nenjukku Needhi (2022), Balle Vellaiyathevaa (2016), Brindavanam (2017) and Karuppan (2017).
Florent C. Pereira was an Indian journalist and actor who appeared in Tamil language films as a supporting actor.
Piragu (transl. Then) is a 2007 Indian Tamil-language crime drama film directed by N. Jeeva. The film stars Hamsavardhan, Keerthi Chawla and Sunitha Varma, with Vadivelu, Dhandapani, Malaysia Vasudevan, Sabitha Anand, Emey, and Karate Raja playing supporting roles. The film, produced by R. Saravana and S. K. Chandhrasekar, had music by Srikanth Deva, cinematography by A. Kasi Vishwa, and editing by A. P. Manivannan. The film released on 21 September 2007.
Maanaseega Kadhal is a 1999 Tamil-language film, written, directed and produced by actor Ravichandran, under his real name of B. S. Raman. The film stars Hamsavardhan and Sushva, while Ravichandran himself and Vaiyapuri portrayed supporting roles. The music for the film was composed by Deva and the film opened to negative reviews in November 1999.
