Career
Shanmugasundaram was born in Chennai to a family of businesspeople. When he was studying in college, he had accompanied one of his actor friends to a drama performance, and as one of the junior artists did not perform well, he was brought in spontaneously. To the surprise of many, he had done that role with efficiency, which earned him appreciation spontaneously. He then moved on to work in Tamil theatre, notably appearing as Adolf Hitler in a play also featuring Kannadasan. Sivaji Ganesan was impressed by his performances and recruited him to make film acting debut with Ratha Thilagam (1963), where he portrayed a Chinese army major. He next went on to play the mythological character of Salliya Chakravarthy in B. R. Panthulu's critically acclaimed Karnan (1964), [6] a disabled man in K. S. Gopalakrishnan's Vazhaiyadi Vazhai and a prince in Dasavatharam (1976). [7]
Shanmugasundaram's role in the 1989 Tamil film, Karagattakaran directed by Gangai Amaran, won him critical acclaim and prompted several film makers to offer him roles as a village chieftain and the scene where he pleads innocence to his sister (Gandhimathi) made him popular among mimicry artists. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, he moved on to feature in television serials, and collaborated with Radhika in series such as Annamalai , Selvi and its sequel, Arasi. In the 2010s, he has regularly featured in films directed by Gangai Amaran's son, Venkat Prabhu.
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