Prashanth (actor)

Prashanth (born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India) is an Indian film actor known for his works predominantly in Tamil cinema. He has also appeared in few Telugu films, Bollywood and Malayalam films. The son of actor-director Thiagarajan, Prashanth began his career at 17 by appearing in Vaigasi Poranthachu and went on to feature in other films including R. K. Selvamani's Chembaruthi (1992).

Prashanth rose to stardom with Mani Ratnam's action-comedy Thiruda Thiruda, and Shankar's blockbuster romantic comedy Jeans in which he played a dual role alongside Aishwarya Rai. In the late 1990s, he featured in a series of films such as Kaadhal Kavithai, Jodi and Parthen Rasithen. His 2011 release Ponnar Shankar was based on the historical epic and became a semi-hit^[1] Prashanth also owns a multi-storeyed jewellery mart in Panagal Park.^[2]

Acting career

Early work

Prashanth started off as a leading romantic hero in the 1990 Vaigasi Poranthachu. He then appeared in the Malayalam film Perumthachan written by M. T. Vasudevan Nair where he played the son of the title character. Prashanth appeared in Balu Mahendra' s Vanna Vanna Pookkal and R. K. Selvamani' s Tamil-Telugu bi-lingual Chembaruthi.

Prashanth appeared in Good Luck , Appu, and Parthen Rasithen. He began the project Piriyadha Varam Vendum directed by Kamal which had a delayed release. He followed with Chocolate and Majunu. He appeared in director Hari 's debut film Thamizh . Susi Ganeshan' s Virumbugiren also had a delayed release. Sundar C' s Winner and the films Jai, Shock and Aayudham London followed.

2003-2011

In the mid 2000s, Prashanth signed for several projects which were shelved after being launched.^[3] In September 2004, Thiagarajan launched Police, a remake of the Hindi film Khakee and the film received coverage from the media after producers had approached Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai for key roles. In interviews during the period, Thiagarajan mentioned the grand scale of the project citing that schedules would also be shot abroad; however the film failed to progress.^[4]

Prashanth next signed on to appear in Susi Ganesan's village action story Sakkarai in October 2004 although the film was discontinued.^[5] In mid-2005, he began filming for A. Venkatesh's Petrol but the shooting was delayed.^[6][7] In December 2005, Prashanth accepted and started work in R. K. Selvamani's Pulan Visaranai II, a sequel to the director's 1990 blockbuster, with the film's soundtrack and trailer released by 2006. However despite completion, the film was on hold for eight years due to producer's financial problems, before having a limited release in 2015.^[8] Furthermore, Ramesh Selvan's action film Runway was launched amidst much publicity in April 2006 but was discontinued despite the team filming a schedule with actress Ferhana.^[9] Morgan's Taxi Driver alongside Reemma Sen and Namitha was also planned amidst much hype, with the team announcing schedules in the Middle East as well as well as marking the debut young music composer G. V. Prakash Kumar; though the film was later shelved.^[10] His father's production Kattan with director Suresh of Gambeeram and Arasu also never took off despite an official announcement.^[11] The actor's other projects during the period which were announced but never made, included Raghuraj's Jockey alongside Gracy Singh, Mukil's Arun Weds Harini and Cheyyaru Ravi's Vithagan.

Jambhavan, which released in September 2006, had gone through production hassles. The film opened to negative reviews and became a failure commercially.^[12] Debutant director's Bhuvanaraja's Adaikalam, a family drama which had been completed the previous year had a performance about which Indiaglitz stated "as a brother and a bitter son, Prashanth has churned out what is arguably one of his better performances till date."^[13][14] His final release of the year was Shiva Shanmugam's Thagapansamy which featured Prashanth in the role of a village do-gooder. Sify.com stated "watch the film for the one-man-show of Prashanth, as he is the only silver lining in a film with a confused and confounded plot."^[15] Prashanth had no film releases between January 2007 and April 2011, but was involved in the production of two heavily delayed productions during the period - Ponnar Shankar and Mambattiyan. Prashanth also invested in business opportunities, opening a 12 floor jewellery store in T Nagar, Chennai in 2008.^[16]

Filmography

References

External links

• Prashanth at the Internet Movie Database