Prashanth (actor)

Prashanth
Prashanth at the audio launch of Saagasam
Born	Prashanth Thiagarajan (1973-04-06) 6 April 1973 Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation	Film actor
Years active	1990–2006, 2011-present
Parent(s)	Thiagarajan

Prashanth Thiagarajan (born 6 April 1973) 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, he began his career at 17 by appearing in Vaigasi Poranthachu and went on to feature in other films including Balu Mahendra's Vanna Vanna Pookkal (1992), R. K. Selvamani's Tamil-Telugu bi-lingual Chembaruthi (1992) and Mani Ratnam's action-comedy Thiruda Thiruda (1993).

Prashanth rose to stardom with Shankar's blockbuster romantic comedy Jeans (1998) in which he played a dual role alongside Aishwarya Rai. The success of the film saw him garner opportunities to work in bigger film projects and in the late 1990s, he featured in a series of profitable films such as Kannedhirey Thondrinal (1998), Kaadhal Kavithai (1998), and Jodi (1999). Prashanth owns a multi-storeyed jewellery mart in Panagal Park.^[1] Vikram and Prashanth are cousins.Vikram's mother worked as a sub-collector and his maternal uncle Thyagarajan is an actor and director in the south Indian film industry. Actor Prashanth is Famous actor Vikram's first cousin.^[2]

Acting career

Early work

Prashanth started off as a leading romantic hero in the 1990 film 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 Good Luck, Appu, and Parthen Rasithen. He began the project Piriyadha Varam Vendum directed by Kamal which had a delayed release. He followed this 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 the film 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, though the film was late shelved.^[5] In mid-2005, he began filming for A. Venkatesh's Petrol but the shoot was delayed.^[6][7]

In December 2005, he accepted and started work in R. K. Selvamani's Pulan Visaranai II, a sequel to the director's 1990 film, with soundtrack and trailer released by 2006. However, despite its completion, the film was on hold for eight years due to the producer's financial problems, before having a limited release in 2015.^[8]

Further, 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 marking the debut of music composer G. V. Prakash Kumar; but 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]

Jambhavan, which released in September 2006, had gone through production hassles. The film opened to negative reviews and became a failure commercially.^[12] Director Bhuvanaraja's Adaikalam (2006), a family drama had been completed the previous year. Of his performance in the film, 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 (2006), which featured Prashanth in the role of a village do-gooder. Sify.com remarked "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]

Between January 2007 and April 2011, he 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]

As of February 2017, Prashanth was working on the Tamil remake of the Hindi film Special 26 (2013) and the Hindi remake of the Tamil film Naan (2012).^[17]

Filmography

References

External links

• Prashanth on IMDb