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Arvind Swamy, also sometimes spelled Aravind Swamy is an Indian film actor who features mainly in Tamil cinema. He was introduced as an actor by Mani Ratnam in the drama film Thalapathi (1991) and subsequently went on to play the lead role again in Ratnam\'s Roja (1992) and Bombay (1995). Swamy went on to star in other ventures including the Malayalam film Devaraagam (1996) and Rajiv Menon\'s Minsaara Kanavu, and Mani Ratnam\'s Alaipayuthey (2000).

Swamy spent a decade in businesses ranging from construction to international trade to outsourcing before returning to acting in Mani Ratnam\'s production, Kadal, which was released on Feb 1st, 2013.

Swamy was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His parents were industrialist V. D. Swamy and the Bharatanatyam dancer Vasantha Swamy. Swamy studied at the Sishya School and later in Don Bosco Matriculation Higher Secondary School and completed his schooling in 1987. He then graduated from Loyola College, Chennai in 1990 in business. 

He went to the United States to do his Masters in International Business from Wake Forest University in North Carolina. In childhood, Swamy never wanted to become an actor or join his father\'s business. Instead he wanted to become a doctor. In college, he used to model for pocket money.  When he joined the Loyola Theatre Society, he wasn\'t well received and asked to get off stage. Mani Ratnam saw one of his ads and called him for a meeting. He and Santhosh Sivan introduced him into the basics of film making.

Swamy made his debut in Mani Ratnam\'s action drama film, Thalapathi, where he played a young district collector pitted against a don and his own biological brother. Subsequently Mani Ratnam signed him on to play the lead role in the 1992 political drama film Roja. Roja and Bombay won awards at the State and National Film Award functions and his performance in Bombay was called \"soulful\" by Time Magazine. Swamy has won several awards, popular and critical, for his films. In 1995, Swamy provided the Tamil dubbing voice for the adult Simba of Disney\'s The Lion King (1994).  He starred in Rajiv Menon\'s Minsaara Kanavu, which won four National Film Awards besides high box office reviews.

Swamy semi-retired from acting in 2000 after playing a guest role in Mani Ratnam\'s Alaipayuthey and concentrated on his business interests. He initially wanted to come back to films after 4-5 years, but was physically injured. The treatment took another 4-5 years.  After his successful treatment, Mani Ratnam called him once more to play a role in one of his films, Kadal (2013) for which Swamy lost 15 Kilograms of weight.  Swamy stated that he was initially nervous to do a film after this long gap, and wondered whether he could be as effective as in his early films, Roja and Bombay.

Swamy was director of V. D. Swamy and Company and engaged in international trade and engineering erection and construction. He was the president of InterPro Global and the chairman and managing director of Prolease India, engaged in transaction processing.  He then founded Talent Maximus a company engaged in payroll processing and temporary staffing in India.

Swamy married Gayathri Ramamurthy in 1994 and they had a daughter, Adhira (born 1996) and a son Rudra (born 2000). However, the couple lived separately for seven years until 2010, when they filed for divorce. Arvind Swamy continues to live with his children.