Showing all artists born at Madurai

Vinu Chakravarthy is a Tamil actor, script writer and director who is known for acting in more than 1000 movies in Tamill, Telugu, Kannada, Badaga and Malayalam mostly as a comedian, supporting actor or in a villanous role. The 2007 released tamil movie Muni was his landmark 1000th movie.

Chakravarthy was born on December 15, 1945 in Usilampatti to Adimoola Thevar and Manjuvani Ammal. He studied at Wesley School, Royapettah and graduated in commerce from A. M. Jain College.

On completion of his education, Chakravarthy worked as a Reserve Sub-Inspector at the Ice House police station for six months before joining the Southern Railways where he worked for four years.

Chakravarthy was working as a script writer for Kannada director Puttanna Kanagal when he was noticed by film producer Tiruppur Mani who, in 1977, gave him a role in the Kannada film Parasangada Gendetimma which was later remade into Tamil. Since then, Chakravarthy has made over 1,000 films in four South Indian languages - 900 in Tamil, 30 in Malayalam, 5 in Telugu and one in Badaga language. He has also directed movies on his own and is credited with introducing sex siren Silk Smitha.

V. I. S. Jayapalan is a Tamil writer, political commentator and actor who has appeared in Tamil language films. He made his acting debut in Vetrimaaran's Aadukalam (2011) and won a National Film Award for his portrayal.


Jayapalan was born in Uduvil, Jaffna and began writing in the 1970s while studying at the University of Jaffna and published his first anthology in 1986. He studied a degree in Economics during his time at the university, while also leading the student union. Since then he has published at least 12 anthologies of poetry and short fiction. As the Sri Lankan Civil War escalated, he fled to Oslo, Norway in 1988 and since then he has been living in Norway as a Norwegian citizen and was moving back and forth to South Indian state of Tamil Nadu to continue his art and literary work. In 1995, he was awarded as the best immigrant writer by the Norwegian Writers’ Association, with poetry being translated into English, Norwegian as well as in to Sinhala. In 2009, some of his poems were translated into English and published as a book in Canada - named 'Wilting Laughter’ - along with selected poems of R. Cheran and Puthuvai Raththinathurai.

Paravai Muniyamma is a Tamil folk singer and actress who prominently plays supporting roles. Appearing in many Tamil films, she has also sung playback in films as well as having her own cook show on Kalaignar TV.

Her Name is Muniyamma and born place Paravai.  Paravai is a panchayat town in Madurai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Muniyamma's career started off with a role in Dhool, which garnered her a cult status. Since then she has appeared in over fifty films, usually playing grandmother roles.

The lady has completed 2,000 stage performances on folk songs, which also includes shows in London, Singapore and Malaysia.

Solomon Pappaiah (born 22 February 1936), a.k.a. Solomon Pappiah and Salomon Pappayah is a popular Tamil language scholar and a television icon in Tamil Nadu, India. He is best known for moderating Tamil debate talk shows, known as 'patti mandrams', which have been airing on Sun TV for quite a long time. He is credited for taking social themes to the masses and has so far moderated over 5,000 debates programmes across the globe.

Born as the ninth child in a family of 12 to Mr.A.Sundaram and Mrs.S.Pakkiam, Pappaiah had his job cut out as his father was a mill worker and did not have the wherewithal to financially support his studies. With financial help from his friends, he was able to continue his education. His drawing master at American College Higher Secondary School, Arasu, taught him the skills. Professor Jothi Muthu of American College groomed his love for the language. 

Pappiah joined Thiagarajar College to pursue Post-Graduation in Tamil and became the first batch of M.A Tamil students. He entered the public stage fray in 1960, when he became a teacher at The American College. Eventually, he created a social awakening in the evolution of patti mandrams. He has also written and directed plays at college.

Pappaiah is known for his ‘down to earth' speaking style. His command over Tamil enables him to get complex literary issues across to the common man. This has enabled him to take social themes to the masses and bring about a social awakening in the evolution of patti mandrams in Tamilnadu and beyond.

• He was awarded Kalaimamani by the Government of Tamilnadu in 2000
• Annamalai University conferred him with "Muthamizh Perarignar" award in 2010
• He is referred to as "Tamil Arignar" and "Iyal Kalai Arignar"

• Pattukottai Kalyanasundaram: Or Paarvai
• Urai Malargal
• Urai Kothu
• Tirukkural Uraiyudan

Susi Ganeshan (Tamil: சுசி கணேசன்; born Ganeshan Subbiah) is an Indian film Director, Producer and screenwriter.

Ganeshan was born in Vannivelampatti, Madurai District in Tamil Nadu to Tamil parents Subbiah and Sittamma. He changed his screenname to Susi Ganeshan, his first name being derived from the first two letters from his parents' first names. Ganeshan graduated from Madras Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in automobile engineering.

During his college days, he was a journalist and had published many articles for the Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan. He was also chairman of ATHENAEUM, the student body of the Madras Institute of Technology, during 1991–92. After working as an assistant to director Mani Ratnam during the filming of Bombay (1995), Iruvar (1997) and Dil Se.. (1998), Ganeshan debuted as a director with the 2002 film Virumbugiren.

Ganeshan began his first project Virumbugiren in 2000. Its story was based on love in a village backdrop with a social message to it. The film, starring Prashanth and then newcomer Sneha, was selected and screened at the Kuala Lumpur World Film Festival 2003. The film received four awards at the 2001 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, winning the Best Director, Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress prizes, while also being adjugded as the Best Film of the year. Virumbugiren became long delayed and released in late 2002.

Ganeshan next directed Five Star (2002), which happened to be his first release, due to the delay of his first project Virumbugiren.Five Star, produced by his mentor Mani Ratnam under the banner Madras Talkies, featured five newcomers in the title roles. The story focused on friendship, love with social awareness and a touch of human emotions. The film won him the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Storywriter. In early 2004, he announced plans on directing Madhavan in a film titled Karuppan which would feature ten female lead actresses, but the venture did not materialize. He then launched a film titled Sakkarai with Prashanth in the lead role in October 2004, but the film was subsequently postponed then shelved.

In 2006, Ganeshan made his third film Thiruttu Payale. The film, which featured Jeevan, Sonia Agarwal and Malavika in principal roles, emerged a sleeper hit and ranked among the highest-grossing Tamil films of the year. It was named the third Best Film of the year by the Tamil Nadu State Government and gave major breaks to the leading actors, with the performances of Jeevan and Malavika in particular being considerably appreciated. Three years later, Ganeshan directed Kanthaswamy. The film dealt with disparity of rich and poor in the Indian society, and it was reportedly the first South Indian film in that the protagonist, portrayed by Vikram, conceived a superhero character. The film had the biggest opening in the year 2009.

Ganeshan's next directed and produced the Hindi film, Shortcut Romeo (2013), a remake of his 2006 film Thiruttu Payale starring Neil Nitin Mukesh and Puja Gupta.

Sujatha Sivakumar is an Indian actress who has appeared in Tamil films. Sujatha rose to fame with her performance in Ameer's Paruthiveeran (2007), before appearing in several supporting roles as a mother in Tamil cinema.

Sujatha was given a debut by Kamal Haasan for a small role in Virumaandi (2004).Sujatha made a breakthrough with her performance in Ameer's Paruthiveeran (2007), earning the stage name "Paruthiveeran Sujatha" for her subsequent films. Her portrayal of a feisty village woman later won her the Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Supporting Actress and the Vijay Award for Best Supporting Actress for 2007.The film prompted her to receive more offers from film makers and she collaborated with director Pandiraj for Pasanga (2009) and Kedi Billa Killadi Ranga (2013).

She won acclaim for her work in Vijay Milton's Goli Soda (2014), playing a strong widow who works at the market and speaks Madurai slang, acting as the godmother for lead actors. Sujatha fainted unable to sit by the market platform in the rain, during the making of the film, but she subsequently improved, and by the end of the film, the director gave her rave reviews for her co-operation. As of 2015, she has appeared in close to fifty films.

Abi Saravanan is an Indian film actor, who has appeared in Tamil language films. He has acted in films including Touring Talkies (2015) and Saahasam (2016).

After completing a degree in engineering, Abi Saravanan wanted to become an actor and began looking for opportunities to enter the film industry. Abi initially played small supporting roles in Attakathi (2012) and Kutti Puli (2013). He successfully auditioned for the lead role in S. S. Kumaran's Tamil-Malayalam bilingual film, Kerala Nattilam Pengaludane (2014) and portrayed a young man looking for a bride in his film  His second film was Touring Talkies (2015), where he portrayed the younger version of S. A. Chandrasekhar's character.He later appeared in a supporting role in Prashanth's Saahasam (2016).

In 2015, he worked on several small budget films titled Plus or Minus directed by newcomer Jai, the horror film Irayan by Saravanan Periasamy, Andha Oru Naal and Nadakkam.

Kadhal Sukumar is an Indian film director and actor, who has appeared in Tamil language films. After working as a comedian in films for a decade, notably in Balaji Sakthivel's romantic film Kaadhal (2004), he chose to pursue a career as a film director.

Sukumar, the son of a farmer from Alanganallur near Madurai, came to Chennai in 1997, searching for an opportunity to star in Tamil films. His first on screen appearance was in Sakthi (1997), where he featured as a dancer alongside Vadivelu in a song, with several critics remarking about his resemblance to the actor. Sukumar then first worked as an actor in Kasthuri Raja's unreleased film Kaadhal Jaathi, before working on a television show titled Oorvambu on Raj TV, which garnered attention for him in the film industry. Sukumar received a breakthrough after featuring as Bharath's friend in Balaji Sakthivel's coming-of-age, love story Kaadhal (2004). The success of the film prompted the actor to place the film's title as a prefix to his name. In the same year, he worked on two films starring Kamal Haasan - the village drama Virumaandi and the comedy Vasool Raja MBBS.

In 2008, Sukumar received an opportunity to play the leading role in a film titled Saamipulla opposite actresses Karthika and Saranya Mohan. Despite a launch event, the film failed to progress and was consequently shelved.
Sukumar began his career as a director in late 2012 through the production of Thirukkural, but the film was later shelved after a few schedules.His first release was consequently Thiruttu VCD (2015) featuring himself in a key role.

The film had a low key release and did not perform well commercially.Sukumar next made Summave Aaduvom (2016), focusing on street artistes, featuring athlete Arun Balaji and Leema Babu in the lead roles.The film opened to positive reviews, with a critic from The New Indian Express stating "after his disastrous directorial debut in Thiruttu VCD, Summave Aaduvom comes as a redemption of sorts for the actor-turned-maker".