Showing all artists born in January 22

Thavakalai alias Chittibabu; A native of Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, Thavakalai made his entry into acting with actor-director K Bhagyaraj-helmed super hit movie 'Mundhanai Mudichi'. Since the name of his character in the film was 'Thavakalai', people started calling him so and he too accepted it.

Known for his short appearance and unique dialogue delivery, he had acted in close to 70 films so far, including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi.

Thavakalai alias Chittibabu died in Chennai on Sunday (Feb 26, 2017).  He is 42 and is survived by wife Podhumani.

According to sources close to his family, Thavakalai, who came home last night (Feb 25, 2017) after attending the shoot of a Malayalam film, started vomitting this morning (Feb 26, 2017). He asked his wife to get him water, and collapsed after drinking it, as he suffered a massive cardiac arrest.

A former model and Indian actress, Namrata Shirodkar hails from a Maharashtrian family of Goan origin. In the year 1993, Namrata won the crown of Miss India. Apart from Bollywood, she has also been a part of Telugu cinema. The beauty achieved fifth place in Miss Universe pageant in 1993. She was also selected as first runner-up in the Miss Asia Pacific contest.

Namrata Shirodkar was born on January 22, 1972. The former Bollywood actress Shilpa Shirodkar is her elder sister. The well-known Marathi actress Meenakshi Shirodkar is her grand-mother. Namrata is married to the Tollywood star Mahesh Babu Ghattamaneni on February 10, 2005. The actress lives in Hyderabad at present and the couple is having a boy and a girl. Post marriage, she waved goodbye to her filmy career. Talking about her debut in Hindi films, Namrata stepped in with the film 'Jab Pyar Kisi Se Hota Hai' in 1998, in which she played a small yet pivotal role. She shared the screen space alongside Salman Khan in this super hit flick. Namrata received acclaim in the industry with another hit film 'Vaastav'. Her performance attained many praises from the folks and she became a famous face in Bollywood industry.

Namrata carried on essaying prominent roles in the films, such as 'Hera Pheri', 'Pukar', 'Albela', 'Tera Mera Saath Rahein', 'Hero Hindustani', 'Maseeha', 'Praan Jaye Par Shaan Na Jaye', 'Dil Vil Pyar Vyar', 'Astitva', 'Kachche Dhaage', 'LOC - Kargil', 'Tehzeeb', 'Hathyar', 'Charas', 'Bride and Prejudice' and 'Rok Sako To Rok Lo'. 'Vamsi' was her Telugu flick in 2000, in which Namrata was paired up with Mahesh Babu Ghattamaneni.

In the year 1999, Namrata Shirodkar was seen featuring in a Malayalam flick 'Ezhupunna Tharakan' opposite Mammootty. Alongside Chiranjeevi, she starred in a Telugu film 'Anji' in 2004. In the film 'Bride and Prejudice', Namrata essayed the role of Jaya Bakshi, the elder sister of Aishwarya Rai. This movie turned out to be a hit in UK, while it performed average in India. For her performance in the movie 'Pukar', Namrata was nominated for IIFA Best Supporting Actress Award.

Ashwini Kalsekar is an Indian soap opera actress. She is best known to television audiences She pursued theatre as an understudy. she was an understudy to actress Neena Gupta. Ashwini played a role Marathi film Tula Jhapar La. She acted in SHANTI and C.I.D., Anjaane, Siddhant and K. Street Pali Hill . She appeared in Kasamh Se for which she won the ITA award for Best actor in a negative role.She is married to film and television character actor Murali Sharma. This is her second husband Nitesh Pandey was her first husband.

Chithra Laksmanan started his career as a journalist. Later when his friend P. Bharathiraja became the director, Chithra Laksmanan had the opportunity of working with him as an associate director and worked more than 25 films with him in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. His maiden venture as a Film Producer was Mann Vasanai directed by Bharathiraja. Revathi and Pandian were introduced in that film which ran for more than 300 days. Then he produced number of films with Sivaji Ganesan, Kamal Haasan, Vijayakanth, Sathyaraj, Prabhu, Karthik and many others.



In 1987 M. G. Ramachandran, then chief minister of Tamil Nadu presided over the 100th day function of “Jallikkattu” produced by Chithra Laksmanan.


His first directorial venture was Soora Samharam with Kamal Hassan and later he directed Peria Thambi with Prabhu and Chinna Raja with Karthik in the lead role.


He served as the Secretary of Tamil Film Producers Council for four years. And served as the Executive committee member in South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce, Film Federation of India, and Tamil Film Directors Association for many years. He had the opportunity to be the Jury member for National Film Awards in the year of 2002. In the Tamil Film Producers Council elections held in the month of October 2011 he was elected as an Executive committee member of the Council


He turned as an actor in Jappanil Kalyanaraman and acted more than 50 films and his recent film Boss Engira Bhaskaran is a runaway hit. His first entry in small screen was in Ganga Yamuna Saraswathi and he is currently acting in Idhayam with Seetha which is being telecasted in Sun TV.


He published the book 80 Years of Tamil Cinema- Part 1 in 2011. It is an account documenting the History of Tamil cinema with some rare pictures and new informations about the Tamil cinema evolution in the particular period between 1931 to 2011.