Siddharth

Siddharth (born 17 April 1979) is an Indian film actor, who primarily acts in Telugu films. He occasionally works as a playback singer and screenplay writer as well. After his business management studies, Siddharth chose to work in film making and worked as an assistant director before making his acting debut in the 2003 Tamil film Boys. In the subsequent years, he has worked in many Telugu, Tamil and Hindi films.

Siddharth was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. He studied at DAV Boys' Senior Secondary School, Chennai and Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Delhi. He graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) degree from Kirori Mal College, New Delhi. Siddharth was part of the reputed theatre group of the college, The Players. He was also president of the college's debating society and attended the World Debating Championships. He went on to complete his MBA in 2001 from S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai.

Career

Siddharth has stated that direction was his "ultimate dream". After finishing his education at age 21, Siddharth landed the role of assistant director for Mani Ratnam's Kannathil Muthamittal. The script writer of that film, Sujatha, were insistent that Siddharth auditioned for S. Shankar's Boys which would feature five debutant actors. After consulting with Mani Ratnam, he met Shankar, auditioned, and got the role of Munna. The film was a moderate success in Tamil but the dubbed version in Telugu gave Siddharth an opening in the Telugu film industry. Siddharth then appeared in another Tamil film, Mani Ratnam's Aayutha Ezhuthu (2004), after which he would shift focus and concentrate on Telugu-language projects. His first direct Telugu project, Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana released in early 2005. The comedy-drama film, marking the directorial debut of choreographer-turned-actor Prabhu Deva, became a commercial blockbuster as well as a critical success, with Siddharth winning his first Filmfare Best Actor Award for his portrayal of Santhosh,  a playful NRI, who fights for his love. Siddharth, subsequently, also ventured into the writing forum as well as the singing forum as he wrote the screenplay for his next Telugu film Chukkallo Chandrudu (2006) directed by Siva Kumar and sang as a playback singer. He next debuted in Bollywood as part of the critically acclaimed blockbuster Rang De Basanti which also starred Aamir Khan. Siddharth received the Star Screen Debut Award for his role as Karan Singhania in the film. Siddharth's final release of 2006 was Bommarillu, directed by then newcomer Bhaskar. The film, revolving around a father-son relationship, received critical acclaim and garnered box office success, too. He worked with director Vishal Bhardwaj and Oscar winning cinematographer Guillermo Navarro on a short film titled Blood Brothers, which premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival as part of Mira Nair's AIDS Jaago project.
After the above average grossing Aata in 2007, Siddharth took a sabbatical and did not have a release for 20 months. In 2009, his Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam opposite Tamannaah received good responses from critics and audiences. Siddharth played the lead role in debutant director Anand Ranga's Oy!, which achieved box office success despite mixed reviews. His first release of 2010 was Striker, his second Bollywood venture that portrayed the life of a carrom player. It became the first Indian film to be released in theatres and on YouTube on the same day. His other release that year was the Telugu film Baava, a village-based romantic family entertainer, shot in places like Palakollu, Razole, Rajahmundry and Hyderabad. His first release of 2011, Prakash Kovelmundi's fantasy epic Anaganaga O Dheerudu was produced by veteran K. Raghavendra Rao. He was next seen in the Tamil-Telugu bilingual 180 by Jayendra, which performed poorly at the box office. His third release of the year was Oh My Friend, directed by debutant Venu Sriram, which opened to mixed reviews but went on to garner positive response. In 2012, Siddharth first starred in the bilingual romantic comedy Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi (Tamil) / Love Failure (Telugu), based on the same-titled short film by Balaji Mohan, which fetched critical acclaim. He has signed up a Tamil film to be directed by an associate director of Vetrimaaran.

Producer

Actor Siddharth started his production house Etaki Entertainment in 2012. His first production venture was the bilingual project, Kadhalil Sodhapuvadhu Eppadi / Love Failure.

Filmography

Actor

Year	Film	Roles	Language	Notes
2002	Kannathil Muthamittal	Bus Passenger	Tamil	Uncredited role
2003	Boys	Munna	Tamil/Telugu	ITFA Best New Actor Award
2004	Aayutha Ezhuthu/Yuva	Arjun	Tamil/Telugu
2005	Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana	Santosh	Telugu	Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu
2006	Chukkallo Chandrudu	Arjun	Telugu	Also writer
2006	Rang De Basanti	Karan Singhania	Hindi	Star Screen Best Male Debut Nominated—Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award
2006	Bommarillu	Siddharth (Siddhu)	Telugu	Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Telugu
2007	Aata	Sri Krishna	Telugu
2009	Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam	Siddharth (Siddhu)	Telugu
2009	Oye	Uday	Telugu
2010	Striker	Suryakant Sarang	Hindi
2010	Baava	Veera Babu	Telugu
2011	Anaganaga O Dheerudu	Yodha	Telugu
2011	180	Ajay Kumar (Mano)	Telugu
2011	Nootrenbadhu		Tamil
2011	Oh My Friend	Chandu	Telugu
2012	Kadhalil Sodhappuvadhu Yeppadi	Arun	Tamil	Also producer
2012	Love Failure		Telugu	Also producer
2012	Winds of Change	Shiva	English	Filming
2012	Chashme Baddoor	Jomo	Hindi	Filming
2012	Untitled Nandini Reddy Project		Telugu	Filming
2013	NH4		Tamil	Pre-production

Playback singer

[hide]Year	Title	Language	Song(s)
2006	Chukkallo Chandrudu	Telugu	Everybody, Edhalo Epudo
	Bommarillu	Telugu	Appudo Ippudo
2007	Aata	Telugu	Ninu Choostunte
2008	Santosh Subramaniam	Tamil	Adada Adada
2009	Oy!	Telugu	Oy Oy
2010	Striker	Hindi	Bombay Bombay, Haq Se
	Baava	Telugu	Baava Baava
2011	Oh My Friend	Telugu	Maa Daddy Pockets, Sri Chaitanya Junior College
2012	Kadhalil Sodhapuvadhu Eppadi	Tamil	Parvathi Parvathi, Ananda Jaladosam
	Love Failure	Telugu	Parvathi Parvathi, Happy Heart Attack