Suriya

Suriya (Tamil: சூர்யா; born 23 July 1975 as Saravanan Sivakumar) is an Indian film actor, producer, philanthropist and television presenter. He has acted in several Tamil films, including the commercially successful films Nandha (2001), Kaakha Kaakha (2003), Pithamagan (2003), Perazhagan (2004), Ghajini (2005), Vel (2007), Vaaranam Aayiram (2008), Ayan (2009), Singam (2010) and 7aum Arivu (2011). As of 2010, he has won three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and three Filmfare Awards, establishing himself as one of the leading contemporary actors in the Tamil film industry.
He became a film distributor after opening Studio Green, which was responsible for producing and distributed a few of his own and his brother Karthi's films. He is the eldest son of actor Sivakumar and married actress Jyothika in 2006, after being engaged for several years. In 2008, he began Agaram Foundation, which funds programmes for preventing early childhood drop-outs. As of 2012, Suriya is the host of the STAR Vijay game show Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi.

Early life

Suriya was born to actor Sivakumar and Lakshmi in Chennai. He is the eldest of three children. His younger brother is actor Karthi and he has a younger sister named Brindha Sivakumar. He attended Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan School and St. Bede's Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School in Chennai and obtained his under graduate degree B.Com from Loyola College, Chennai.

Career

Early career: 1996–2002

Suriya debuted in the 1996 film Nerrukku Ner directed by Vasanth and produced by Mani Ratnam. In 2001, he starred in Siddique's comedy film Friends.
His major break came in the form of Nandha, which was directed by Bala. Playing the role of an ex-convict who is very attached to his mother, he received a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor. His next venture was Vikraman's Unnai Ninaithu, which was followed by Mounam Pesiyadhe directed by Ameer Sultan.

Breakthrough: 2003–07

In 2003, he starred in the Gautham Menon-directed Kaakha Kaakha, a film about the life of a police officer. He then starred in his second Bala directorial, Pithamagan, along with Vikram, portraying a happy-go-lucky village crook with a comic touch, for which he received a Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. Since he was shooting for these two films in 2003, he had to turn down a lead role in Autograph, which eventually was played by its director Cheran himself. In 2004 he received a Filmfare Award for Best Actor for playing two roles in Perazhagan: an aggressive boxer and a handicapped phone booth keeper became successful venture in box-office. Later that year, he starred in Mani Ratnam's political drama Aayutha Ezhuthu, which was based on George Reddy, a student leader in Hyderabad during the late 60s and early 80s.
In 2005, he appeared in Ghajini and then in Aaru. He played the role of a patient suffering from short-term memory loss in the former. Due to his commitment to Ghajini, he was said to have missed a role in the Bollywood film Rang De Basanti. In 2006, he acted with Jyothika and Bhoomika in N. Krishna's film Sillunu Oru Kaadhal. In 2007, his only release was Vel, which released for Diwali.

Vaaranam Aayiram and Bollywood: 2008–2011

His next release was a collaboration with Gautham Menon, after the success of Kaakha Kaakha, Suriya began work on Menon's biopic Vaaranam Aayiram in November 2008. Playing dual roles for the third time in his career, Suriya appeared as father and son, with both characters also demanding scenes shot throughout their lives ranging from scenes as a 16-year-old to scenes as a 65-year-old. During the production of the film, Suriya described the project as "unique" and "straight from the heart", describing the physical hardships he endured during the making. He lost weight and prepared a six pack for the film through an eight-month fitness regime without steroids, with the move being a trend-setter for other leading actors from South India. The film, which also featured Simran, Sameera Reddy and Divya Spandana in prominent roles, became commercially successful at the box office upon release as well as receiving positive reviews from film critics, with Suriya's performance being lauded. A critic from Rediff labelled the film as his "magnum opus", citing that he is "perfect" and that the film for him is a "justified triumph". Similarly, critics cited Suriya's performance as "outstanding" and claimed that the film "works because of his performance", whilst other reviewers claimed the film was an "out and out Suriya show". His portrayals also fetched him several notable awards, including the Filmfare Award for Best Actor, a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor by the jury and also the Vijay Award for Best Actor for 2008. The film also went on to receive a National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil for 2008.

Suriya with Ram Gopal Varma on the sets of Rakta Charitra

In 2009, Suriya's first release was K. V. Anand's action-thriller Ayan, which went on to become the highest grossing Tamil film of the year. With Suriya portraying the role of a smuggler, the film also featured Prabhu as his guardian and Tamannaah Bhatia as the lead actress. The film was shot extensively across Tanzania, Namibia, Malaysia and India and featured parkour stunts by Suriya, without the use of a stunt double.  Upon release, the film won positive reviews citing that the film was a "must watch" and Suriya's performance was yet again acclaimed and he found himself nominated for leading awards and won the Vijay Award for Entertainer of the Year. The film's success saw Suriya emerge as the most profitable leading actor in Tamil films, following a hat trick of large commercial hits, with film journals suggesting that his success was due to "experiments within the commercial format" and he was successful in "avoiding being typecast".
His next release was Aadhavan directed by K. S. Ravikumar. In 2010, he had his 25th release with Singam, directed by Hari, in which he played the role of a police officer from a small village. The film went on to become the second highest grossing film of the year. He made his Bollywood debut in Ram Gopal Varma's two-part political drama Rakta Charitra in 2010, following which he appeared in cameo roles as himself in the films Manmadhan Ambu (2010) and Avan Ivan (2011). His only release in 2011 that featured him in a starring role was A. R. Murugadoss's science fiction thriller 7aum Arivu. Suriya essayed dual roles in the film, as a circus artist and as the Buddhist monk named Bodhidharma, who lived in the 5th century. The film met with mixed reception, but Suriya's performance was praised. 7aum Arivu became the actor's highest grosser, and subsequently among the top grossing films of the year.

Entry in television: 2012–present

In January 2012, Suriya was named as the official host of the new game show to be presented on STAR Vijay, Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi, the Tamil version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, which began airing on 27 February 2012.
His next project is Maatraan, which sees him collaborate with K. V. Anand again, after Ayan.

Brand ambassador

Suriya has been the ambassador for many famous enterprises including TVS, Aircel and Sunfeast Biscuits since 2006. He has endorsed Saravana Stores, Bharathi Cements and Navaratna products since 2010. In 2011, he had signed a new deal with Nescafé, Zandu Balm and more recently with Close-Up toothpaste brand as of May 2011.

Philanthropy

In 2008, Suriya began the Agaram Foundation, working to help children who drop out of school early in Tamil Nadu. With the Ministry of Education in Tamil Nadu, he created a short commercial video outlining child poverty, labour and lack of education, titled Herova? Zerova?. The film was written and produced by Sivakumar and also starred Joseph Vijay, R. Madhavan and Jyothika. Agaram has sponsored 159 underprevileged students in 2010 for their higher education in various disciplines. With the firm belief that the educated mind can not only eliminate social evils but also aid in the socio-economic upbringing of society, Agaram Foundation works towards providing appropriate learning opportunities to the rural populace who do not otherwise have access to quality education.
He is also an active participant in other philanthropic works such as "Save The Tigers" campaign, which aids in the protection and preservation of Tigers in India, and "REACH", a non-profit that cures TB patients for free using supervised medication programs.

Personal life

After several years of being engaged, Suriya married actress Jyothika on 11 September 2006, with whom he was paired in seven films: Poovellam Kettuppar, Uyirile Kalanthathu, Kaakha Kaakha, Perazhagan, Maayavi, June R and Sillunu Oru Kaadhal. The couple have two children, daughter Diya (born in August 2007 ) and son Dev (born in June 2010).

Filmography

See also: List of awards and nominations received by Suriya

Year	Film	Role	Language	Notes
1997	Nerrukku Ner	Surya	Tamil
1998	Kaadhale Nimmadhi	Chandru	Tamil
1998	Sandhippoma	Vishnu	Tamil
1999	Periyanna	Surya	Tamil
1999	Poovellam Kettuppar	Krishna	Tamil
2000	Uyirile Kalanthathu	Suriya	Tamil
2001	Friends	Chandru	Tamil
2001	Nandha	Nandha	Tamil	Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor
2002	Unnai Ninaithu	Surya	Tamil
2002	Shree	Shree	Tamil
2002	Mounam Pesiyadhe	Gautham	Tamil
2003	Kaakha Kaakha	Anbuselvan	Tamil	ITFA Best Actor Award Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil
2003	Pithamagan	Sakthi	Tamil	Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor – Tamil
2004	Perazhagan	Karthik, Chinna	Tamil	Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil
2004	Aayutha Ezhuthu	Michael Vasanth	Tamil
2005	Maayavi	Balayya	Tamil
2005	Ghajini	Sanjay Ramasamy (Manohar)	Tamil	Tamil Nadu State Film Special Award for Best Actor
2005	Aaru	Aarumugam (Aaru)	Tamil
2006	June R	Raja	Tamil	Guest appearance
2006	Sillunu Oru Kaadhal	Gautham	Tamil
2007	Vel	Vetrivel, Vasudevan	Tamil
2008	Kuselan	Himself	Tamil	Special appearance
2008	Vaaranam Aayiram	Krishnan, Suriya Krishnan	Tamil	Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil Tamil Nadu State Film Special Award for Best Actor Vijay Award for Best Actor South Scope Award for Stylish Youth Icon of the Year
2009	Ayan	Devaraj Velusamy	Tamil	Vijay Award for Entertainer of the Year (also for Aadhavan) Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil
2009	Aadhavan	Madhavan Subramaniyam (Aadhavan/Murugan)	Tamil	Vijay Award for Entertainer of the Year(also for Ayan)
2010	Singam	Durai Singam	Tamil	Vijay Award for Entertainer of the Year Nominated—Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil
2010	Rakta Charitra	Suriyanarayana Reddy	Hindi	Nominated—Star Screen Award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male Nominated—Stardust Award for Superstar of Tomorrow – Male
2010			Telugu
2010	Raththa Sarithiram	Surya	Tamil	Nominated—Vijay Award for Best Actor
2010	Manmadhan Ambu	Himself	Tamil	Guest appearance
2011	Ko	Himself	Tamil	Special appearance
2011	Avan Ivan	Himself	Tamil	Guest appearance
2011	7aum Arivu	Bodhidharma, Aravind	Tamil
2012	Maatraan		Tamil	Filming
2012	Singam 2	Durai Singam	Tamil	Announced

Surya Telugu Filmography

1.)	Deal (2011) (Filming)	:: Actor
2.)	Prathikaram (2011) (Post-production)	:: Actor
3.)	Manmadha Banam (2010)	:: Supporting Cast
4.)	Rakta Charitra 2  (2010)	:: Actor
5.)	Yamudu (2010)	:: Actor
6.)	Ghatikudu (2009)	:: Actor
7.)	Veedokkade (2009)	:: Actor
8.)	Surya s/o Krishnan (2008)	:: Actor
9.)	Deva (2007)	:: Actor
10.)	Nuvvu Nenu Prema (2007)	:: Actor
11.)	Kidnap (2006)	:: Actor
12.)	Surya Puthrudu (2006)	:: Actor
13.)	Aakrosam (2006)	:: Actor
14.)	Aaru (2005)	:: Actor
15.)	Ghajini (2005)	:: Actor
16.)	Sundarangudu (2004)	:: Actor
17.)	Yuva (2004)	:: Actor
18.)	Siva Puthrudu (2004)	:: Actor