Showing all artists born in 1944

Delhi Ganesh a veteran Tamil Actor born in Tirunelveli , who mostly acts in supporting roles and is perhaps best known for his role in Kamal Hassan comedies and films like Nayagan and Michael Madana Kama Rajan. He has acted in more than 400 films from 1976 to present. He was a member of the 'Delhi' drama troupe called Dakshina Bharata Nataka Sabha (DBNS),. Ganesh worked in the Food Corporation of India from 1964 to 1974 before quitting in favour of films.

He was introduced to Tamil Film Industry by Mr. K. Balachander in the film Pattana Pravesham (1976). His most popular roles have been as a supporting actor or a comedian but he has done villainous roles in films like Apoorva Sagodharargal (as Francis).

His most notable films are Sindhu Bhairavi, Nayagan, Michael Madana Kama Rajan, Aahaa and Thenali.

He is also a prominent Tamil teleserial actor who has acted in more than 8 major serials and is recently acting in fatherly roles in serials like Vasantham and Kasthuri in Sun TV.

His Latest appearance is in Hindi Movie Chennai express.

Awards Received

1. He received "Tamil Nadu State Government Best Actor" for the film PASI(1979) from then Chief Minister Shri M.G.Ramachandran (MGR).
2. He received "Kalaimamani" Award of Tamil Nadu State Government from Chief Minister J.Jayalalitha

Vasudevan Nair (15 June 1944 – 20 February 2011), known as Malaysia Vasudevan was a Tamil playback singer and actor in the Tamil film industry.

Malaysia Vasudevan's parents were from Palakkad. In the early years of the last century, Chattu Nair of Ottappalam, Ammalu of Polpulli along with their respective families migrated to Malaysia in search of livelihood. Vasudevan's mother is the second wife of his father. They became labourers in the rubber estates in Rajaghiri estate, Kuala Selangor. After a few years Chattu Nair and Ammalu became husband and wife in an arranged marriage. Vasudevan was born on 15 June 1944 as their eighth and youngest child. Even though he was a Malayalee, as was the case with the majority of contemporary South Indian migrants to Malaysia then, his surroundings in Malaysia was dominated by the Tamil language and culture. As such, Tamil became his language of choice, at school and at home.

Chattu Nair was musically inclined and all his children grew with a natural ability to sing and appreciate music. Malaysia Vasudevan had once said that all his family members, except his mother Ammalu, were singers. Chattu Nair used to entertain the estate labourers by singing. He first started learning music from his father and later on, his brother taught him. Vasudevan started singing on stage when he was eight. Vasudevan was also interested in acting.
When Vasudevan grew up he attached himself to Tamil drama troupes in Malaysia as an actor and singer. The producers of one of his plays, Ratha Paei, wanted to make it into a film. Vasudevan came with the group to Chennai and acted in the film, Raththa Paei. He even sang a song for the film under the baton of G. K. Venkatesh, for whom Ilaiyaraaja was working as the assistant.

Malaysia Vasudevan married Annaporani also known as Usha Vasudevan on 26 January 1976. Malaysia Vasudevan has three children Yugendran, Prashanthini and Pavithra. His son Yugendran Vasudevan Nair has acted in many films in Tamil and other languages. He is also a playback singer in Tamil. His daughter Prashanthini is a playback singer. She has sung songs like "Mundhinam" in the movie Vaaranam Aayiram and many more. Pavithra is married and resides in Malaysia. Malaysia Vasudevan has four grand children. Visashan Naarayan and Kishan Naarayan born to Yugendran, Sai Narayan born to Pavithra and Rithvik son of Prashanthini.
Malaysia Vasudevan's first major song was in the film Delhi to Madras that starred Jaishankar and Srividya. It was a comedy song, "Paalu Vikkira Padma Un Paalu Romba Suthhama?", for the music director V. Kumar. This chance was made possible by his friendship with the film's producer, Pollachi Rathnam. After that he joined the Pavalar Brothers troupe which was run by Ilaiyaraaja and his brothers.

During a stage performance, music director M. S. Viswanathan heard Vasudevan and gave him a small piece of a song in Bharatha Vilas (he sang for the Punjabi in "Indhiya Naadu En Veedu") and then a song in Thalai Prasavam. His first big break came when Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan made him sing "Kaalam Seyyum Vilaiyattu" in Kumasthavin Magal. Vasudevan was rechristened Malaysia Vasudevan by A. P. Nagarajan in this film.

Later, when his good friend Ilaiyaraaja debuted in the Tamil film industry with Annakili, he was asked to sing in the film, and after "Aattukutti Muttai Ittu" from 16 Vayathinile happened, Malaysia Vasudevan never looked back. Ilaiyaraaja backed him until he became a star singer.

Malaysia Vasudevan has sung close to 8000 songs in his career spanning thee decades, most for Ilaiyaraaja. Illayaraja made Malaysia Vasudevan sing songs of all types and genres. Malaysia Vasudevan performed each song with utmost sincerity and surprised everyone with the range he had.
Soft romantic songs like "Indha Minminikku" (Sigappu Rojakkal), "Vaan Megangalay" (Pudhiya Varpugal), "Malargale Nadha Swarangal" (Kizhake Pogum Rayil), "Malargalilay Aaraadhanai" (Karumbu Vil), "Kodai Kaala Kaatray" (Panneer Pushpangal), "Poove Ilaya Poove" (Kozhi Koovuthu), "Thangachangili Minnum Painkili" (Thooral Ninnu Pochchu), etc. must be some of the timeless favourites of Tamil film music lovers.

Even under the baton of M. S. Viswanathan, Malaysia Vasudevan sang many illustrious songs. "Ezhudhugiral Oru Pudhukkavithai" (Saranaalayam), "Enniyirundhadhu Eadera" (Andha 7 Naatkal) and the super-hits from Billa are just a few examples.

Sensuous songs like "Kanna Thorakkanum Saami", or "Nila Kaayudhu" and emotional songs like "Oru Thanga Rathathhil" (Dharma Yuddham), "Allithhandha Bhoomi Annai Allava" (Nandu), "Adi Aadu Poongodiye" (Kali), "Vaa Vaa Vasanthamey" (Puthu Kavithai), "Pattuvanna Rosavam" (Kannipparuvathile), "Ponmaana Thedi Naanum Poovodu" (Enga Oor Rasathi) all came easy to Vasudevan and succeeded in showing some other brilliant facets of the wonderful singer. His largely folksy tunes sung for Shankar Ganesh are also of inimitable class. In the nineties, he got to sing a few, but most of them sensuous hits, for A. R. Rahman, including "Then Kizhakku" (Kizhakku Cheemayile) and "Monalisa Monalisa" (Mr. Romeo). The famous song "Poo Pookum Osai" (Minsara Kanavu) featured Vasudevan's voice in the chorus part.

He was the king of singing folk songs and songs with a village background, he was the voice behind several of Rajni Kanth's hit songs and he, Malayasia Vasudevan, sang a good number of hit duets with S Janaki.Ilayaraja chose this singing pair whenever he had a folk song or a song which needed some special singing and they successfully made all his works big hits.

Some of the best songs of Malaysia Vasudevan happened at the time when he was considered the voices of Sivaji Ganesan and Rajinikanth; songs like "Mudhal Mariyathai", "Pothuvaga En Manasu Thangam" (Murattukalai) and "Aasai Nooru Vagai" (Adutha Varisu) to name a few.

Malaysia Vasudevan was like T. M. Soundararajan who was content with the popularity achieved only in Tamil. He was of the notion that to sing in other languages he should have known well the nuances of other languages.

Vasudevan worked with many music directors such as M. S. Viswanathan, Ilaiyaraaja, Shankar Ganesh, Deva, A. R. Rahman, and Vidyasagar. After T. M. Soundararajan, he was called as ghost voice for Sivaji Ganesan. His first song was for the film Delhi to Madras. He has sung over 8,000 in Tamil and over 4,000 songs in various other South Indian languages. He has also sung few songs in Hindi.

Malaysia Vasudevan has sung a lot of songs for Rajinikanth. Some of his notable songs for Rajinikanth were "Ennama Kannu Sowkiyama" (Mr. Bharath), "Singamondru Purapattadhe" (Arunachalam), "Yejaman Kaladi Manneduthu" (Yejaman), "Agaya Gangai", "Oru Thanga Rathathil" (Dharma Yuddham) and many others.

He has also lent voice for a few albums, the most notable among them is Disco Disco (1987), a collaboration with composer Dilip (A. R. Rahman) and playback singer K. S. Chithra. The album is noted for being the first album production of A. R. Rahman. Though it didn't become much popular, Disco Disco Vol 2 was also released later.

Malaysia Vasudevan composed music for a few movies like "Pakku Vethilai" (1981) "Ayiram Kaigal" (1984) and "Kolusu (1985).

Malaysia Vasudevan has also acted in nearly 85 films. Veteran Tamil director A. P. Nagarajan christened him as "Malaysia Vasudevan". Some of his notable films include Oorkavalan (with Rajinikanth), Mudhal Vasantham (with Sathyaraj), Oomai Vizhigal (with Vijayakanth), Kathanayagan (with Pandiyarajan), Oru Kaidhiyin Diary (with Kamal Hassan), Jallikattu, Thiruda Thiruda, Amaidhi Padai, Poove Unakkaga, Badri,Punnagai Desam, and Kokki. Besides acting in films, he has acted in a good number of tele serials.
Malaysia Vasudevan wrote a book of poems called "Ennam Thondriyathu Ezhutha Thoondiyathu" in the year 2010.

Vasudevan's last song was "Happy" from the film Bale Pandiya (2010), in the music of Devan Ekambaram. His last film as an actor Ithanai Naalaai Engiruthaai is yet to be released. The last song he wrote was "Devathaiye" for the film Balam (2009), in the music of his son Yugendran Vasudevan Nair.
He has been awarded Kalaimamani by the Tamil Nadu Government. He is also a winner of Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Male Playback.Malaysia Vasudevan died on 20 February 2011 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

Vijayan was an Indian actor, primarily concentrated in Malayalam and Tamil films. He was a saleable hero of Tamil films in late 70s. 

Later he was a much sought after character actor. Post 2000, most the films he appeared crossed 100 days. 

He died following a cardiac arrest at a private hospital in Chennai in 2007, at this moment, he was shooting for Aayudham Seivom.

He was not only one of the more popular actors in Tamil cinema of his time, but also a scenarist and had also edited a magazine. 

Vijayan was married end was the father of a daughter.

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.