Showing all artists born in 1962

Jayashri Ramnath; popularly known as Bombay Jayashri is an Indian Carnatic music vocalist and music composer. She is a disciple of violin maestro Lalgudi Jayaraman.

Jayashri is one of the leading playback singers of Tamil cinema and has worked with a number of composers including Harris Jayaraj, Ilaiyaraaja, A. R. Rahman, Vidyasagar and Yuvan Shankar Raja. She is currently nominated for Best Original Song at the 85th Academy Awards for the song \\\"Pi\\\'s Lullaby\\\" from Life of Pi.

Jayashri was born in Kolkata, into a family of music connoisseurs and musicians. While growing up in Mumbai, she started training in Carnatic music under the guidance of her parents Seetha and N. N. Subramaniam. Soon, she went on to learn with T. R. Balamani, and trained under her for a period of 10 years. Jayashri was also initiated into Hindustani music and trained under Mahavir Jaipurvale and Ajay Pohankar for about six years. When she moved to Chennai, she came under the guidance and mentorship of her guru Lalgudi Jayaraman. She also learnt the veena from G. N. Dhandapani Iyer. Jayashri has a Bachelor of Commerce degree from R.A. Podar College, Mumbai. She also has a Diploma in Music from Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, New Delhi.

Jayashri perfomed her first concert in 1982. She has performed at various festivals and venues all across India and in over twenty different countries. In India, she has performed in all the major cities. In New Delhi: The Rashtrapati Bhavan, Vishnu Digambar festival, Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, Sri Shanmukhananda Sabha, India International Centre and Bhakti Utsav. She has performed also at Saptak, Ahmedabad; The Music Academy and Sri Krishna Gana Sabha, Chennai; ITC Sangeet Research Academy, Kolkata;NCPA and Sri Shanmukhananda Sabha, Mumbai; Chowdiah Memorial Hall and Vasantha Habba, Bangalore; Kuthira Malika and Soorya Festival, Trivandrum, The Palace of Mysore and at the Matrimandir Amphitheatre at Auroville. Across India, she has performed for the Spirit of Unity Concerts for National Integration, SPIC MACAY Festivals and All India Radio\\\'s Sangeet Sammelan.

In the US, she has performed at the World Music Institute - New York; University of Arizona - Tucson; University of Texas - Austin; MIT – Boston; University of Louisiana - New Orleans; Cornell University and Amherst College.

Jayashri\\\'s Europe tours have included venues such as: Saddlers Wells and Queen Elizabeth Hall - London; Festival of Sacred Voices and Museum Rietberg - Switzerland; Vantaa Festival and The Russian Opera House - Helsinki, Finland; Théâtre de la Ville, Festival of Nantes, The Museum of Sculpture and Arts, Musee des Asiatiques and Citi de la Musique - in France; Casa da Musica a Porto - Portugal; Sala de Camera - Spain and at the University of Cologne.

She has also performed at The Royal Opera House - Durban, Monash University - Melbourne and Esplanade Theatre - Singapore.

Jayashri\\\'s jugalbandis with Ronu Majumdar and Shubha Mudgal have been very well received. She has dialogued with artistes in dance like Leela Samson and Priyadarsini Govind. Jayashri has sung Thirukkural and an Annamacharya verse in the prestigious audio autobiography - Wings of Fire of former President Shri Abdul Kalam. She performed in \\\'Bhaire Baanvari\\\', the story of Meera, conceptualized and directed by Gowri Ramnarayan. She also was a part of \\\'Mathemagician\\\' with actor V Balakrishnan and written by Gowri Ramnarayan. Jayashri also performed at the MTV Coke Studio(India) Season 1 with Ustad Rashid Khan and Richa Sharma.

Jayashri also conceptualized \\\'Listening to Life\\\' - A concert that features the journey of a musician as a lover of music.

Her quest to interact and experiment with various forms of music has resulted in collaborations with various eminent artistes from around the world. She has sung with Egyptian singer Hisham Abbas and Senegalese singer Thione Seck. In 2008, she was part of an Indo-Finnish venture ‘Red Earth and Pouring Rain’, where she sang Kuṟuntokai  — ancient poems from Sangam literature - with Avanti, a Philharmonic Orchestra from Finland and set to music by Eero Hämeenniemi. In 2012, she sang the poetry of Mirza Ghalib composed by Eero Hämeenniemi at the Vanta festival, Helsinki.

Jayashri is also a much sought after playback singer and her limited foray into film music has won her the Filmfare award for the popular number \\\'Vaseegara\\\' for the Tamil film Minnale, thus drawing a new class of listeners into the world of classical music. She sang in Mahesh Dattani\\\'s \\\'Morning Raga\\\' for the music of Amit Heri. She has also sung in various films in Hindi and Malayalam languages.

Jayashri has had the rare opportunity of working with Oscar-winning director Ang Lee, on his motion picture, Life of Pi.Which is nominated for 2013 oscar nomination for Music (Original Song)\\\"Pi\\\'s Lullaby\\\" from Life of Pi Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri. She has also composed music for actor Revathi\\\'s films \\\'Verukku Neer\\\' and Kerala Cafe.  In 2004, Jayashri composed music for \\\'Silappadhikaaram\\\' - a dance drama, commissioned by the Cleveland Cultural Alliance.

In 2001, Jayashri, along with Sanjay Subrahmanyan and T. M. Krishna wrote the book \\\'Prof. Sambamoorthy, the visionary musicologist\\\', detailing the life and times of Prof.Sambamoorthy - eminent Indian musicologist. The book was published to commemorate his birth centenary. In 2007, Jayashri, T. M. Krishna - leading Carnatic vocalist and Mythili Chandrasekar - Senior Vice President at JWT together wrote the book ‘Voices Within’, - a one-of-a-kind coffee table book that captures the pioneering spirit of 7 of the greatest Carnatic masters of the previous generations.

Jayashri featured in the first full length Carnatic music film ‘Margazhi Ragam’, conceptualized by Director P Jayendra. This was a ground breaking venture that showed Carnatic music in a whole different light. The movie, released in 2008, used the very best and latest technologies for video and sound recording. In her quest to reach music to the next generation, she along with T. M. Krishna and YACM initiated Svanubhava — a week-long Music Festival, exclusively for students of music, which continues to be conducted annually.

Another dimension of music which Jayashri is focused on is in exploring the therapeutic and healing value that music can generate. She has been working closely with institutions like Kilikili in Karnataka and Sankalp in Tamil Nadu which care for autistic children. This domain is a matter of serious engagement for Jayashri and her students. Some other institutions that Jayashri has worked with include: The Banyan Chennai (rehabilitation of homeless/mentally challenged women), Vasantha Memorial Trust (cancer patients), Stepping Stones Orphanage Home, Malaysia, Multiple Sclerosis Society of India, Bangalore and more.

Rajkumar Hirani (born: 22 November 1962) is a National Award and Filmfare Award winning Indian director, screenwriter and film editor of Hindi films, best known for the films Munna Bhai MBBS (2003), Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006) and 3 Idiots (2009), considered the highest-grossing Hindi film by distributor-share.

Ambika is an Indian film actress. She works in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada films. She has an elder sister, Amba, and a younger sister Ambalika. Her another sister Radha was also an actress. Both of them acted in a number of south Indian films in 80s and they have a movie studio called "ARS Studios".

Ambika started her career as a child artist and later on acted in more than 200 South Indian films. Her career as a heroine started with the Malayalam movie Seetha, which only released really late in her career. But with films like Neelathaamara and Lejjavathi, she became a busy actress in a couple of years not only in Malayalam, but also in Tamil and Kannada.

She has acted with heroes in all languages which includes Jayan, Mammooty, Mohanlal, Prem Nazir, Sukumaran, M. G. Soman in Malayalam; Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan, Sivaji Ganesan, Prabhu, Vijayakanth, Mohan, Karthik Muthuraman, Sivakumar, Bhagyaraj, Sathyaraj in Tamil; NTR, Akkineni Nageswara Rao, Muralimohan, Mohan Babu, Krishna, Krishnamraju in Telugu; Rajkumar, Vishnuvardhan, Ambarish, Srinath, Anant Nag, Shankar Nag, Ravichandran, Prabhakar in Kannada. Her pairing with Ambarish was famous in Kannada.

K. Bhagyaraj introduced Ambika in his movie Andha 7 Natkal. She acted with Rajinikanth in many movies and has appeared in glamorous roles in movies such as Padikkadhavan, Maaveeran, Kaakki Sattai, Vikram and Kadhal Parisu. Most of her films have been with actors such as Rajinikanth, Kamal Hassan, Mohanlal, Rajkumar, Mammootty, Ambarish and Vijayakanth.

She had a very successful career in Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam movies throughout the 1980s. In Tamil and Malayalam, she took on a few bold roles that showcased her versatility and talent. In Kannada, however, she appeared in many roles and songs that were characteristic by being erotic yet understated.

In Tamil, Ambika shot to fame with the movie Kakki Sattai. In the zenith of her career she was paired in the same movie with her sister Radha in Kadhal Parisu, where both actresses demonstrated their acting prowess by taking on roles of two young, beautiful sisters, who had strong, yet conflicting personalities.

After returning to India later and started acting again in films like Periyamanushan with Sathyaraj in a glamorous role, Maa Naanaki Pelli in Telugu and with Krishnam raju and Simmadamari in Kannada. She acted as heroine in Vikaraman’s project Mariyathai, in which Vijayakanth acted in father and son roles along with Meena and Meera Jasmin. She acted in Malayalam films like Angel John with Mohanlal, Thanthonni, Sathgamaya and is currently more active doing TV serials.

Sripathi Panditaradhyula Sailaja is an Indian singer and actress who has lent her voice to Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada films. She has sung about 5000 songs to date.

Early life

She was born in Konetammapeta in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. Her father, SP Sambamurthy, was a well-known exponent of Harikatha and her brother S. P. Balasubrahmanyam is a prolific playback singer in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam films.

Career

Voice acting

Sailaja has occasionally worked as a voice actor and dubbed for various artistes including Tabu, Sonali Bendre and Sridevi among others.

Acting

Sailaja acted in Saagara Sangamam, a Telugu venture directed by K. Viswanath, in which she played the role of a classical dancer; it was later dubbed into Tamil as Salangai Oli.

Television works

Sailaja has appeared as both an audition judge and a guest judge in several episodes of Vijay TV's musical reality-talent shows, including seasons 2, 3, and 4 of Airtel Super Singer, and seasons 2, 3, and 4 of Airtel Super Singer Junior.

Sailaja is currently a judge in season 1 of Jaya TV's musical reality-talent show, Jaya Super Singer South India.

Personal life

She is married to Subhalekha Sudhakar, a Tollywood actor. The couple has a son, Sreekar. Apart from being a playback singer, she is also a classical dancer.

James Vasanthan is a popular Indian television anchor and film music composer. For more than a decade, he worked as an anchor in popular Tamil satellite television channels like Sun TV, Vijay TV and Makkal TV before turning into a film music composer in the Tamil Film Industry.

James Vasanthan was born in Tiruchirapalli (Trichy), studied at Bishop Heber School and later, graduated in English literature in Bishop Heber College. Later, he graduated in Carnatic music from Madras University and in Western Music from Trinity College, U.K. and even holds a diploma in Theory of Music. Though music was his "first love" , he forayed into TV channel business by working as an anchor in some popular Tamil TV channels.

In 2003, James Vasanthan launched his maiden venture, Vaasanai, a Tamil pop album featuring other prominent TV personalities like Swarnamalya, Uma Padmanabhan and Vijay Adhiraj. Even before that, he has composed music for many good Christian cassettes numbering around 300, like "Amarntha Meliya Satham"(Lyrics:Suresh Frederick), "Sinthanai Sei", "Friends", "Iravin Amaithiyil Yesuvodu" etc. In 2008 then, he eventually entered the Chennai film industry as a music director by composing the songs and score for the Tamil film Subramaniyapuram, directed by M. Sasikumar, who was a student of him in high school, which brought him into prominence with the film`s soundtrack gaining fame and being praised and the song Kangal Irandal topping the charts and being cited as the "anthem of the year among the youth".

The song "Kangal irandal" is believed to have made a record in digital downloads at that time. It was the most favourite song of most composers in the south, which was mentioned by themselves in various interviews across various media.

Shobha was a South Indian film actress.  She started her career as a child artist in the Tamil film Thattungal Thirakkappadum. Her first film as a heroine was Utrada Raatri. Shobha's real name was Mahalakshmi. She won the National Film Award for Best Actress for her role in the Tamil film Pasi at the age of 17.

Early life

Shoba was born on 23 September 1962 to K. P. Menon and Prema Menon.  Her mother was one of the leading actresses in Malayalam cinema in the 1950s.

Career

In 1966, Shoba made her screen debut in Tamil Thriller film Thattungal Thirakkappadum directed by actor J. P. Chandrababu. In the film she was credited as Baby Mahalakshmi where she played the role of Lakshmi opposite actress Savitri, K. R. Vijaya, R. S. Manohar and Chandrababu himself.  The following year she made her debut in Malayalam cinema through Udhyogastha by P. Venu where she was named as Baby Shoba. Touted as the first "multi-starrer", with five top actors, in Malayalam cinema, the film had Sathyan, Prem Nazir, K. P. Ummer, Padmini, Sharada, Sheela and Rajasree in the lead along with Shobha.  The film was a big hit and gained Shoba recognition as a child actor in South Indian cinema.

In 1978 she was cast as a heroine in Uthradarathri, a film directed by Balachandra Menon. She received the Kerala government's Best Actress award for the 1978 films Bandhanam and Ente Neelakasam. The same year she earned the Best Actress award by Filmfare for the Kannada-language film Aparichita. In 1979 she was recipient of the National Award for Best Actress for the Tamil film Pasi, which was produced by Lalitha, the eldest of the Travancore sisters. She also received the Filmfare Best Actress award for Pasi and received the Second Best Actress award from the Kerala government in 1977 for the film Ormakal Marikkumo.

Death

Shobha committed suicide at the age of 17.  She was married to Balu Mahendra. In an interview to Anu Haasan in Koffee with Anu, Balu Mahendra has said that the tragedy of how Shoba was suddenly snatched away from his life by destiny, as quickly as she came, formed the plot for his next movie Moondram Pirai. The 1983 Malayalam film Lekhayude Maranam Oru Flashback directed by K. G. George is loosely based on her life and death.

Madhavi is an Indian film actress known for her works in Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Oriya and Bengali cinema. In a career spanning seventeen years, she has acted in three hundred films. She was one of the top lead actresses in the 1980s and 1990s.

Madhavi was born in Hyderabad, India to Sasirekha and Govinda Swamy, on 14 September 1962. She grew up with a sister and a brother, named Keerthi Kumari and Dhananjai respectively. She learnt Bharat Natyam from Uma Maheswari and folk dance from Mr. Bhatt from an early age and gave more than a thousand dance performances. She attended Stanley Girls High School in Hyderabad, Abids Branch.

Director Dasari Narayana Rao gave her a starring role in the Telugu film Thoorupu Padamara when she was a teenager. The film became a huge hit. K. Balachander then cast her in a supporting role in his Telugu film Maro Charithra (1978). She reprised her role in its Hindi remake Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981), which became the top-grossing film of 1981. In both films, she showed remarkable sensitivity as a lonely wealthy woman who falls in love with Kamal Haasan's character.

She earned a Filmfare Award nomination as Best Supporting Actress.K. Balachander was so impressed with her performance in both films that he introduced her to the Tamil film industry with Thillu Mullu (1981) opposite Rajinikanth. By the end of the decade, she was starred opposite Amitabh Bachchan in the Hindi film Agneepath (1990).

Madhavi acted alongside Kamal Haasan in Raja Paarvai, Tik Tik Tik, Kaakki Sattai and Mangamma Sabadham appearing in a swimsuit in all the films. Her films with Rajinikanth include Garjanai, Thambikku Entha Ooru, Un Kannil Neer Vazhindal and Viduthalai. She showed her ability in movies like Enga Oor Kannagi, and Nirabaraadhi. She also played Zeenat Aman's role from the Hindi hit film Insaf Ka Tarazu) (1980) in the Telugu remake "Edi Dharmam Edi Nyayam" (1982) and the Tamil remake Needhi Dhevan Mayakkam (1982).

She appeared in many Malayalam films especially in those starring superstars Mammootty and Mohanlal. She played the Zeenat Aman role from the Hindi hit film Don in the Malayalam remake titled Shobaraj (1986). Her portrayal of Unniyarcha in the National Award-winning movie Oru Vadakkan Veeragadha was critically appreciated and is often recognised as one of the best roles in her career.

Her portrayal as a mother who met her end with leukaemia in Akashadoothu won her the Kerala State Film Award for Second Best Actress and Filmfare Award for Best Actress for 1993. Other notable films include Ormakkayi, Changatham, Novemberinte Nashtam and Nombarathi Poovu. She was later seen in supporting roles in films such as Aksharam and Aayiram Naavulla Ananthan. Most of her author-backed roles were in Malayalam films. She has won three Kerala State Film Awards, one for Best Actress and two for Second Best Actress.

She acted in a number of films with Telugu star Chiranjeevi. Her first movie with Chiranjeevi was Intlo Ramaiah Veedhilo Krishnaiah in 1982. She acted again with Chiranjeevi in the movie Khaidi. Her last movie in Telugu was Big Boss (another Chiranjeevi film).
She also acted in a number of Kannada movies alongside popular Kannada actors including Rajkumar, Vishnuvardhan, Anant Nag and Ambareesh.With Rajkumar she acted in many commercially successful and critically acclaimed movies like Haalu Jenu, Bhagyada Lakshmi Baramma, Anuraga Aralithu, Shruthi Seridaaga, Jeevana Chaitra, Aakasmika, Odahuttidavaru, etc. Her performance in Haalu Jenu and Malaya Marutha was widely acclaimed.

In 1996, her spiritual teacher Swami Rama arranged her marriage to one of his followers, a pharmaceutical businessman named Ralph Sharma, who is half-Indian and half-German. Ralph first met his Guru, Swami Rama at the age of 23 at the Himalayan Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy., whereas Madhavi first met Guru Swami Rama, in 1995. She married within a few weeks on 14 February 1996 of their introduction. They have three daughters and live in New Jersey.

Radhika Sarathkumar is an Indian television and film actress, entrepreneur and producer. She is the founder of Radaan Mediaworks, which has produced the successful serials Chithi, Annamalai, Selvi, Arasi, and Idi Katha Kadu (Telugu). She is currently acting in the serial Chellamay for Sun TV. She is also a judge on Vijay TV's Jodi Number One. She has also produced a film titled Meendum Oru Kaadhal Kathai, which won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best First Film of a Director.

Radhika is the daughter of the late Tamil actor and comedian, M. R. Radha (Mohan Rajagopala Radhakrishnan Naidu) and Geetha Radha. Her younger sister Nirosha (Niroja) is also an actress. Actor and politician Radharavi is her elder half-brother. Radhika's They have a daughter, Rayanne . Currently she is married to the Tamil actor Sarathkumar, with whom she has a son named Rahul.She is agreat actress.

Radhika was discovered by Tamil director Bharathiraja when she was 16 years old. Her first film was Kizhakke Pogum Rail. She has acted in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi as well as Malayalam films.

After becoming successful in cinema, Radhikaa decided to take on the small screen. In 1994 she set out to produce her own TV software under the Radaan TV banner. After some initial hiccups, the company re-emerged successfully as Radaan Mediaworks Ltd in 1999 and, by 2008, had an annual turnover exceeding Rs 10 crore. In 2004, the company ventured into film production in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi markets. Radaan has plans to the Hindi television market. She has acted as the protagonist in several hit serials produced by Radaan Mediaworks. Her first hit drama was Chitti, a 488-episode serial in which she portrayed the main character, Saradha. The serial was widely watched and praised throughout the Tamil-speaking world. Fresh off the success of Chitthi, Radhika went on to produce the 757-episode Annamalai, in which she played the main role. Her co-star in both these serials was the veteran actor Sivakumar, with whom she was often paired in films. In Annamalai, he played her brother. She recently played a dual role in the teleserial Arasi, sequel to the teleserial Selvi. She followed this up with Chellamey. She is currently acting in a Telugu serial No.23 Mahalakshmi Nivasam.

Thirumavalavan or Thol. Thirumavalavan, is Dalit activist, Member of Parliament in 15th Lok Sabha and the current President of the Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (Liberation Panthers Party), a Dalit political party in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. He rose to prominence in the 1990s as a Dalit leader, and entered politics in 1999. His political platform centres around ending the caste-based oppression of the Dalits, which he argues can best be achieved through reviving and reorienting Tamil nationalism. He has also expressed support for Tamil nationalist movements and groups elsewhere, including Sri Lanka.

Thirumavalavan was the second child of Tholkappian (Ramasamy) and Periyammal, and was born in the village of Anganur in Ariyalur District in Tamil Nadu, India. His father had studied up to the eighth grade, while his mother remained uneducated. He has a sister and three brothers, but he was the only member of his family who went on to higher education after completion of his schooling. He initially studied chemistry, and went on to do a masters degree in Criminology, before studying law at Madras Law College. He then began working in the government's Forensic Department as a scientific assistant.

He began growing interested in politics in 1982, when he was still a student, in reaction to reports from refugees of Sri Lankan military atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka. He began holding rallies and organised boycotts and conferences to support the Sri Lankan cause. He ran around Madras Law College, but failed . This, he alleged, was due to his being a Dalit. The incident led to his meeting and becoming acquainted with politicians from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), a major political party in Tamil Nadu.

In 1988, when working for the government's Forensic Department in the southern city of Madurai, he met Malaichamy, the Tamil Nadu state convenor of the Dalit Panthers of India (DPI), an organisation that fought for the rights of Dalits. The next year, following Malaichamy's death, Thirumalavan was elected the leader of the DPI. He designed a new flag for the organisation in 1990. As part of his work, he also began visiting Dalit villages in the Madurai region, and began learning about the problems faced by Dalits. The killing of two Dalits in 1992, he says, made him more militant.  Against the background of increasing Dalit assertiveness, he emerged as one of two major Dalit leaders in Tamil Nadu, with a large base of grassroots support, particularly in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu.

The DPI boycotted elections until 1999 general elections. Thirumavalavan allied with G. K. Moopanar's 'Tamil Maanila Congress' and represented the Third Front. The party contested in the Parliamentary constituencies of Chidambaram and Perambalur. Thirumavalavan contested in Chidambaram, and managed to poll 2.25 lakh votes in his debut elections.

In 2001 state elections Viduthalai Chiruthaigal allied with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and contested 8 seats.  Thirumaa was elected from Mangalore Constituency to State Legislative Assembly.  Thirumavalavan contested once again from Chidambaram in 2004 general elections, this time with Janata Dal (United) and polled 2.57 lakh votes and lost by a low margin.

He joined the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) alliance in the 2006 elections to the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. His party was recognized by the Election Commission of India as a registered political party on 2 March 2006. Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi contested in 9 seats in Tamil Nadu and 2 seats in Pondicherry. The party won 2 of them: Durai Ravikumar won from Kattumannarkoil, and Selvaperunthagai from Mangalore constituency.  In the 2009 general election, Thirumavalavan was elected to Parliament from the Chidhambaram Lok Sabha constituency.

Thirumalavan's politics are grounded in a retheorisation of Tamil nationalism, which seeks to turn it into a force for the elimination of the caste system.

Oppression of Dalits, he says, is institutionalised in India, including Tamil Nadu. Although the Dravidian parties which dominate the politics of Tamil Nadu are ideologically committed to the eradication of the caste system, Thirumavalavan argues that they have in practice drifted away from the original ideals of the Dravidian movement. Their policies, he says, have mainly benefitted the middle castes, and had actually led to an increase in the oppression of Dalits, with the middle castes replacing the Brahmins as the oppressor. Dalits cannot and should not expect much help from the Dravidian parties.

The solution, according to Thirumavalavan, lies in Tamil nationalism. Caste oppression, he says, can only be ended by building resistance from below, through appealing to Tamil sentiments, as happened in the early days of the Dravidian movement under Periyar E. V. Ramasamy.  If a properly Tamil government is formed in Tamil Nadu, he says, caste oppression will immediately disappear.

Thirumalavan is also a staunch critic of Hindu nationalism and, in particular, Hindutva. Hindutva, to Thirumavalavan, is the essence of the oppressive Indian state.  Hindutva, he argues, has through religion worked to homogenise Tamil society with that of northern India. This, he says, has led to Tamil losing its identity.
Ethnic Tamil nationalism, in his view, is essential to combat Hindutva.

Thirumavalavan's views on the importance of the Tamil identity have also led him to strongly support Tamil secessionist groups in Sri Lanka, including the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a militant secessionist group who are formally banned as a terrorist organisation in India.  He has criticised India for assisting the Sri Lankan army during the Sri Lankan military operations against the LTTE in 2008 and 2009, and has called upon the government of Tamil Nadu to take steps to safeguard the Tamils of Sri Lanka.  On 15 January 2009 he started a hunger fast near Chennai (Maraimalai Adigal Nagar) for the cause of Srilankan Tamils.  After four days, on 19 January he called off the fast, saying that it had had no effect on the Indian government, and calling for a hartal in its place.

His books in Tamil include Aththumeeru (Transgress), Tamizhargal Hindukkala? (Are the Tamils, Hindus?), Eelam Enral Puligal, Puligal Enral Eelam (Eelam means Tigers, Tigers means Eelam), Hindutuvathai Veraruppom (We Shall Uproot Hindutva), Saadhiya Sandharpavaadha Aniyai Veezhtuvom (We Shall Defeat the Casteist Opportunist Alliance).

Two of his books have been published in English by Stree-Samya Books, Kolkata: Talisman: Extreme Emotions of Dalit Liberation (political essays written for 34 weeks in the India Today magazine's Tamil edition) and Uproot Hindutva: The Fiery Voice of the Liberation Panthers (contains 12 of his speeches).

He was a guest at the Maanudathin Tamizh Koodal (Humanity's Tamil Meet) in Jaffna, Sri Lanka organized by the Arts and Literature Association and organizations like Nitharsanam.

In his first film 'Anbu Thozhi' (Lady Love), directed by L. G. Ravichandran, Thirumavalavan had a guest appearance as a Tamil militant leader in Sri Lanka.

Movies: 

Thirumavalavan has since been cast in the leading role of a film titled 'Kalaham' (Mutiny). He plays the character of Balasingham, a law college professor, which is being directed by Mu Kalanchiyam. This will be his second film.  He also made a cameo appearance in Mansoor Ali Khan's 'Ennai Paar Yogam Varum'.

Thalaivasal Vijay (Born A. R. Vijaykumar) is a Tamil film actor. He is noted for his character roles, especially in R. Sukumaran's 2010 Malayalam film Yugapurushan as Narayana Guru. He has also acted in Telugu films and some television advertisements. Before entering films, he acted in a TV serial called Neelamala on Doordarshan. His debut film was Thalaivaasal which was also a debut film of Director Selva. It was from that film that he got his screen name.


Thalaivasal Vijay has a daughter named Jayaveena.She is National Swimmer. He is the youngest medal winner of India in swimming. She had won the Bronze in Breaststroke swimming at National Games.He got a Special Jury Award form Kerala State Film Awards in 2011 for Yugapurushan.