PRITHVIRAJ SUKUMARAN

'Prithviraj Sukumaran' is a popular Malayalam & Tamil film actor.

Contents

Early life

Career

Awards

Filmography

Malayalam Films

Tamil Films

Quotes

Trivia

External links

Interviews

Reviews

Others

Early life

Prithviraj is the younger son of the famous Malayalam actor, late Sukumaran and actress Mallika Sukumaran. His elder brother Indrajith is also a Malayalam actor. He did his schooling from the Sainik School, [Kazhakkoottam, Thiruvananthapuram] and Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram. Prithviraj, along with his brother Indrajith, used to take part in debates and elocutions in the school.
He was still pursuing his Bachelor's in Computer Engineering at the University of Tasmania, Australia when he entered the film world in 2002.[1]Prithviraj was grabbed by the successful screen playwright Renjith to play the lead role in his directorial debut Nandanam (2002) during one of his vacation trips to Kerala.
It was Fazil, a leading Malayalam film director, who introduced him to Renjith[2]. Following a decent performance in Nandanam he was flooded with several exciting offers from the industry so that he decided to take a break from his studies and concentrate on acting.

Career

Screen Playwright Renjith’s search for a new face to cast the lead role in his first directorial venture became successful when director Fazil presented him the results of a screen test that Prithviraj had earlier taken with him. After watching the video recording of the test, Renjith, immediately invited Prithviraj, who was on his vacation in Thiruvananthapuram, for a personal interview at Kozhikode. Renjith, apparently impressed by his physique and agility offered him the lead role in his debut film ''Nandanam'' (2002). Prithviraj accepted the offer and thus began his amazingly successful acting career in Malayalam tinsel world[3].
Ever since he endeared Malayali audiences as 'Manu' in Nandanam, Prithviraj has been flooded with tempting offers to the effect that he has already worked with some of the best directors in the business and on an average, hears close to three or four scripts a day[4]. Quite early in his career Prithviraj was fortunate to act in the films directed by leading figures in Malayalam film industry such as Lohitadas, Vinayan, Kamal and Bhadran.
Shortly after starring in ''Nandanam'', alongside actress Navya Nair, Prithviraj managed to win the hearts of the Malayalam film audience, especially that of female viewers. He was noted for his performance in ''Stop Violence'' and ''Swapnakoodu'', and also could mark his presence at the box-office. He was critically acclaimed for the performance of the character Sub Inspector Solomon Joseph in Vargam. In this film his character had to go through a wide range of emotions. In the first half of the film he was the corrupt and malicious Inspector, in the second half he falls victim to his arrogance and repents and tries to turn a new leaf.
In 2006, Lal Jose's Classmates was released and it turned out to be the biggest blockbuster in Malayalam cinema. The film had an ensemble cast consisting of Jayasurya, Narain, Indrajith and Kavya Madhavan. The Hindu quotes Shyamaprasad the famous Malayalam film director who has won many awards and accolades that Prithviraj's advantages are his talent and intelligence irrespective of his box office successes: "It's not fair to gauge his merit by such success rates alone. Prithviraj is an intense actor who is very talented and very intelligent"[5]. Shyamaprasad cast him in lead role in his much acclaimed offbeat flick Akale.
After Vargam, Prithviraj acted in another film ''Vaasthavam'' with the same director, M. Padmakumar. It was a hard hitting drama in which Prithviraj again got noticed for his intense acting. The role fetched him the Kerala State Award for Best Actor for 2006. He is the youngest actor to receive the State Award for the Best Actor.
In the mean time he made his Tamil debut as the villain in ''Kana Kandein'' (2005). His performance was noteworthy because he was not the traditional yelling villain. Soon he got an opportunity to act under the direction of Bhagyaraj in the film Parijatham.Bhagyaraj has said in an interview to Chennai Online that that he became keen on including Prithviraj in his project essentially influenced by the Media acclaim the actor received in Tamil Nadu following his amazing performance in ''Kana Kanden''. "The entire media unanimously appreciated him in ‘Kana Kandein’. So it was with that confidence that I signed him"[6].
His performance in ''Parijatham'' also received similar attention and appreciation in Kollywood. His newest Tamil flick is 'Mozhi' in which his splendid performance is being highly praised. The film is running in packed houses.

Awards

★ Kerala state film award for best actor for Vaasthavam 2006.
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Filmography

Malayalam Films

Year	Title	Role	Co-stars	Director
2002	Nakshathra kannulla Rajakumaran Avanundoru Rajakumari	Ananthu	Gayathri Reguram	Rajasenan
2002	Stop Violence	Saathan	Chandra Lakhsman	Lohitadas
2002	Nandanam	Manu Nandakumar	Navya Nair	Renjith
2003	Vellithira	Style Raj/Raghuram	Navya Nair	Bhadran
2003	Kadha	Nandhan Menon	Kavya Madhavan	Sundar Das
2003	Nammal Thammil	Vicky	Geethu Mohandas	Viji Thampi
2003	Meerayude Dukham Muthuvinte Swapnam	Muthu	Renuka Menon	Vinayan
2003	Swapnakoodu	Kunjoonju/Alex Chandy	Meera Jasmine, Bhavana Balachandran	Kamal
2003	Ammakilikkoodu	Vivek	Navya Nair	Padmakumar
2003	Chakram	Chandrahaasan	Meera Jasmine, Chandra Lakshman	Lohitadas
2004	Vellinakshatram	Vinod Varma/Chandrachoodan	Karthika, Meenakshi	Vinayan
2004	Satyam	S.I. Sanjeev Kumar	Priyamani	Vinayan
2004	Akale	Neil	Geethu Mohandas	Shyama Prasad
2005	Albudhadweep	Hari	Mallika Kapoor	Vinayan
2005	Krithyam	Satya, Christy Lopez	Pavithra, Eva	Viji Thampi
2005	Police	Shekar	Bhavana Balachandran	V.K. Prakash
2005	Daivanamathil	Anwar	Bhavana Balachandran	Jayaraj
2005	Ananthabhadram	Anandan	Kavya Madhavan	Santhosh Sivan
2005	Achanurangathaveedu	Harikrishnan	Samvrutha Sunil	Lal Jose
2006	Vargam	S.I. Solomon Joseph	Renuka Menon	Padmakumar
2006	Classmates	P. Sukumaran	Kavya Madhavan	Lal Jose
2006	Vasthavam	Balachandran Adiga	Kavya Madhavan, Samvrutha Sunil, Sandhya Menon	Padamakumar
2006	Pakal	Nandakumar	Jyothirmayi	M A Nishad
2006	Oruvan	S.I. Jeevan	Meera Vasudev, Indrajith	Vinoo Anand
2007	Avan Chandiyude Makan	Kurien Chandy	Sridevika	Thulasidas
2007	Khakhee	S. I. Unnikrishnan	Mukesh, Manasa, Meera Vasudev	Bipin Prabhakar
2007	Veeralipattu	Hari	Murali, Padmapriya, Jagathy Sreekumar	Kukku Surendran
2007	Chocolate	Shyam	Jayasurya, Roma, Samvrutha Sunil, Remya Nabeeshan	Shafi

Tamil Films

Year	Title	Role	Co-stars	Director	Notes
2005	Kanaa Kanden	Madan	Srikanth,Gopika,Vivek	K V Anand
2006	Parijatham		Saranya Bhagyaraj, Prakash Raj	Bhagyaraj
2006	Arputha Theevu	Hari	Mallika Kapoor	Vinayan
2007	Mozhi	Karthik	Jyothika, Swarnamalya, Prakash Raj	Radha Mohan
2007	Satham Podathey		Padmapriya	Vasanth	To Be Released on September 14, 2007
2007	Kannamoochi Yenada		Sandhya	V.Priya	To Be Released on September 21, 2007
2007	Vellithirai		Prakash Raj, Gopika	Viji	To Be Released on November 9, 2007

Quotes

★ "Although films have always fascinated me, my perception was that I would fare better behind them. But now I love being an actor. I have worked with some of the best directors in the business and also, with new comers. On an average, I hear close to three or four scripts a day. And I have never fixed a deadline to be the next super star. Still, I do want to be remembered in film history, somewhere down the line, with some strong performances. That is all I aspire for"[7]

★ "What I enjoy about acting is the adrenaline rush. When the director says, 'Action,' there is a huge rush of adrenaline, I don't know why. I just love the feeling of becoming somebody else"[8]

★ "I used to take part in debates and elocutions in the school but was never an actor material. If at all my destiny lay in cinema, I thought it would have been on the technical side"[9]

★ "I used to belong to that tribe of people who never knew what they wanted. Now, finally, I am doing something I like. I like the rush of adrenalin, the kick that acting gives me. I want to be an actor till I die"[10]

Trivia

★ Prithviraj resembles his father, the late Sukumaran, both in looks and nature[11]

★ Prithviraj has an elder brother,Indrajith, who is also an actor.

★ Prithviraj in his early years was asked to wear a beard in films because directors felt that it would make him look older.

★ He is the youngest actor to receive the Kerala State Award for the Best Actor, breaking the record held by Mohan Lal for nearly 20 years.

★ Superstar Rajinikanth phoned Prithviraj after watching the film 'Mozhi' and congratulated him for his splendid performance. He also added that Prithviraj speaks good Tamil.

★ In 2004, Prithviraj was selected the Best Actor along with Navya Nair as Best Actress through a Gallup poll for the best talents in the TV-Film world conducted by the Emmanuel Saries, Thrissur. The award carried a cash prize of Rs. 25,000, a citation and a plaque. [12]

★ Prithviraj is currently the Brand Ambassador of LG, India for the Kerala Sector.

External links

Interviews

★ Masquerader of the Celluloid''' (Video Interview: Undated) In ''WebIndia123.com''

★ Don’t Target Awards (“Ente Lakshyam Award Alla”)''' (April, 2007) Joseph Punnaveli in ''Malayala Manorama'' Sunday Edition

★ Man Behind Mozhi''' (March 2007) Shobha Warrier in ''Rediff.com''

★ of a Winner''' (February, 2007) Vijay George in ''The Hindu''

★ : Reveals his Experience in Film Industry''' (February, 2007) Unni Nair in ''Nowrunning.com''

★ Never Fails''' (September, 2006) In ''IndiaVilas.com''

★ Prithviraj''' (October, 2005) Vijay George in ''The Hindu''

★ is his Forte''' (October, 2005) In ''Indiaglitz''

★ Love Becoming Somebody Else'' (May, 2005) Shobha Warrier in ''Rediff.com''

Reviews

★ Constantly Proving Himself' (April 19, 2007) MIO Team In Musicindiaonline.com

★ on the Fast Lane to Superstardom!' (April 11, 2007) P. Sreekumaran In Apunkachoice.com

★ Actor of Substance' (February 18, 2007) In Sunday Kaumudi

★ Plans it Well' (July 25, 2006) In Galatta.com

★ is Hot Property' (July 05, 2006)In Oneindia.in

★ in Demand' (July 4, 2006) In Malayalam.galatta.com

★ Rising Star' (April 11, 2005) Maheshwaran in OnlineGalatta.com

★ the Road to Stardom' (May 2004) R. K. Roshni in The Hindu

★ the Ban' (April 30, 2004) Renu Ramanath In The Hindu

★ Making a Rare Start' (Undated) Aravind In Thatsmalayalam.com

Others

'Yahoo'

★ Fans'
'Flickr'

★ Album'