Happy Birthday Suriya: The actor who rose to fame with his performance - Hindustan Times
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Happy Birthday Suriya: The actor who rose to fame with his performance

Hindustan Times | By, Chennai
Jul 23, 2018 09:25 AM IST

Happy Birthday Suriya: The actor turns 43 on Monday and rose to stardom with his performance in films such as Nandha, Kaakha Kaakha, Pithamagan and Vaaranam Aayiram.

Suriya is today one of the bankable actors in the Tamil film industry and has risen to fame because of his performance-oriented roles. His debut, Nerukku Ner, in which he shared screen-space with Vijay, did not make much of an impression and his dancing skills were even mocked by many. However, from then on, he has worked in some great films in which he has portrayed some spectacular roles.

Happy Birthday Suriya: Nandha, Pithamagan and Kaakha Kaakha were few of the actor’s hit films.
Happy Birthday Suriya: Nandha, Pithamagan and Kaakha Kaakha were few of the actor’s hit films.

Suriya’s first breakthrough came in 1999 with the musical, Poovellam Kettuppar, in which he played the role of a son of musician who falls in love with his father’s rival’s daughter. The romantic comedy is the first film in which he acted with his now wife, Jyothika.

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However, his first film that impressed the critics came in 2001 when the actor portrayed the role of a thug in director Bala’s Nandha, and went on to win the state award for Best Actor.

One of the most memorable roles played by Suriya was that of IPS officer Anbuselvan in Gautham Vasudev Menon’s Kaakha Kaakha. Considered one of the best cop films in Tamil even today, the film again saw the Suriya-Jyothika pairing and went on to be one of the biggest commercial hits in the actor’s career.

Kaakha Kaakha came the same year Suriya collaborated with Bala again for Pithamagan, which also starred Vikram. As Sakthi, Suriya’s role is one of the best he performed till date, although Vikram bagged the National Award for Best Actor.

The slew of movies that came after this were an interesting mix. In fact, these three films set the tone to the kind of films that Suriya signed up later. Perazhagan, Aayutha Ezhuthu, Maayavi and Ghajini that released in the following years brought out the diversity of the actor, giving the audience more than what they could expect.

Suriya again collaborated with Gautham Vasudev Menon for Vaaranam Aayiram, hitting another high. Yet again, his performance in a dual role was one of the talking points, as the movie rocked to success.

However, from here, Suriya began to pursue roles that were more commercial in films like Ayan, Aadhavan and Singam, which worked well at the box office. But then, the actor had now succumbed to his stardom.

Even the films that had off-beat subjects turned out to be box office duds. For instance, 7aum Arivu, Maattraan, Mass Engira Masilamani,24 were so out of box that audience just couldn’t connect with them. He played the role of conjoined twins (double role) in Maattraan, 7 aum Arivu dealt with reincarnation, 24 was about time travel and Mass Engira Maasila Mani saw him play the role of a man who could speak to ghosts. While the actor chose to experiment, they were unsuccessful and so he went back doing a sequel of Singam and then, Anjaan, one of the biggest failures in Suriya’s career.

While Thaana Serndha Koottam was a mediocre hit, Suriya is now collaborating with noted director Selvaraghavan for his NGK, giving his fans some hope of seeing the actor, not the star.

Author tweets @Priyanka_S_MCC
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