KARTHIK

KARTHIK - Film Actor

Murali Karthikeyan Muthuraman (born 13 September 1960) was born in Chennai to R. Muthuraman, a popular Tamil actor. He studied in St. Bede's Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School in Chennai and at New College, Chennai and received a Bachelor of Arts degree.

Karthik was first introduced by Bharathiraja in the film Alaigal Oivathillai. He received the Best New Face Award from the Tamil Nadu Government in 1980. He collaborated with leading film directors like Maniratnam, Balachandar, Bharathiraja, R.Sundarrajan, R.V.Udayakumar, Priyadarshan, Fazil, Vikraman, Agathiyan, Sundar.C, KS.Ravikumar and P.Vasu.

He is a celebrated actor of Tamil Nadu and was awarded the title "Navarasa Nayagan" (multi-talented). He is popular with the audience for sense of humor and was involved with several small comedy scenes in most of his movies. His cameo in Mouna Ragam was very well received by the audience. During his later years, he formed a partnership with Goundamani in many comedy movies. His pairing with Rambha was a hit with audience as the pair provided good hits in the nineties.

In 2009, Karthik signed on to play a supporting role in Mani Ratnam's Raavanan, thus making a comeback in Tamil cinema. His first release of the innings was however in Maanja Velu, in which he played a police officer alongside Arun Vijay, though the film became a financial failure. He received critical acclaim for his portrayal of Gnanapragasam in Raavanan featuring Vikram, Aishwarya Rai and Prithviraj. He also went on to feature in a supporting role in Puli Vesham directed by P. Vasu, although the film went largely unnoticed.

Karthik entered politics ahead of the 2006 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election. He joined the All India Forward Bloc, and was appointed as the Secretary of the Tamil Nadu state unit of the party. He led the party during its electoral campaign on 24 September 2006. He later started his own party Ahila India Naadalum Makkal Katchi in 2009 before the Lok Sabha Elections. He contested from Virudhunagar constituency. Allegedly he never campaigned and was routed in the election.

His party tried alliance with AIADMK for the 2011 Assembly elections but AIADMK supremo denied tickets for his party. Karthik announced his party will contest alone in 25 to 40 seats after it was not alloted any seat in the AIADMK coalition. Karthik sat on a fast in Madurai demanding Madurai Airport be renamed as Pasumpon Thevar Airport. His party with sizeable Thevar votes in southern Tamil Nadu is believed to eat into the AIADMK votebank. In 2006, former AIADMK minister Nainar Nagendran lost by 2,000 votes in Tirunelveli, where Karthik's party polled more than the margin. Two weeks later he split from ADMK and announced his party will contest independently in 19 constituencies and support DMK in 213 constituencies.

Karthik won four Filmfare Award for Best Actor - Tamil and one Filmfare Award for Best Actor - Telugu. He is also the recipient of Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and a Nandi Award.

Karthik is married to Ragini, his co-star in the film Solai Kuyil, and has three sons. His elder son Gautham has entered the Tamil film industry by starring in the movie Kadal directed by Mani Ratnam.