JAI – Film Actor
Jai- Born on 6 April 1985 into a family of musicians, Jai
has stated that music was close to his heart and that it influenced him in his
"growing years", particularly crediting his uncle, composer Deva. He
has completed fifth grade in keyboard from Trinity College London and has said that
he likes to be involved in the music compositions of his films. He has called
himself a "huge fan" of Yuvan Shankar Raja’s work, saying that he has
"often dreamt of surpassing his work as a composer someday".
Jai made his film debut at age 16 as Vijay's
younger brother in the 2002 film Bhagavathi, with director A. Venkatesh choosing Jai as a result of
his striking similarity of looks with Vijay. Jai was then set to make his debut
in the lead roles in a remake of the Telugu film, 6 Teens, but the film never took off, as did not Nambiraj's Touch. Several other offers came his
way including role in Alai
(2003) and Devathayai
Kanden (2005), but Jai was insistent that he earned his place
in the film rather than being chosen on the basis that he was music composer Deva's nephew. He instead chose to
concentrate on a career in music, often working for Deva's films a keyboardist
alongside his cousins, music composers Srikanth Deva
and Bobo Shashi.
His friend, the singer Yugendran,
recommended Jai to audition for a role in Venkat Prabhu's
directorial debut Chennai
600028 (2007), based on gully cricket, and he was the only
actor to be auditioned amongst the eleven lead roles and was the final
selection in the film. The venture was described as a cult classic
shortly after release, with Jai winning plaudits for his portrayal of the fast
bowler Raghu, whose transfer between teams moves the film forward. The success
of the film began an association with Venkat Prabhu
and Jai has repeatedly collaborated in Prabhu's ventures through leading or
cameo roles. He was then selected to play a leading role by debutant director Sasikumar
in Subramaniapuram
(2008), after he had seen him at Deva's residence and Jai signed up for the
film without hearing the script under the basis that it was to be produced by
director Ameer. The film, set in a Madurai
village of the 1980s, told the story of a series of violent happenings on the
backdrop of a love story and Jai grew a long beard to reflect the 1980s look
for the project. Upon release, the film also went on to become a cult classic
and triggered off a series of similar ventures from Tamil film makers, while it
also became a blockbuster at the box office.
After finding himself unable to appear in a role
in Venkat Prabhu's Saroja
due to his long beard, he organised and helped plan a scene that would feature
cameo appearances from several actors from their first film. Jai subsequently
chose to make a switch from acting in off-beat films and attempted to make a
career as an actor in commercial films.
In March 2009, Jai ran into trouble for making
controversial comments about the potential box office fare of his future films
that he had signed in the period. The actor, who was filming for Vaamanan,
Aval Peyar Thamizharasi, Adhe Neram Adhe Idam and Arjunan
Kadhali at the time, revealed that only Vaamanan would do well and the rest
would become financial failures. The producer of his films also revealed they
wanted to take action against Jai for "making such irresponsible and
damaging statements about his own films." Initially, the Nadigar Sangam
council had asked him to complete his pending assignments before he could start
work on any other project, beginning with Venkat Prabhu's
Goa.
The film's producer, Soundarya Rajinikanth, intervened and
bailed Jai out of the ban. His next release Ahmed's Vaamanan
(2009), an action thriller featuring Priya Anand,
Lakshmi Rai
and Rahman, marked his first commercial role. The
film did not replicate the commercial success of his previous ventures, though
his performance was described as "commendable". Meanwhile, Adhe Neram Adhe Idam opened to
unanimous negative reviews, with a reviewer noting Jai "with his sleepy
eyes looks like he really doesn't want to be in this film at all".
He was then seen in Venkat Prabhu's romantic
comedy Goa
(2010), where he played a villager on a coming-of-age trip to Goa alongside Vaibhav Reddy
and Premgi Amaren.
Jai's temporary ban from films had delayed the project and he once again grew a
beard to portray his character of Ramarajan. Despite a positive hype
surrounding the film prior to release, it only won average reviews and
collections at the box office. He appeared in Aval Peyar Thamizharasi with
different looks throughout the film to reflect his character's growth, with the
main ones being that of an eighteen-year-old boy and a twenty-eight-year-old
man. He shed weight to sport the school boy look and later added weight and
muscle to look a matured man in his late twenties for the film. Critics lauded
Jai's performance citing "he shows that he is in the process of grooming
himself to become a well-rounded actor" and "that he can bring in
complex emotions on his face at the drop of a hat", but the film did not
fare well at the box office. Similarly his performance in the romantic film Kanimozhi was described "as
endearingly likeable" that "he had come out with a natural
performance", but the film failed commercially. Discussing his five
consecutive failure films, Jai accepted that during the period in his career
that he had chosen to feature in films without considering the true scope of
its potential success only for the reason of not having a long gap in between
releases. Since then he has actively chosen to associate himself with big
banner films rather than ventures by debut production houses in order to ensure
his films are well publicized prior to release.
After his
string of failures, Jai signed up to play a role in AR Murugadoss's
debut production Engaeyum
Eppothum after being impressed by Saravanan's script. Portraying a timid
working class professional, his role was well received and the film performed
well at the box office. A critic noted "the highlight of the film is it
lead actors Anjali, Ananya, Jai and Sharwanand
who live the role of the characters they play". Jai then accepted to play
a secondary role in Atlee's Raja Rani (2013) and admitted he
was initially apprehensive about accepting the offer, only choosing to do so
after being convinced by the film's climax. He mentioned he wanted to portray a
memorable guest role like that of Karthik
in Mani Ratnam's
Mouna Raagam,
and worked hard to get in to the skin of his character, Surya, taking close to
ten takes in certain scenes. Featuring Jai alongside an ensemble cast of Arya,
Nayantara
and Nazriya Nazim,
Raja Rani opened to positive
reviews and became a blockbuster at the box office, with Jai's role being well
received by critics. His second release of the year was the fantasy comedy Naveena Saraswathi Sabatham, where
Jai played a Siddha doctor who becomes deserted on an island
after a bachelor party with his three friends. The film
opened to mixed reviews and became an average grosser at the box office, with
critics noting that Jai was "disappointing" and that he "hams it
up".
Jai currently has several films scheduled for
release in 2014, including the long-delayed venture Arjunan Kadhali, which he began work on
in 2008. His next release is likely to be Vadacurry,
a comedy venture produced by Dayanidhi Azhagiri, where he features with
Swati Reddy. He also plays the lead role in Aascar Films'
romantic-comedy Thirumanam Ennum Nikkah alongside Nazriya Nazim,
as well as featuring in Gautham Menon's production Tamilselvanum Thaniyar Anjalum,
where he portrays a mail carrier. As of April 2014, he began
production on two further films, Jagajalan
directed by Parthy Bhaskar and Valiyavan
with Saravanan. He has also shot scenes for the delayed multi-starrer Vettai Mannan,
while agreeing terms to feature in Manimaran's
Podiyan with Priya Anand.
Jai is also a car racer.
"Crazy about racing" since his childhood, he said he was inspired by
Tamil actor Ajith Kumar to get into racing. In June 2014,
he participated in his first car racing tournament, the JK Tyre National Racing Championship
at the Irungattukottai Race Track in Sriperumbudur,
Chennai.
His works include:
|
Year
|
Film
|
Role
|
Notes
|
|
2002
|
Guna
|
||
|
2007
|
Raghu
|
||
|
2008
|
Azhagar
|
||
|
Himself
|
Cameo appearance
|
||
|
2009
|
Anand
|
||
|
Karthik
|
|||
|
2010
|
Vinayagam
|
||
|
Jyothi Murugan
|
|||
|
Rajesh
|
|||
|
2011
|
Himself
|
Cameo appearance
|
|
|
Kathiresan
|
|||
|
2013
|
Surya
|
||
|
Ramarajan
|
|||
|
Jai Kanth
|
Cameo appearance
|
||
|
2014
|
Himself
|
Cameo appearance
|
|
|
Sathish
|
|||
|
Vijayraghavan Chari
|
|||
|
2015
|
Vinod
|
||
|
Kathiresan
|
Special appearance
|
||
|
Special appearance
|
|||
|
Arjun
|
Post-production
|
||
|
Filming
|
|||
|
Tamilselvan
|
completed
|
||
|
Filming
|
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