Suriya

Saravanan Sivakumar (born 23 July 1975), known by his stage name Suriya, is an Indian actor and film producer.

He primarily works in Tamil cinema where he is one of the highest paid actors.

He has received numerous awards including two National Film Awards, six Filmfare Awards South, five Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and two South Indian International Movie Awards.

Suriya has featured six times in the Celebrity 100 list of Forbes India, which takes into account the earnings of Indian celebrities.

Suriya was born as Saravanan on 23 July 1975 in Madras (now Chennai), Tamil Nadu, to actor Sivakumar and his wife Lakshmi.

He attended Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan School and St. Bede's Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School in Chennai, and obtained his under graduate degree B.Com from Loyola College, Chennai.

Suriya has two younger siblings, a brother Karthi and a sister Brindha.

Suriya is married to actress Jyothika.

This was followed by a series of roles in commercially unsuccessful films in the late 1990s.

He was initially offered the lead role by Vasanth in his film Aasai (1995), but he rejected the offer citing a lack of interest in an acting career.

After making his debut in Nerukku Ner (1997) at the age of 22, Suriya landed his breakthrough role in Nandha (2001) and then had his first major commercial success with the thriller Kaakha Kaakha (2003).

He later debuted in Vasanth's own 1997 film Nerrukku Ner, produced by Mani Ratnam when he was 22 years of age.

The stage name "Suriya" was bestowed to him by Ratnam to avoid a clash of names with established actor Saravanan.

The name "Suriya" was frequently used for characters in Ratnam's films.

Vijay, who co-starred with him in the film, would also go on to become a leading contemporary actor in Kollywood.

In 1998, he starred in the romantic film Kaadhale Nimmadhi.

In July the same year, he had another release Sandhippoma.

Subsequently, he acted with Vijayakanth in the film Periyanna (1999), directed by S. A. Chandrasekhar.

He then appeared twice with Jyothika in Poovellam Kettuppar (1999) and Uyirile Kalanthathu (2000).

In 2001, he starred in Siddique's comedy film Friends, also co-starring Vijay, which became a commercial success.

Suriya confessed that he struggled due to lack of confidence, memory power, fighting or dancing skills in his early career, but it was actor Raghuvaran, one of his mentors, who advised him to create his own identity, rather than stay under his father's shadow.

His major break came in the form of the action drama Nandha, which was directed by Bala.

Playing the role of an ex-convict who is very attached to his mother, he received a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor, in addition to his first nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil.

His next venture was Vikraman's romantic drama Unnai Ninaithu followed by the action drama Sri and the romantic drama Mounam Pesiyadhe directed by Ameer Sultan, the lattermost of which earned him his second nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil.

Following award-winning performances of a conman in Pithamagan (2003) and a hunchback in Perazhagan (2004), he played a man suffering from anterograde amnesia in the 2005 blockbuster Ghajini.

In 2003, he starred in Gautham Vasudev Menon's Kaakha Kaakha, a film about the life of a police officer.

The film received positive reviews upon release with a critic from Rediff.com claiming that "Suriya as Anbu Selvan fits the role and this film is certainly a career high for him".

The film emerged as Suriya's first major blockbuster at the box office and earned him his third nomination for the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil.

In 2006, he married actress Jyothika whom he co-starred with in 7 films.

The couple, after dating for several years, got married on 11 September 2006.

They have two children, a daughter and a son.

Prior to his career in films, Suriya worked at a garment exports factory for eight months.

To avoid nepotism, he did not reveal himself to his boss as Sivakumar's son, but his boss ultimately learnt the truth himself.

He rose to stardom with dual roles of a father and son in Gautham Vasudev Menon's semi-autobiographical Vaaranam Aayiram (2008).

In 2008, he began Agaram Foundation, which funds various philanthropic activities.

His status as an action star was established with roles of a smuggler in Ayan (2009), and an aggressive cop in the Singam trilogy.

He also found success with the science fiction films 7aum Arivu (2011) and 24 (2016) and then went on to work in critically acclaimed films like Soorarai Pottru (2020) and Jai Bhim (2021), the former of which earned him the National Film Award for Best Actor.

Suriya is the elder son of actor Sivakumar and his younger brother Karthi is also an actor.

The year 2012 marked his debut as a television presenter with the Star Vijay game show Neengalum Vellalam Oru Kodi, the Tamil version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?.

In 2013, Suriya founded the production house 2D Entertainment.