Prashanth Thiagarajan, or popularly known by his screen name Prashanth, is an Indian movie actor known for his works predominantly in Tamil Cinema. Referred to as "Top Star" by his fans, he has also acted in a few Telugu, Malayalam and Bollywood films. He made his cinematic debut at the age of 17, as a leading romantic hero in the 1990 Tamil drama film ‘Vaigasi Poranthachu’, directed by Radha Bharathi. The film was a commercial success and also brought Prashanth the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut - South. The actor went on to feature in other films including Balu Mahendra's ‘Vanna Vanna Pookkal’, R. K. Selvamani's Tamil-Telugu bilingual ‘Chembaruthi’ and Mani Ratnam's action comedy ‘Thiruda Thiruda’. He rose to stardom with Shankar's blockbuster romantic comedy ‘Jeans’, in which he played a dual role alongside Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The movie was a huge turning point in his career. In the late 90s, he featured in a series of films such as ‘Kannedhirey Thondrinal’, ‘Kaadhal Kavithai’ and ‘Jodi’. Apart from movies, Prashanth is also an entrepreneur who owns a 12-storeyed jewellery mart in Panagal Park, Chennai, since 2008.

Career of Prashanth
Born on April 6, 1973 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Prashanth is the son of Tamil actor, director and producer Thiagarajan. He started off as a leading romantic hero in the 1990 Tamil drama film ‘Vaigasi Poranthachu’, directed by Radha Bharathi, which was a box office success and garnered Prashanth the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut - South. He subsequently appeared in the Malayalam film ‘Perumthachan’, where he played the son of the titular character. In 1992, he acted in the Tamil film ‘Vanna Vanna Pookkal’, which was another commercial success completing 100 days run and won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil at the 39th National Film Awards. The same year, he acted in films ‘Chembaruthi’ and ‘Unakkaga Piranthen’, along with the Hindi remake of his debut ‘Vaigasi Poranthachu’, titled ‘I Love You’, reprising his role. He also made his Telugu debut with the ‘Laati’, alongside late actor Raghuvaran in the lead. He was seen in the Tamil film ‘Enga Thambi’ in 1993, alongside Subhashri in the lead. It opened to mixed reviews with Prashanth’s performance being praised. He acted in the Telugu remake of Indra Kumar’s 1990 Bollywood hit film ‘Dil’, titled ‘Tholi Muddhu’. He also worked in Mani Ratnam’s Tamil action comedy ‘Thiruda Thiruda’ that opened to positive critical reception but failed to do well at the box office. In 1994, the film was premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and achieved cult status over the following years.

Prashanth next acted in films ‘Kanmani’, ‘Sendhamizh Selvan’, ‘Kalloori Vaasal’ and ‘Krishna’. In 1998, he featured in S. Shankar’s Tamil romantic comedy ‘Jeans’, alongside Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Nassar in the lead. The most expensive film to be made in Indian cinema at the time, it was immensely successful and eventually dubbed into Hindi and Telugu and released with the same title. It became India’s official entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards for 1998. He was later seen in films ‘Kaadhal Kavithai’, ‘Poomagal Oorvalam’ and ‘Hello’ in the late 90s and films ‘Good Luck’, ‘Appu’, ‘Parthen Rasithen’, ‘Star’ and ‘Chocolate’ in the early 2000s. In 2002, he appeared in director Hari’s debut film ‘Thamizh’, an action drama that opened to positive reviews and became a box office hit. He also featured in Susi Ganeshan’s romantic film ‘Virumbugiren’, which also won critical acclaim. Sundar C’s action comedy ‘Winner’ where he featured in the lead also received positive reviews. The actor followed it up with action film ‘Jai’ and his father’s production ‘Shock’, a supernatural thriller and remake of Ram Gopal Varma’s 2003 Hindi film ‘Bhoot’, both of which received positive reception but only the latter was a box office success.

Prashanth subsequently acted in action film ‘Aayudham’ which received average reviews, and comedy film ‘London’ that was met with positive reviews and was remade in Hindi as ‘Golmaal: Fun Unlimited’ by Rohit Shetty. In the mid 2000s, Prashanth had signed several projects which were shelved after being launched. In September 2004, Thiagarajan launched ‘Police’, a remake of the Hindi film ‘Khakee’ and the film received coverage from the media after producers had approached Amitabh Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai for key roles. In interviews during the period, Thiagarajan mentioned the grand scale of the project citing that schedules would also be shot abroad, however the film failed to progress. In December 2005, Prashanth accepted and started work in R. K. Selvamani’s ‘Pulan Visaranai 2’, a sequel to the director's 1990 blockbuster ‘Pulan Visaranai’, with the trailer released by 2006. However, despite completion, the film was on hold for eight years due to producer’s financial problems, before having a limited release in 2015. The actor’s other projects during the period which were announced but got shelved, included Raghuraj’s ‘Jockey’ alongside Gracy Singh and Cheyyaru Ravi’s ‘Vithagan’. His 2006 release ‘Jambhavan’ opened to negative reviews and became a failure commercially. He was praised for his performance in Bhuvanaraja’s ‘Adaikalam’, a family drama, as in Shiva Shanmugam’s ‘Thagapansamy’, where he was credited as the "only silver lining".

Prashanth later appeared in 2011 in two heavily delayed productions - ‘Ponnar Shankar’ and ‘Mambattiyan’. The former received a mixed response and did average business at the box office, while the latter received above average reviews. ‘Pulan Visaranai 2’ in 2015 too received mixed reviews. The actor was last seen in the lead in 2016 action comedy ‘Saagasam’, which did not make any noticeable impact. Prashanth’s upcoming projects include ‘Neeyum Naanum Naduvula Peiyum’ and untitled remake of Hindi film ‘Special 26’.

Filmography of Prashanth
Prashanth has acted in the following films thus far in his career, highlighted alongside his roles and years of release.

Year	Film	Role
1990	Vaigasi Poranthachu	Kumaresan
1991	Perumthachan (Malayalam)	Kannan Viswakarman
1992	Vanna Vanna Pookkal	Shiva
1992	Chembaruthi	Raja
1992	Unakkaga Piranthen	Krishna
1992	I Love You (Hindi)	Kishen
1992	Laati (Telugu)	Guna
1993	Enga Thambi	Pichumani
1993	Tholi Muddhu (Telugu)	Prashanth
1993	Thiruda Thiruda	Azhagu
1993	Kizhakke Varum Paattu	Shakthi
1994	Rasa Magan	Prabhakaran
1994	Anokha Prem Yudh (Hindi)
1994	Kanmani	Raja
1994	Sendhamizh Selvan	Selvan
1995	Aanazhagan	Raja
1996	Kalloori Vaasal	Sathya
1996	Krishna	Krishna
1997	Mannava	Eashwar
1998	Jeans	Vishwanathan / Ramamoorthy
1998	Kannedhirey Thondrinal	Vasanth
1998	Kaadhal Kavithai	Vishwa
1999	Poomagal Oorvalam	Saravanan
1999	Jodi	Kannan
1999	Hello	Chandru
1999	Aasaiyil Oru Kadidham	Karthik
2000	Good Luck	Surya
2000	Appu	Appu
2000	Parthen Rasithen	Shankar
2001	Piriyadha Varam Vendum	Sanjay
2001	Star	Moorthy
2001	Chocolate	Aravind
2001	Majunu	Vasanth
2002	Thamizh	Thamizh
2002	Virumbugiren	Sivan
2003	Winner	Sakthi
2004	Jai	Jai
2004	Shock	Vasanth
2005	Aayudham	Siva
2005	London	Sivaraman
2006	Jambhavan	Velan
2006	Thagapansamy	Kadhirvel
2006	Adaikalam	Anbu
2011	Ponnar Shankar	Ponnar Shankar
2011	Mambattiyan	Mambattiyan
2015	Pulan Visaranai 2
2016	Saagasam	Ravi

Personal Life of Prashanth
Prashanth married V. D. Grahalakshmi on September 1, 2005 and the couple gave birth to a son in 2006. The couple split the same year and Prashanth filed a divorce case at a family court. The actor’s maternal grandfather, Peketi Sivaram, was an actor and an acclaimed director in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films. He also has a sister, Preethi Thiagarajan.

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