Tamil Movie Review Dasavatharam - Cast & Crew

Pop Shalini is a Tamil Playback Singer. Her real name is Shalini Singh. She is a singer, performer, blogger, and also a writer. She was born in 1984, she is also the CEO of Tinsel Rangi Productions. She is married to Balaji and has a son Aadithya. She currently lives in Chennai. Her husband works as General Manager for a Sweden Based Company.

Sadhana Sargam is a playback singer of Indian cinema who predominantly now sings in South Indian and Bengali films. She debuted in Bollywood as a singer and has done playback singing in many Hindi films. She had initial training under her mother Neela Ghanekar, who was a classical singer too. Born as Sadhana Ghanekar in Mumbai on March 7, 1974, she changed her name to Sadhana Sargam on advice given by Kalyanji Anandji, who had promoted her singing career. 

Asin Thottumkal more famously known as Asin, is a Bollywood actress and trained dancer. Starting her career in South Indian Film Industry she is now a Bollywood actress after starting opposite Aamir Khan in Ghajini. Born in Kerala on 26th October 1985 she attended Naval Public School and went on to obtain her Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature.

Asin started off her career in advertisements appearing for an ad for a mobile company. At the age of 15, she appeared in her first film, Narendran Makan Jayakanthan Vaka, which was a Malayalam film about a man who goes back to his village to claim his father’s property and the trouble he faces. She got her breakthrough in Ghajini playing Kalpana and won a Tamil Filmfare Award for Best Actress. The film was later re-created in Hindi in 2008 starring Aamir Khan and Asin who once again played the role of Kalpana. She won the Hindi Filmfare Award for Best Female Debut and was nominated for Best Actress but missed out on it. Since then Asin has worked in Bollywood having worked in 6 more films and is currently working on All is Well with Abhishek Bachchan and the great Rishi Kapoor. The movie is set to release later this year.

Mallika Sherawat is a glamorous Model turned bold Bollywood actress turned Hollywood actress, who has acted in regional movies and Hindi movies before moving to the USA where she spends most of her time now. She was born on October 24th, 1976, as Reema Lamba in a small town called Moth, which is in the district of Hisar, State of Haryana, India. She was an Air India Air Hostess during her early twenties and before she has started acting in movies. She is a Scorpio with a strong influence of Libra according to her star sign.

Gautami Tadimalla is an actress who had a lot of competitors like Amala, Revathi, Shobana, or Khushboo, but yet this actress made her identity of her own in Tamil cinema. She was born in West Godavari (Andhra Pradesh) on 2nd July 1968. She was not beautiful or pretty in the traditional way, but she was indeed cute in many of her roles that she played with innocent looks. She had a good chemistry with all superstars of Tamil cinema like Kamal Hassan and Rajinikanth.

Rekha is a popular South Indian actress, who was born in the year 1970 in Kerala. Her birth name is Josephine and she changed her name to Rekha as the stage name. She completed her education in Ooty. She was introduced to the cinema industry through the veteran Tamil film director Bharathiraja. Kadalora Kavithaigal was her debut movie in the year 1986 and she performed as a teacher in that movie quite naturally. She was accompanied by Sathyaraj and Raja in that movie. It was a hit movie and Rekha was popularly called as Kadalora Kavithaigal Rekha. In the next year, she was called upon by the legendary director Balachandar to appear as a guest in his movie. She immediately nodded her head to him and that movie is Punnagai Mannan, in which she did opposite Kamal Hassan.

K.R Vijaya is a famous south Indian actress. Vijaya was born in the year 1948 in Kerala. She was brought up in Tamil Nadu and her parents were theatre artists. Vijaya’s original name was Devyani. Her parents faced serious financial woes as they struggled to make the end meet. Vijaya was a gifted dancer and she started stage performances at a very young age. One of the leading directors noticed her performance and offered her a break in movies. Vijaya who started her acting career more than 50 years back had a dream run studded with success and glorious achievements. Her debut movie was Karpagam. Later she completed more than four hundred movies in Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu and Hindi. Vijaya married a famous businessman, Velayudhan and she has a daughter named Hema Latha.

This extremely beautiful and gracious actress was bestowed the title of ‘Queen of the smiles’ by her fans. Vijaya was always the first choice of directors to portray the roles of goddesses due to her unique divine looks. Vijaya depicted the role of Goddesses Durga for the Malayalam TV serial – Adiparashakti. This serial revolved around the mythological stories about Goddess. Vijaya is still continuing her acting through serials and TV shows.

Kamal Haasan is the most versatile actor that India had ever witnessed. His innovative performances have been acclaimed worldwide. He is known for his passion for dance forms, action, and his enthusiasm for new concepts in movies. He is one of the most unforgettable actors in India. Born in 1954, Kamal Haasan has a never ending passion for Indian Cinema. He is still acting in movies. Though he belongs to Kollywood Industry his movies are much appreciated in Bollywood and Tollywood as well.

Atul Tiwari is a versatile Indian Actor. He is also a very talented writer, who has given many great films to the Cinema Industry. He has contributed for both Tamil and Hindi Industry. Atul has done small but substantial roles in movies such as Three Idiots, Vishwaroopam, Hazaar Chaurasi Ki Maa and a few more. He has been the scriptwriter for over ten films in Bollywood, such as Rajjo, Yeh Faasle, Soch, Drohkaal, Mission Kashmir and a few more. He was also the writer for the blockbuster film, Dasavatharam that had Universal Star Kamal Haasan in the lead. Tiwari has told in an interview that he wants to write a story about the city, Lucknow as he was born and brought up in that place. Atul Tiwari has also acted in the Television serial Samvidhaan.

Ravi was born in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu. By profession, he is a cinematographer. Also, he penned the script and directed one movie. He has got some nominations and awards for his brilliant works. With a connection to the South Indian movie industry, he also has worked in Bollywood, and his work won acclamation. His great zeal for literature helped him to create a magazine (online) named Yavarum Kelir. His interest in photography is linked to the death of his mother, who he lost at a very young age.

Intro: Himesh Reshammiya got his stardom after winning success as a story writer, producer, screenplay writer and music composer for various television serials.

Himesh Reshammiya is known for his singing skills and as a music composer; he has gained a reputation; however, his career started with the television industry and television became the platform of his rise. He started his career as a music composer, screenplay writer and story writer for various television series’ which were telecasted on Zee TV. Among the popular television series for which Himesh Reshammiya wrote stories and composed music Dum Dama Dum, Amar Prem, Andaz, Ashiqui, and Jaan were very popular serials. In addition to it, he was also the producer of many television serials including Amar Prem and Andaz.

Gradually, he started getting success as a music composer for Bollywood projects and after that he also started singing, producing and acting in Bollywood movies. However, his connection with Indian Hindi television remained intact. After establishing himself as a successful singer and music composer in Bollywood, he began working as a judge and mentor for musical competitive television program Sa Re Ga Ma Pa Challenge 2007 on Zee TV. As a mentor he won the show as his Gharana or group named Rock Gharana won the show challenge. After that, he also led the team Himesh’s Warriors for the musical competitive television show Music Ka Maha Muqqabla for Star Plus. In the year 2012, he appeared as one of the judge of musical competitive show Sur Kshetra that was aired on Sahara One. Himesh Reshammiya hasn’t acted in any television serial or programme, yet, he has shown his acting talent through various Bollywood movies he was part of.

Born on 29th of October in 1931 is our lyricist Vaali, who has proven his skills as an outstanding lyricist in Tamil. He is popularly known as the Indian Tamil poet and has earned a lot of followers, fans and well-wishers. He was initially named as T.S.Rangarajan by his parents and later got his nickname as Vaali. Born in Srirangam, Madras Presidency, India, he had given a shot in every field he could work with. He has been a poet, lyricist, writer, artist and an actor. Among everything he has been a wonderful poet and a writer. He had worked for the Tamil Cinema industry for over five decades and has written around fifteen thousand songs which have inspired his followers. He enacted scenes behind the lens of 'Sathya', 'Hey Ram', 'Paarthale Paravasam' and 'Poikkal Kudhirai'. These movies have been a hit in Kollywood and he has written songs for many other films as well.

Vairamuthu is a very famous Tamil writer, poet, and lyricist. His full name is Vairamuthu Ramasamy. He was born on 13th July 1953. He was born in a middle-class family to Ramasamythevar and Angammal in Mettur. His family moved to Vadugapatti, Theni in Tamil Nadu when he was four years old. He is famous by the pen name Kaviyarasu or Kaviperarasu. He got married to Ponmani Vairamuthu and had two children, Madhan Karky Vairamuthu, and Kabilan Vairamuthu. He got inspiration from the Tamil and Rationalist movements in the 1960s that enthused him to pursue a career as a writer. He graduated from Pachaiyappa's College in Chennai. As a speaker and a poet, he was highly praised as the best in his college.

Aamir Shaikh is an Indian playback singer. He was born and bought up in Pune, Maharashtra. He has predominantly worked in the Kollywood Music industry. He is a former recording engineer at Empire Studio, Andheri. He currently works at EmSquare Studios. He has earned his popularity through Tik Tok, a lip-syncing application. He is also famous for photo-sharing applications like Instagram and Facebook.

Hariharan is a renowned Indian singer, who sings mainly for Hindi and Tamil films. Born in 1955, he is a well-known Ghazal singer. He was also instrumental in bringing fusion music to India. 

Colonial Cousins is the name given to Hariharan’s band, wherein he collaborated with Lesle Lewis. This band was featured in many private albums. Not only this, they have also composed music for a few movies in Hindi and Tamil. 

Hariharan is born and brought up in Mumbai and he is well-versed in Tamil, Malayalam, English and Hindi. Hariharan is the offspring of famous Carnatic vocalists H.A.S. Mani and Shrimati Alamelu. Hariharan inherited the music skills from his mother. Hindustani music was made known to him in his youth. Hariharan indeed, took great efforts to reach the position that he is in today; he used to practice singing for 13 hours. 

During the initial stages of his career Hariharan used to sing for television serials. After winning a prize in a competition at all India level Hariharan was offered to sing in the film “Gaman” by late music composer Jaidev. The song “Ajeeb Sa Neha Mujh Par Guzar Gaya Yaaron" from the film earned him recognition that he rightly deserved. 

The song “Thamizha Thamizha” from the movie Roja was an instant hit and Hariharan, who sung it was awarded the “Best Male Playback Singer” in the Tamil Nadu State Government Film Awards. 

Hariharan was introduced into the Tamil film industry by A R Rahman, who was also a newbie at that time. Since then, the duo created magic with soul stirring songs in films, including Minsara Kanavu, Jeans, Indian, Muthu, Taal, Mudhalvan, Iruvar, Indira, Rangeela, Alaipayuthey, Kannathil MuthamIttal, Sivaji etc. Hariharan is credited with the Padma Shri Award and has received National awards for a couple of times. Hariharan is the proud singer of around 700 songs. He had also sung in Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi.

Mahalakshmi Iyer was born on 21 March 1990, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. She is a professional Indian singer and playback singer. Iyer is best known for her Hindi and Tamil songs. She has sung songs in many other Indian languages like Telugu, Marathi, Bengali, Odia, Gujarati, Assamese, and Kannada. She belonged to a piece of Tamil music backgrounded family. Iyer was the daughter of her mother, who is a Carnatic classical singer as well. She started taking classes in Hindustani music at a very young age. Iyer has three sisters named, Kalpana, Padmini, and Shobha, and she was the youngest of all. Iye has been raised in Chembur, Mumbai, India.

Vinit Singh is known to the Entertainment world as a playback singer. Born in 1989, on the 15th of January, this young guy shot to fame with his appearance on a singing reality show that featured on Zee TV called Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. He hails from Kanpur, Lucknow. He started singing at the age of five. During his appearance on the reality show, he was only sixteen. He was one of the top three contenders at the show's end. He was under the guidance of Himesh Reshammiya during the show. He was the first runner up in the show, and lost only to Debojit Saha. 

M.Prabhaharan is an Art Director. He was born on 6th July 1966 at Dindigul in Theni, Tamil Nadu. In a career spanning over three decades, he has worked in more than seventy-five films in the Tamil film industry and a few in Hindi, English and other regional languages. Some of the movies for which he won an award are "Pullakuttikaran", "Sundara Purusha", "Anbe Sivam" and a few more. Prabhaharan hails from Kuchanur, a small village near Dindigul. He completed his school education in Theni itself. He commenced his high school at Dindigul St. Mary’s School and completed it at Theni Nadar Saraswathi Boys’ Higher Secondary School.

Ashmith Kunder is an Indian-Actor. Apartfrom being an actor, he is also a Film Editor, Director, and Film Producer. He is born and brought up in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. His graduation gets completed from Mumbai University in the subject B.E Instrumentation. He is the brother-in-law of the Choreographer Farah Khan. He is the brother of Shirish Kumar, who is also a director.

Kanal Kannan is an Indian actor, screenwriter, stunt director and a stunt choreographer in Kollywood, Malayalam cinema etc. He was born in Tamil Nadu. Kanal Kannan is one of the highly respected and senior stunt directors in south India. Kannan, as a stunt master is believed to beequalling Jackie Chan and is poised to become Tamil version of the same. He has choreographed many breath taking stunt sequences featuring the likes of Vikram, Kamal Haasan, Nagarjuna, Vijay, Rajinikanth, Chiranjeevi, Suriya and Ajith. Apart from some lead roles, he has also done cameos in many of his films. We can call him as a boisterously funny, action star who has worked his way up from stuntman.

Brewier Welch was born on 21st January 1951, in Madison, Indiana, USA. Brewier was raised in Kentucky, which is situated in the hills of the little town of Carrollton. Brewier has a height of six feet approximately. He did his schooling from the High School in his hometown, where he used to score average marks.

Chakri Toleti hails from Visakhapatnam, India. He was born on April 20 1981. Chakri Toleti is a famous screenplay writer, actor, director and VFX coordinator in the film industry. He is well known for his works in both Kollywood and Tollywood. He made his acting debut when he was eight years old. His father Mr. Thambu was a good friend of a few leading directors like K. Vishwanath, K. Balachandar, Bhagyaraj, Bharathi Raja and Jandhyala. His father used to help them in writing scripts and dialogues. That made Chakri captures his debut film. K. Vishwanath was the one who offered him a role in his film Sagarasangamam.

Chris Cavallaro is an American actor, popular amongst the international audience for his work in movies and TV series like Dr. G: Medical Examiner (2006), Dasvatharam (2008), Terror Inside (2008), Genesis (2013). Mostly known for his pre-dominant involvement in Hollywood movies, dramas, and TV shows in English, he signed for a lot of film projects during the time between 2006 and 2013.

Ken Baranda is an English actor. He worked for the Hollywood film industry. He is a very talented actor known for his work in many movies like Dasavatharam, the Tamil film, which hit the theatres on 13th June 2008, Subprime, which hit the theatres on 21st June 2011, and Gorno: An American Tragedy, which hit the theatres in 2004. K.S Ravikumar is the director of the movie Dasavatharam, which was an action, adventure, and science-fiction movie. Kamal Haasan, Jaya Prada, Asin are in the cast of the film. James Repici was the director of the film Subprime, which was a drama movie. It was a very famous film which has won 2 awards.

Ramesh Khanna is Tamil Film director and actor. Ramesh was born on 30th November 1955 in Coimbatore. He is the third child to his parents. He lives in Chennai. He is married and has two children. Ramesh is into acting since the age of 5. In ‘Nadaga Kavalar’ drama troupe of R S Manohar, Ramesh did around 1000 dramas till the age of 10.

Randy Molnar was an actor as well as a producer. He was born in Coatesville, LA. He graduated from Downingtown High School in the year 1952. His transition from Downright High School to Penn State University got him his Associate Degree in the year 1987. He was also very energetic during his school and remained vigorous until his demise.

Vaiyapuri is a popular Tamil comedy actor. He was born and brought up in Theni. He came to Chennai in the year 1986 to seek some opportunities to act in the movies. He made his debut through the movie Chellakannu, in which he acted as a barber in an uncredited role. Then he was given a minor role in Ulaga Nayagan Kamal Hassan’s movie Avvai Shanmugi. His career picked up in the year 1997 through the movie Kadhalukku Mariyadhai. He was also appreciated for his role in Kaadhalae Nimmadhi, as a blind person. Gradually his film count got increased and he started to do a dozen films per year.

D Ramesh Babu is an Indian film producer who works in the Tamil and Telugu industry. He associated with many movies like I, Ramana, Poison, Leelai, and Paramasivan.

The Crazy Actor, Ravichandran is an actor, director, producer, music director and editor known for his work in Kannada Cinema. He was born on 30th May 1961. He was born to N. Veeraswamy, a film producer and Pattamal. He married Sumathy on 14th February 1986. He has two sons Manoranjan and Vikram, and a daughter Geethanjali. Ravichandran’s debut as an actor was Khadeema Kallaru (1982) in which he played the negative role when he was 21 followed by Chakravyuha (1983).

Director KS Ravikumar(KSR), started his career in Tamil cinema as an assistant director to Bharathiraja for sometime before becoming an independent director. He has made 40 movies, out of which six films are re-makes. 

KSR has made the most number of movies with actor Sarath Kumar (10) and actresses Simran and Ramya Krishnan. Interestingly enough to know that his stunt choreographer Kanal Kannan had collaborated with KSR in 16 films so far. 

His first project in Tamil film world was in the year 1990, when he made a genre-breaking film Puriyaadha Pudhir which was a re-make of the Kannada movie Tarka. The Kannada versions was itself an adaptation of an Agastha Christie novel called ‘The Unexpected Guest’. After success of Puriyaadha Pudhir, he had never looked back. 

He has directed Rajinikanth and Sivaji Ganesan too in his career. He also had directed Sanjay Dutt in Police Giri (2014) with Prachi Desai and Lingaa(2014) with Rajinikanth, Anushka Shetty and Sonakshi Sinha. Both the films did not fare well in the box office. He also has appeared in a small role in the movies he directs which added to his popularity, as a cameo actor(21 films). 

He is well known for bringing Rajinikanth and Sivaji Ganesan in Padayappa (1999), the film was a success in box-office. He also directed Kamal Haasan in Avvai Shanmugi (1996), which was a straight adaptation of the American comedy film, Mrs. Doubtfire. Kamal Haasan’s performance in the film was truly appreciated and the film was made in Hindi too as Chachi 420(1997) by Kamal Haasan ( director and producer). Although both the Hindi and Tamil versions are considered to be Indian remake of Mrs. Doubtfire, there are many plot differences between the original and the Indian version. 

Many of his assistant directors went to make a big name for themselves in Tamil cinema in their own right, one example is Director Cheran. The latest is director Gaurav to join the feat. 

KSR will be remembered for his punctuality and dedication to his works, he used to concentrate a lot on the budget of his movie and tried to complete the film as early as possible.

Andrew Scott is an Irish stage actor, television and film actor. He is famous for his role as Max Denbigh in the James Bond film, ‘Spectre’, and Jim Moriarty, the cunning foe of Sherlock Holmes in BBC’s international hit series, ‘Sherlock Holmes’. He has won a British Academy Television Film Award for Best Supporting Actor, for playing Jim Moriarty, two BBC Audio Drama Awards for his work on radio, and for Pride, he won a BIFA Award for Best Supporting Actor.

P. Vasu, born as Vasudevan Peethambharam was born on 15 September 1954 in Kerala, India. He is an actor, director and a writer who has worked in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada film industry. His father was also in the film industry working for M. G. R. and N. T. R. as a make-up artist. He was so famous for his skill that he became the President of the make-up union in Tamil Nadu. After 30 years of doing this work, he started off with producing films and produced 25 films in Telugu and Tamil language. He was one of the famous film producers of his time. Vasu’s uncle was a cinematographer in the industry so, Vasu’ father along with Vasu’s uncle, M. C. Sekhar, worked in 150 films. 

M. S. Bhaskar is an Indian actor, born on Jan 19, 1952, and hailed from Muthupettai, Tiruvavur District, Tamil Nadu, India. He used to be a theater artist and performed as a comedian in Tamil TV series and films. His method of acting is simple and is getting professional by the day. He became famous for playing as Pattabi in the TV serial, Chinna Papa Periya Papa and Selvi; and as Vakkeel Venky in the 2005 Tamil film, Sivakasi; and as Gnanaprakasam in Mozhi. Besides acting, he was also a dubbing artist and a playback singer.

Napoleon Duraisamy usually referred to as Napoleon in South India is a very successful MP. He took over the seat on 28 May 2009 after A. Raja. Napoleon was born to Kumaresan Duraisamy on 2 December 1963 in Tiruchirapalli, Madras located in India. He is 52 years now. He is a political party leader supporting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). He is married to Jayasudha Napoleon and have two children named Dhanush and Gunal. He resides in Chennai in Tamil Nadu along with the family. He also owns a residence in New Delhi, India. He completed his education in Trichy in a school banned St. Joseph's College. By profession, he is an amongst the well known and very successful actors. He also take part in politics and is also known to have started a business, that makes him an entrepreneur. He is the founder and the chairperson of the start up caked "Jeevan Technologies". He acted in many movies and is very well seen in the Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam movies. He has also made his appearances in Kannada movies too. He is born to very humble parents Duraisamy Reddiar and Saraswathi Ammal. Before gaining support and becoming the leader of BJP, he was heavily inclined and involved in the principles of DMK (Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam) party.

Nageswaran C. Krishna Gundu Rao is a Tamil actor of great repute. He was born on 27 September 1933 in Dharapuram (Tamil Nadu) to Brahmin parents. After his father that dies at an early age, he became a victim of financial instability. He got his education from Madras and later began working in the Indian Railways as a clerk. He got fascinated with theater after his colleagues put up a Tamil play entitled Kamba Ramayanam. He insisted to the railway’s cultural association for a role.

Mickey Rourke’s full name is Philip Andre Mickey Rourke Jr. He is an actor, screenwriter, music supervisor, and a boxer by profession. He was born on the 16th of September in 1952 in Schenectady which is situated in New York, US. He belonged to a family that followed Roman Catholic’s faith, and hence the same got inherited into him. His father was Philip Andre Rourke Sr. and his mother was Annette. His parents had a divorce when he was just six years old. After his father left them, his mother married another man named Eugene Addis who was a police officer. He completed his graduation in 1971 from the school named “Miami Beach Senior High School.” He got married twice.

Raghumudri Srihari was a magnificent actor born on the 15th of August in the year 1964, popularly known as Srihari. This actor is an Award Winning actor from Tollywood, which refers to the Telugu Industry of the Indian Cinema. He was born in Vijayawada, Krishna District in Andhra Pradesh India. His family was from Gudivada. Srihari was brought up in Hyderabad, and then the family settled at BalaNagar, at this time Srihari was a small child. Before starting his career in the Tollywood Film Industry, Srihari was a great athlete in Gymnastics. This quality of him made him enter the showbiz persona as a Stunt Fighter in the movies. He did the difficult actions for the heroes, unknowing that he would himself be one shortly.