Tamil Awards Vijay Awards 2010 - Cast & Crew

Amala Paul is the super talented star of South Indian film industry. She is the promising actress that had been critically acclaimed of her work. The south Indian beauty had many ups and downs in her career, but a star shines bright after midnight. She started off with a low budget film ‘Neelathamara’ in 2009 in which she played just a minimal role.

Born on 4th May, 1983 in Palakkad by Krishnan and Uma Krishnan as her parents. Before starting her carrer in modelling and acting, she did her schooling from Sacred Heart Matriculation school in Church Park and then BBA from Ethiraj College for Women (Chennai). She entered into film industry after making a mark as a model and winning several beauty pageants like Miss Salem and Miss Madras in the same year. In 2001, she won Miss India Pageant “Beautiful Smile” award. She got her first acting break in Tamil film Jodie. After that, she got her first lead role in Mounam Pesiyadhe (2002) opposite Surya and won critical acclaim.

Shreya Ghoshal, one of the most famous singers in Bollywood today, was born on March 12th, 1984, in Berhampore, West Bengal. Her father Biswajit Ghoshal is an electrical engineer and mother Sharmistha Ghoshal is a postgraduate in literature. She started singing since the age of 4 when her mother taught her. She started her formal training in Hindustani classical Gharana of music when she was only six years old. She was trained for 18 months after which she continued her training in Mumbai with Late Mukta Bhideji. She completed her graduation in Arts with majors in English. Her first on-stage performance was at their club’s annual function. Her first studio album was in Bengali in 19998 and was named Bendhechhi Beena, and her first onscreen performance was in Awaz Nayi Andaaz Wohi. In 1995, she became the winner of All India Light Vocal Music Competition. Her fame and career began with her winning a television singing reality show named Sa Re Ga Ma Pa.

Indian top model and Telugu and Tamil star Anjali was born in Andhara Pardesh in 1986. Acting was her passion so she started her career from short films. Small projects like short films and modeling assignments lead her to the silver screen. Director Siva Nageswara Rao recognized her talent and offered her the role of “Swapna” in Telugu Thriller “Photo” in 2006. Start of her career was from low budget and low profile Telugu films.

In 2007 a new comer writer and director Ram offered her a lead role in a Tamil movie which proved a blockbuster on Tamil and Telugu screen. Her best performance in the role of “Anandhi” awarded her with “Filmfare award for best female debut” and “South Vijay award for best debut actress”. This was the start of a long list of successful films. She has worked in more than 20 Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films.

She won her first “Filmfare award for best actress” and “Tamil Vijay award for best actress” in 2010 for the movie “Angadi Theru”. But this wasn’t the end. She got one more “Filmfare award of best actress” in 2011 for “Engaeyum Eppothum”. These consecutive awards made her a superstar of South Cinema. Her journey towards fame is continued yet. Many of her films are hitting the screen this year that can bring more success to her career.

Saranya Ponvannan is one of the best actresses in the last three decades of the Tamil film and TV industry has seen. She first made her entry into the industry by playing the lead role alongside Kamal Haasan in the blockbuster movie ‘ Nayakan’ directed by Mani Ratnam. She played a res-cued sex worker and pulled off the role with panache. She is the daughter of Malayalam director A.B Raj and is married to a fellow actor Ponvannan with whom she has two daughters.

Vasanthabalan is a Tamil movie director and a writer. Born on 12th of July, 1972, his first movie Album was a flop and got no recognition for it. But he came back with his second release, Veyil in 2006, which hit the box-offices charts pretty hard and became a blockbuster. It was screened at Cannes Film Festival (2007). Later he came with another blockbuster movie, Angadi Theru in 2010, written by himself. Critics loved it, and it brought a whole lot of money from a commercial point of view. In 2012, based on novel Kaaval Kottam, he directed and scripted the movie Aravan. His Kaaviya Thalaivan, released in 2014 was also critically acclaimed.

Thambi Ramaiah, an Indian film actor, and director is considered as the busiest actors in Kollywod appearing in maximum movies that released in 2014. Once upon a time, he did not even how to make a foray into Kollywood. Anticipating for someone to give a chance in films, he had to wait till his luck could get him a status of an actor. 

Vijay Prakash is an Indian playback singer and film composer. He was born in Mysore and moved to Mumbai in 1996. He worked in so many Hindi films including Blue, Yuvraaj, Swades, Kaal, Lakshya, Matrubhoomi, Tere Naam, Cheeni Kum, Raavan, and Force.

'Rajinikanth' is the name that is known in every nook and corner of India. He is a popular Indian cinema star who has fans worldwide. Born as Shivajirao Gaekwad, this simple-human started his career as a bus conductor. He made his film debut in 1975 in ‘Apoorva Raagangal’, starred by Kamal Haasan and Srividya. Though he appeared in a small role in that film, he was noted for his style.

Suriya Sivakumar is undoubtedly the biggest star in contemporary Tamil film yet most critics would agree that he is truly a ‘real and spontaneous’ actor who can match any character that he plays in screen. His rise in Kollywood cinema came at a time when commercial Tamil films tended to shy away from the dark themes and ambivalent morality associated with film and style. The popularity of Ghajini proved that the level of negativity that the audiences could bear. When A.R Murugadoss selected Suriya to don the role in Ghajini, he knew how it would work with mainstream audiences and was almost right. Truly, this actor had overcome his father’s shadow and moved to be one of the most talented actor, whose films got inspired by even Aamir Khan and even Ajay Devgan. Aamir Khan had showered him praise for his performance in Ghajini and wanted to re-make the same film in Hindi. The question remains still, when Aamir had over-acted in the Hindi version, Suriya had just down played the character suitably. Although Suriya was never seen in any Hindi film (except Ram Gopal Varma’s Rakht Charitra), Suriya’s name became quite popular even in Hindi belt, just because Aamir Khan was doing the Hindi version of Ghajini. Similarly, when Singham was remade for Hindi belt audiences, even Ajay Devgan got inspired to play the police role by just watching how Suriya did the same role. Suriya’s filmography shows that he avoided being typecast and yet proved that his fans would find his films “ an out and out” Suriya’s show. Suriya has made his own identity and was crowned with ‘ dashing star’ tag. The screen name Suriya was given to him by Mani Ratnam. Earlier, this actor had always tried to shy away from camera and never even dreamt to be an actor. In the beginning of his career, one could see him doing some supporting actor role with Vikram and Vijay, but he could steal the show under their nose even. Take the example of his role in Bala's Pithamagan, along with Vikram or even in Mani Ratnam's political drama Aayutha Ezhuthu along with Madhavan and Siddharth, Suriya’s best career time was when Perazhagan got released and his fans and critics applauded him for playing the first dual role in screen. May be after seeing this film, Murugadoss selected him to play the role of a patient who suffered from short-term memory loss and Suriya Sivakumar played his first role (Ghajini) of angry young man who had a rife with corruption and who was blocked off any avenues for justice. Indian cinema had seen earlier only Amitabh Bachchan and perhaps Sunil Dutt (Mother India) playing such anti-hero character so suitably. In 2006, he also had starred with his wife Jyothika( not married then) in N Krishna’ s film ‘Sillunu Oru Kaadhal', where again Suriya had done a fantastic job, He also played dual roles in ‘’Vaaranam Aayiram’’, ‘’Vel’’ ‘’Perazhagan", ", "Maatran" and "7 am Arivu’’, and "Anjaan". He is a few actors in Kollywood whose married life with actress Jyothika, remained untouched with rumour. Their love story too happened slowly when “Kaakha Kaakha” happened, and now they are married and have two kids.

A. R. Rahman is a Legendary Music Composer, prominently known for his rocking music for the movie “The Slumdog Millionaire”. He had won a couple of Oscars for this album and made India proud.  Allah-Rakha Rahman’s birth name is A.S.Dileep Kumar. He was born on January 6th, 1967 in Chennai. His music journey had begun at the age of 4 when he learned piano. At the age of 11, he joined the Maestro Ilayaraja's troupe as a Keyboard player. He made his debut as a composer with the legendary film-maker G.R.Maniratnam’s film “Roja” which came out in 1992. Some of his popular music albums were for the movies like Rangeela, Bombay, Dil Se and Lagaan: Once upon a time in India.

Remo D’Souza, who is primarily an Indian dancer cum choreographer, is also an actor and film director. He was born on 2nd of April, 1972 in Jamnagar, Gujarat and was named as ‘Ramesh Gopi’. He changed his name, when he moved himself into Christianity religion. His wife’s name is Lizelle D’Souza. It is a very true fact that he struggled hard in his life to reach the celebrity place. He is primarily involved in choreography and choreographed several numbers of films as of now.

Kailasam Balachander or most popularly known as K. Balachander is a legendary film producer, director and screenwriter who dedicate his life in the film industry for almost half of his life. He was born on July 9, 1930 in a Tamil family in the Tanjore District of Nannilam, Madras Presidency, British India. He stated that, since his eight year, he’s been seeing cinema and as he recalls, he remembers that his interest and passion towards the cinema grew after he watched the films of the renowned Tamil actor and producer, M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar. At 12, he has done theatre and drama, which subsequently helped him in developing his passion for writing, acting and directing. He studied Zoology at the Annamalai University and even until his graduation, his fondness towards theatre continues to grow as he regularly donned stage plays. After his graduation in year 1949, he initially worked as a teacher at Tiruvarur District in Muthupet. In year 1950, Balachander moved to Chennai (Madras before) and became an apprentice clerk in the office of the Accountant General. It was when he joined an amateur drama company called, United Amateur Artistes.  Later, he created his own troupe and it was the time that he became popular for being an amateur writer as he wrote the ‘Major Chandrakanth’ in English language. But the range of the English language was very limited in Madras, so he re-wrote the story to Tamil language which turned out to be a major success. His troupe was composed of renowned Indian personalities such as Major Sundarrajan, Sreekanth, Nagesh and Sowcar Janaki who all works as an actor in India. He also produced and directed plays like Navagraham (Nine Planets, Server Sundaram (Waiter Sundaram), Naanal (Tall Grass), Neerkumizhi (Water Bubble) and more.