Thulasi popularly known as Joker Thulasi is a famous South Indian actor. He is a senior most artist in Cinema and drama for more than 5 decades. He is a Comedian and has acted in many films in Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada. Mainly he has acted in supporting and hilarious roles. He started his acting career through drama. He was an active patron and main actor of the Kanmani drama club based in Chennai.
His debut performance was in Tamil action movie “Samundi” directed by Director Manoj Kumar. The movie was criticized for the extremes of violence, but Joker Thulasi's role was noted for the humourous moments. In the same year itself, he acted in another movie called “Thirumathi Palanisamy”. It was a Tamil comedy drama film directed by R Sundararajan. The film features Sathyaraj and Sukanya in lead roles. The film was well received for its comedy. Malini Mannath of the Indian Express reviewed the film as “first haft was height of entertainment, but later half turned was awful.”
Another noteworthy performance was in “Purushan Pondatti” and 1996 Tamil comedy drama film directed by N K Viswanathan. The film was well received and it was a commercial success. His recent performance in the drama “Imsai Purushan Irandam” as a Bagadur was also well received for its comedy. Thulasi once said in an interview that his idea of comedy is not only for entertaining the masses, but at the same time it should give them education also.