Karthik Sivakumar, best known by his mononymous screen name, is an Indian actor who works mainly in the Tamil film industry. The actor made his debut in the film Paruthiveeran in 2007 where he portrayed the titlular role and won many awards for his brilliant work, including a Tamil Nadu State Film Award and a Best Actor Film Award.
Over the years, Karthi has acted in several more popular and well-known films such as Paiyaa (2010), Naan Mahaan Alla (2010), Biryani (2013), and Madras (2014). Karthi is also a philanthropist who engages regularly in a number of social welfare concerns and encourages his fans to do so through his launching social welfare club, the Makkal Nala Mandram.
Early Life:
The son of renowned veteran actor Sivakumar and Lakshmi Sivakumar and he was born on 25th May 1977. Suriya Sivakumar is his elder brother and also has Brindha, a younger sister. Upon completing his schooling, Karthi graduated from Crescent Engineering College in Chennai with a degree in Mechanical Engineering.
After completing his studies, Karthi worked as an engineering consultant in Chennai. However, he found the work to be too monotonous after some months as a consultant and he enrolled at Binghamton University, New York , USA for a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering.
During the actor's research, he also engaged in lectures on films at New York State University, sparking his curiosity in acting. Prior to acting, the actor worked as Mani Ratnam's assistant director.
Personal Life:
In April 2011, Karthik Sivakumar got engaged with Ranjini and two months later , on July 3, 2011, they got married. The couple have a daughter called Umayaal, born on 11 January 2013.
Career:
After finishing his M.S in the U.S. when Karthi returned to India, he met Mani Ratnam, who offered a role to him in his film Aayutha Ezhuthu. Karthi, however, rejected the offer and chose to serve as an assistant director for the Hindi version of the Yuva movie.
Only after his father advised him to act, he has chosen acting as a career option. Afterwards, when Director Ameer approached him to play Paruthiveeran's leading role he accepted the offer because he felt the film was overwhelming. The film received great critical acclaim when it was released in January 2007, and Karthi 's performance was well received by both the audience and critics. He then went to his maiden Best Actor Film Award in Tamil.
After succeeding in his debut film, Karthi signed Aayirathil Oruvan for Selvaraghavan 's adventure fantasy film. The film featuring Reemma Sen and Andrea Jeremiah also received mixed critical reviews, and was a big hit.The star acted, alongside Tamannaah Bhatia, Milind Soman and Sonia Deepti, performed next in Paiyaa. The film was a commercial and critical success and Karthi received a nomination for Best Actor at the 58th Filmfare Awards South.
In 2010, Karthi appeared in Naan Mahaan Alla, Suseenthiran's thriller film, where he played the role of a middle class young person whose lives are disrupted by his father's sudden disappearance. The film received positive reviews and Karthi delivered a hat trick. The actor then appeared in Siruthai, an action drama.
The film directed by Siva was a remake of Telugu 2005, Vikramarkudu and Karthi's double role maiden. After its release, the film received mixed critical reviews but became one of the most significant Tamil movies of the year. For his next movie, director Suraj cast Karthi alongside Anushka Shetty in his 2013 movie, Alex Pandian.
While the film had high expectations, negative reviews were received. Next film from Karthi, All in All Azhagu Raja released in Diwali 2013 and Kajal Aggarwal was also in the leading role. The film received mostly negative reviews and failed in the box office. Karthi made a smashing comeback with Biriyani after a string of flops, which came out in December 2013.
The film directed by Yuvan Shankar Raja was released simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu languages. The film opened up for positive reviews and became a huge success in the box office.
The first movie of Karthi in 2016 was a bilingual film called Oopiri in Telugu and Tozha in Tamil. Tamannaah Bhatia and Nagarjuna Akkineni also lead the movie directed by Vamsi Paidipally. The film received positive reviews and at the box office it earned more than 100 crore INR.
His next was a Kaashmora action fantasy horror comedy. The film opened for mixed reviews and ran properly in the box office. In 2017, he collaborated for the first time with renowned director Mani Ratnam for Kaatru Veliyidai.
The film was not as well received as Mani's previous films. His next year outing was H.Vinoth`s, Theeran Adhigaaram Ondru. Theeran Thirumaran DSP has been generally considered one of his strongest results in his career and has been proclaimed to be a huge achievement by critical experts.
His ventures for 2018 include Kadaikutty Singam, which is bankrupted by the 2D entertainment output of his elder brother Suriya. Dev, Kaithi and Donga are part of his 2019 album.
