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Prabhu Ganesan (born 25 December 1956), known professionally as Prabhu, is an Indian actor, businessman and film producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. He is the son of veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan. He is popularly known as Ilaya Thilagam. He has worked in more than 215 films in lead and supporting roles in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films.

Prabhu
Born	Prabhu Ganesan (1956-12-25) 25 December 1956 (age 65)[1]
Nationality	Indian
Alma mater	Loyola College, Chennai
Occupation	Actor, film producer
Years active	1982–present
Spouse	Punitha ​ (m. 1982)​
Children	Aishwarya Prabhu Vikram Prabhu
Parent(s)	Sivaji Ganesan (father) Kamala (mother)
Relatives	Ramkumar Ganesan (brother) Dushyanth Ramkumar (nephew)

After making his debut in Sangili (1982), Prabhu played various leading and supporting roles, earning the Best Actor award recognition by the Tamil Nadu State for his portrayal in Chinna Thambi (1991).

Early life

Prabhu was born to veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan and Kamala on 25 December 1956.[2][3] His elder brother Ramkumar is a film producer and he has two sisters Shanthi and Thenmozhi.

Career

After leaving Bishop Cotton Boys' School in Bangalore, Prabhu got involved in film production as an executive producer and worked alongside his uncle and mentor V. C. Shanmugam, who insisted that Prabhu learn the film making process in a disciplined way, giving him general tasks such as pulling up chairs for artistes. Prabhu's father, actor Sivaji Ganesan, had initially expressed reluctance in allowing Prabhu to pursue an acting career, but through his work in the industry, he began to receive offers from film-makers to feature in their films.[4][5][6]

He subsequently made his acting debut in C. V. Rajendran's Sangili (1982), a remake of the Hindi film Kalicharan, where he was cast in a supporting role. By the time Sangili released, Prabhu was working on six films, including Charuhasan's Pudhiya Sangamam and Gangai Amaren's romantic film Kozhi Koovuthu, which became his first commercially successful venture. After featuring in about thirty films, including nineteen with his father including Neethibathi (1983), Sandhippu (1983) and Miruthanga Chakravarthi (1983), Prabhu's career graph registered a drop and he began to reconsider the type of films he had signed. He opted against featuring in films co-starring his father and consciously began to choose subjects rather than accept as many offers as possible.

Among the first films he signed after taking the break included G. M. Kumar's Aruvadai Naal (1986) and Manivannan's Paalaivana Rojakkal, alongside Sathyaraj, both proving successful. Subsequently, the following period saw a series of commercial successes in 1988 for the actor, notably S. P. Muthuraman's Guru Sishyan with Rajinikanth, Mani Ratnam's Agni Natchathiram with Karthik and P. Vasu's family drama En Thangachi Padichava.[4] The success of the latter film prompted more successful collaborations in the same genre between Prabhu and Vasu with Chinna Thambi (1991) and Senthamizh Pattu (1992) also receiving a similar reception, with the actor earning the Best Actor award recognition by the Tamil Nadu state.[7]

He subsequently worked in his hundredth film R. V. Udayakumar's Rajakumaran, before portraying well received roles in K. Balachander's romantic film Duet (1994) and Priyadarshan's Malayalam period film Kaalapani (1996) alongside Mohanlal. Prabhu went through another barren spell in the late 1990s, when several films after the success of Panchalankurichi failed to do well, prompting another image change away from his village do-gooder roles.[4] Moving away from action films, Prabhu selected scripts which would appeal to family audiences in the early 2000s and collaborated with film-makers including Rama Narayanan and T. P. Gajendran, working in a series of "minimum guarantee" return films.[8]

Prabhu then made another career change and began accepting film offers in which he would play a supporting rather than the leading role and featured alongside Kamal Haasan and then Rajinikanth in two big budget ventures Vasool Raja MBBS (2004) and his home production Chandramukhi (2005).[9] Since then, he has gained acclaim portraying characters including a caring guardian in Unakkum Enakkum, Thaamirabharani and Ayan, while he has also been seen in detective roles in action films, notably Billa (2007) and then Kanthaswamy (2009). He has also played other acclaimed supporting roles in Mani Ratnam's Raavanan (2010) and Aishwarya Dhanush's 3 (2012), while he has ventured into playing similar roles in Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam films.[10] In 2016, Prabhu featured in his 200th film, the romantic comedy Meen Kuzhambum Mann Paanaiyum produced by his nephew, Dushyanth Ramkumar.[11]

Personal life

Prabhu is married to Punitha in 1982 and has two children Aishwarya Prabhu (born 1984) and Vikram Prabhu (born 1986), who made his acting debut in the 2012 film Kumki.[12]

While still married to Punitha, Prabhu had a live-in relationship with actress Kushboo, and got married on September 12, 1993. The pair subsequently decided to split four months later.[13][14]

His son Vikram Prabhu is also a Tamil actor.

Filmography

Awards

Cinema Express Awards

Year	Film(s)	Category	Outcome
1988	Manasukkul Mathappu	Best Actor	Won

Filmfare Awards South

Prabhu was nominated six times at the Filmfare Awards South

Year	Film(s)	Category	Outcome
1986	Aruvadai Naal	Best Actor	Nominated
1988	Agni Natchathiram		Nominated
1991	Chinna Thambi		Nominated
1994	Duet		Nominated
2002	Charlie Chaplin		Nominated
2005	Chandramukhi	Best Film	Nominated
2009	Ayan	Best Supporting Actor	Nominated

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards

Year	Film(s)	Category	Outcome
1991	Chinna Thambi	Best Actor	Won
2002	Charlie Chaplin	Special Prize	Won
2005	Chandramukhi	Best Film	Won

References

External links

• Official website
• Prabhu at IMDb

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