Ramesh Khanna (also spelt as Ramesh Kanna) is an Indian actor and film director who has worked in

Tamil cinema Tamil cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Tamil language, the main spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is nicknamed Kollywood, a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam, a Ch ...

. He has acted in a number of supporting and comedian roles.

Early life

Ramesh Khanna was born on 30 November 1955 in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

and third child to the family. He acted in R. S. Manohar's drama troupe from the age of 5 as child artist of more than 1000 dramas up to his age of 10 and was appreciated by

Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (; 5 September 188817 April 1975; natively Radhakrishna) was an Indian academician, philosopher and statesman who served as the President of India from 1962 to 1967. He previously served as the vice president of ...

, President of India at that time.

Career

He became assistant to directors Karaikudi Narayanan,

Pandiarajan R. Pandiarajan is an Indian actor, director and comedian who has played leading roles in many humorous Tamil films and plays supporting and comedy roles. Personal life Pandiarajan was born to Sulochana in Saidapet, Chennai in a lower-middle- ...

Kodi Ramakrishna Kodi Ramakrishna (23 July 1949 – 22 February 2019) was an Indian film director, screenwriter, and actor, known for his work in Telugu cinema. Over the course of his career, he directed more than 100 films across various genres, earning a repu ...

Vikraman Vikraman is an Indian film director primarily working in Tamil cinema. Career 1990–1994 He worked as an assistant to actor and director R. Parthiban in '' Puthiya Pathai'' (1989), which was the latter's debut film as a director and an actor ...

and K. S. Ravikumar. Ravikumar was meant to remake the Telugu film '' Maavichiguru'' (1996) starring

Jagapati Babu Veeramachaneni Jagapathi Chowdary (born 12 February 1962), professionally known as Jagapathi Babu (), is an Indian actor known for his works in Telugu cinema. He has also appeared in Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, and Hindi films. Babu has appeare ...

and Aamani into Tamil for Sridevi Movie Makers, but his busy schedule meant that he recommended Ramesh Khanna to the producers. The remake was initially titled as ''Maa Vilakku'' and was supposed to star

Jayaram Jayaram Subramaniam, (born 10 December 1965), is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema, in addition to Tamil cinema, Tamil, Telugu cinema, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi, Sanskrit, and Bhojpuri language films. He is also a chenda ...

and

Meena Meena () is a tribe from northern and western India which is sometimes considered a sub-group of the Bhil community. It used to be claimed they speak Mina language, a Spurious languages, spurious language. Its name is also transliterated as ' ...

, but went through cast changes. The film was revived under new title '' Thodarum'' with new cast involving

Ajith Kumar Ajith Kumar Subramaniam (born 1 May 1971) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. To date, he has starred in over 63 films, and won four Vijay Awards, three Cinema Express Awards, three Filmfare Awards South and three Ta ...

, Heera and Devayani. He later started working on a film titled ''Genius'' in 2000, but the project eventually was shelved. Only after, director Vikraman introduced him as a comedy friend to actor Karthik in '' Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen'' (1998). From that, he came to limelight with his comic timing. Khanna has acted in notable comedy roles in films such as ''

Padayappa ''Padayappa'' is a 1999 Indian Tamil-language action drama film written and directed by K. S. Ravikumar. It stars Sivaji Ganesan in his penultimate release and Rajinikanth in the titular lead. Ramya Krishnan and Soundarya share other lead r ...

'' (1999), '' Nee Varuvai Ena'' (1999), ''

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...

'' (2001), '' Unnai Ninaithu'' (2002) and ''

Villain A villain (also known as a " black hat", "bad guy" or "baddy"; The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) – p.126 "baddy (also baddie) noun (pl. -ies) ''informal'' a villain or criminal in a book, film, etc.". the feminine form is villai ...

'' (2002). He has also appeared in supporting roles in films such as ''

Thulluvadho Ilamai ''Thulluvadho Ilamai'' () is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language teen drama film written by Selvaraghavan, with direction credited to his father Kasthuri Raja. The film marks the acting debut of Selvaraghavan's younger brother Dhanush, who plays the ...

'' (2002). Ramesh has written dialogues for '' Muni'' (2007) and '' Nam Naadu'' (2007) and written story of the film '' Aadhavan'' (2009). Ramesh Khanna is seen in a substantial role in the

starrer '' Veeram'' (2014). He is also dialogue writer in '' Bhaskar Oru Rascal'' (2018).

Filmography

Note: all films are in Tamil, unless otherwise noted.

As actor

Tamil films

;1980s ;1990s ;2000s ;2010s ;2020s

Other language films

As writer

As director

* ''Top Tucker'' (1994) (TV serial) - Sun TV (Starring Vivek) * '' Thodarum'' (1999) (Starring

)

As dubbing artist

* ''Vaikunthapuram'' (2020) (Tamil dubbed) for

Rajendra Prasad Rajendra Prasad (3 December 1884 – 28 February 1963) was an Indian politician, lawyer, journalist and scholar who served as the first president of India from 1950 to 1962. He joined the Indian National Congress during the Indian independen ...

Television

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Khanna, Ramesh Indian male comedians Living people Tamil film directors Indian comedians Male actors in Tamil cinema Indian male film actors 20th-century Indian male actors 21st-century Indian male actors Indian screenwriters 1954 births