Siddharth Venugopal is an Indian film actor who has appeared in Tamil films. He made his lead debut in

Gandhi Krishna Gandhi Krishna is an Indian film director who has worked on Tamil films. After beginning his career as an assistant to Shankar, he has made commercially and critically successful films. Career After apprenticing under Shankar in '' Indian'' ...

's romantic musical ''

Ananda Thandavam ''Ananda Thandavam'' () is a 2009 Tamil-language romantic drama film, an adaptation of Sujatha's serialized novel ''Pirivom Santhippom''. The film was directed by A. R. Gandhi Krishna and produced by V. Ravichandran of Aascar Films.

'' (2009), and also co-starred in

Jeeva Shankar Jeeva Shankar is a cinematographer turned writer, director active in Tamil films. His prominent films include ''Naan (2012 film), Naan'' and ''Amara Kaaviyam''. In 2013, he started an ''untitled project'' for Escape Artist Motion Pictures. Jeev ...

's crime thriller ''

Naan Naan () is a leavened, oven-baked or tawa-fried flatbread, that can also be baked in a tandoor. It is characterized by a light and fluffy texture and golden-brown spots from the baking process. Naan is found in the cuisines of Central Asia ...

'' (2012).

Early life

Siddharth Venugopal was born on 28 November 1985 in

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

to a Tamil family, but was brought up in

Coimbatore Coimbatore (Tamil: kōyamputtūr, ), also known as Kovai (), is one of the major Metropolitan cities of India, metropolitan cities in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is located on the banks of the Noyy ...

. He has a sister named Rathi. He did his schooling in Lisieux Matriculation Higher Secondary School Coimbatore, before moving on to complete a degree in

information technology Information technology (IT) is a set of related fields within information and communications technology (ICT), that encompass computer systems, software, programming languages, data processing, data and information processing, and storage. Inf ...

at Kumaraguru College of Technology. Following a brief stint in films, he returned to education in 2011 after signing up for an MBA at

Graziadio School of Business and Management The Pepperdine Graziadio Business School (Graziadio School) is the graduate business school of Pepperdine University, a private research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California. Th ...

Pepperdine University Pepperdine University () is a private university, private Christianity, Christian research university affiliated with the Churches of Christ, with its main campus in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Pepperdine's main campus consists ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Career

During his college days, Siddharth had taken up modelling assignments and acting courses and in October 2007, six months old in a Chennai multinational company, he got a call from director

’s office, after the director saw him in a print ad. After a six-hour audition, he was selected to play the lead role in the director's romantic musical ''

'', a film adaptation of the Sujatha serialized novel ''Pirivom Santhippom''. The film was shot in India and USA for more than a year and featured him alongside

Tamannaah Tamanna Bhatia (born 21 December 1989), known professionally as Tamannaah Bhatia, is an Indian actress who predominantly works in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi films. Having appeared in 88 films, she has received several awards, including two Sa ...

and

Rukmini Vijayakumar Rukmini Vijayakumar is an Indian choreographer, Bharatanatyam dancer, and actress. Along with her performances on stage, she has appeared in films such as '' Ananda Thandavam'' (2009), '' Bhajarangi'' (2013), '' Kochadaiyaan'' (2014), ''Final C ...

. However the film opened to unanimously poor reviews in early 2009, with a critic from Sify.com stating that the actor "can do little to save the film". Rediff.com felt that Siddharth's performance was one of the weaker aspects of the film noting "though he does his best when he's romancing his beloved, and there are sparks during emotional scenes, he seems to miss his cue a few times, making you wonder if someone with acting chops might have done a better job." Siddharth, before the release of his debut film had agreed to star in another film produced by Aascar Ravichandran to be directed by newcomer Jeeva Shankar. The film titled ''Naan'' was to see him portraying the lead role with

playing the lead female role, however due to the failure of ''Ananda Thandavam'', the producer called off the project. The film restarted with Vijay Antony's interception as producer in 2010, while the music director making his debut as an actor also took the lead role from Siddharth. The film was shot over two years, with Siddharth playing the second lead, amongst an ensemble cast also including actresses

Rupa Manjari Rupa Manjari is an Indian actress who has appeared in Tamil as well as Malayalam films. Her mother tongue is Tamil. She made her debut in Nandhini's film ''Thiru Thiru Thuru Thuru'' (2009), before playing the leading roles in ''Naan'' (2012) and ...

Anuya Bhagwat Anuya Y Bhagwat is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Tamil, Hindi and Bengali films. She is best known for her role in '' Siva Manasula Sakthi'' (2009). She is an alumni of St Anne's High School,Pune , PVG's COET, Ferguson Pune, ...

and Vibha Natarajan. The film released in August 2012 to predominantly positive reviews, with Siddharth gaining critical acclaim for his performance of the rich youngster, Ashok with a critic noting he is "impressive".

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Venugopal, Siddharth Indian male film actors Male actors in Tamil cinema Living people Male actors from Tamil Nadu 21st-century Indian male actors 1985 births Actors from Coimbatore