Prithviraj Sukumaran

Prithviraj Sukumaran Biography

Prithviraj Sukumaran, shortly called Prithviraj is the latest actor to be added to ‘Superstar’ category of Malayalam cinema with three blockbusters in 2015 in a row. The three movies – Ennu Ninte Moideen, Amar Akbar Antony and Anarkali with entirely different plots and storyline released in the second half of 2015 ran at full packed houses at the same time, competing with one another; perhaps the rarest of rare phenomenon happened in Malayalam film industry in the recent times. He made his film debut at the age of 19 while doing his degree course. The movie was Nandanam released in 2002 and since then he has acted in around 90 films (excluding his upcoming projects) belonging to Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi languages. He is also a film producer and distributor. Kana Kandaen in 2005 marked his Tamil debut and he played the negative shaded role of Aishwarya rai’s husband in Mani Ratnam’s Raavanan (Tamil Version).

He was born into a family of actors. Prithviraj is the youngest son of actor Sukumaran who used to be a lead actor in the 1980s. His mother Mallika Sukumaran, elder brother Indrajith Sukumaran and sister-in-law Poornima Indrajith are actors of Mollywood. Mallika is a noted television actress and Poornima is a star anchor. He lost his father at the age of 15. He completed his studies at Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram and Australia. He was spotted by director Ranjith and offered him the lead role for Nandanam – a mythological tale connecting Guruvayur and Lord Krishna. Navya Nair played the female lead and the movie got noticed for its unique theme and was a huge hit. Since then he is known for accepting mature roles, exceeding his actual age.

He was only 19 when he acted in Nandanam and Malayalam got a new young hero to accept challenging roles – both as a mature actor and a college boy. He played the role of a widower and a father of 5-year old girl in Vellinakshatram, when he was only 21! He also excelled in action films and did numerous roles of a police officer including Bollywood film – Aurengazeb (2013), for which he received rave reviews. He was paired with Rani mukherji for his debut Bollywood flick – Ayya. He became the youngest actor to bag State Award for Best Actor. He won the award for 2006 film ‘Vasthavam’ at the age of 24. He bagged the award for the second time in 2012 for Ayalum Njanum Thammil and Celluloid. His production venture, ‘Indian rupee’ won National award for best regional film in 2012.

He was paired with Navya Nair once again for Vellithira the following year. But the movie was a flop. But he excelled as a flirting college boy in Kamal’s youth oriented movie, Swapnakoodu in 2004 which gave him an image of youth icon. He was paired with Kavya Madhavan for 2006 Blockbuster campus movie – Classmates. Chocolate – was another campus oriented film which became a box office hit. Though he has given several flops, some of his hit films in the 2000s include – Nandanam, Vellinakshatram, Swapnakoodu, Satyam, Pokkiri Raja, Puthiya Mukham, Twenty:20, Thirakkatha etc.

Prithviraj’s career has faced ups and downs and he has delivered both hits and misses. Often he was a victim of social networking sites following his sudden marriage to Supriya, a TV anchor of BBC news. It’s solely because he denied the rumours of his relationship a few days ago. Often he was blamed as outspoken. But all criticisms and flops have only made him strong and throughout these years he experimented over a variety of roles and excelled as a romantic hero as well as an action hero. With early 2010s, he started accepting mature and challenging roles.

He produced and acting in Urumi (2011), one of the most expensive Malayalam films. Though he received rave reviews for his performance, it couldn’t recover its losses. ‘Indian rupee’ was the turning point of his career and since then he takes extensive care while reading and accepting hits. Though he has delivered comic roles for movies like ‘Tejabhai and family’, he took mature roles like Celluloid, Ayalum Njanum Thammil, Memories, Ennu Ninte Moideen, Picket 43 etc. Sapthamashree Thaskaraha and 7th Day were his biggest hits of 2014. Though the first half of 2015 was disappointing, he emerged as the dark horse towards the end of the end, cementing his position as ‘The New Star of Mollywood’. ‘Pavada’ is his next release. 

Published: N/A

Updated: May 20, 2018