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Thursday, March 20, 2008

FITTING INTO THE RIGHT ROLES - PRASANNA













Prasanna pairs with Sneha for the first time in the forthcoming Tamil film Achchamundu Achchamundu directed by debutante Arun Vaidyanathan, writes KK Moidu

Young hero Prasanna, with his simple looks and smile, has played soft hero roles in small and medium budget films. The young actor plays a US-based software engineer in the forthcoming Tamil film Achchamundu Achchamundu (AA). The Indo-American venture is produced by East-West Project, located in New Jersey, USA.
AA is a thriller with the right dose of humour, emotion and action. The film will be completely shot in New York and New Jersey as it is meant for an international audience.
AA is the maiden directorial venture of Arun Vaidyanathan and the director himself pens the story, screenplay and dialogue. US-based NRI Arun Vaidyanathan completed a course in direction from the New York Film Academy. He has won several awards for his short films. His foray into the media industry began with a successful career at a regional TV channel.
The visual effects of AA will be done by noted Hollywood film VFX supervisors N Madhusudhanan (Lord of the Rings, Spiderman 3 etc.) and Jon Labrie (Independence Day, Broken Arrow etc.). Karthik Raja scores the music.
AA is an exciting thriller and it tells the story of a US based Tamil family, who get involved in serious trouble. The action-packed climax of the film reveals how they come out of the dilemma.
The talented and beautiful heroine of the industry Sneha, who always accepts roles that tests her skills, shares the screen as Prasanna's wife. A top Hollywood actor will play a pivotal role in the film. Other artistes of the film are talented artistes living in USA.
The hero of AA, Prasanna was born into a middle class family in Aug. 28, 1982. Unlike most of the other young heroes of the industry, his family had no direct link with the film industry. His father was an employee of Bharath Heavy Electricals Limited and his mother is a housewife. He grew up in Trichy in Tamil Nadu and dreamed of becoming an actor from his childhood.
He showed interest in mimicry and acting in his school and college days. His father wanted to make him a professional and Prasanna joined the engineering college to fulfill his father's desire. But Prasanna dropped out from college to pursue his celluloid dream.
Prasanna's life changed forever after responding to an advertisement that appeared on a regional channel. Producer-director Manirathnam's Madras Talkies was looking for new faces for their latest project and at the time Prasanna was a second year student of the engineering college.
Prasanna made his debut in Susi Ganesan's Five Star. The youthful film tells the story of an unusual and refreshing friendship. The movie, produced by Mani Ratnam's Madras Talkies, won critical acclaim and it was a moderate success at the box office. Prasanna paired opposite Kanika in the film.
The heroine Kanika was also an engineering student at the renowned BITS Pilani. After completing engineering, the former Miss Madurai and second runner up of Miss Chennai, Kanika chose her career as a full time actress-singer and dubbing artiste. She has acted in more than one dozen films in different languages like Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu.
Prasanna's next two films Ragasiyamai and Kadhal Dot.com was a flop at the box office. After learning lessons from previous flops, he began selecting films with meaningful subjects. His pairing opposite Navya Nair in Azhagiya Theeye, directed by Radha Mohan brought him notice in the industry. The film was produced by Prakash Raj's Duet Films. After the success of the film, people recognised him as Azhagiya Theeye Prasanna. The film gave him the right idea for choosing the best scripts.
Prasanna tasted his first commercial success as a hero in Kanda Naal Mudhal, another Prakash Raj Production. The film was directed by Priya V and his love interest of the film was Laila. But he couldn't repeat his success in the next ventures Kasthuriman and Seena Thana 007. Both the films were remakes of Malayalam superhits Kasthuriman and CID Moosa respectively. Prasanna played the male lead opposite Meera Jasmine in Lohithadas directed Kasthuriman. His role in the original was played by Kunjacko Boban. In Seena Thana 007 directed by Gajendra, he enacted the role of Dileep in CID Moosa.
Prasanna has acted in around ten films in his more than five years in the industry. He was typecast in soft and realistic roles and tasted commercial success in very few films only. He was the first choice of directors for soft hearted hero roles.
But the actor successfully experimented with challenging roles in the recently released Sadhu Miranda and Anjathe. His new kind of role in the latest films achieved box office victory. Prasanna, an actor with a boy-next-door image, proved that he can handle tough roles with the same ease.
Lady luck smiled on him in 2008 with the success of Sadhu Miranda and Anjathe because the romantic hero boldly accepted tough roles and was proved to be a versatile actor.
Prasanna comes out in flying colours with a powerful performance in Sadhu Miranda directed by success guaranteed director Siddique. Prasanna played dual roles in the film, one as an innocent youngster and the other as a hard-hearted man. He lost weight for his warrior role and also used contact lenses. Kavya Madhavan played the role of a TV anchor in the film.
In Anjathe directed by Mysskin, Prasanna played a negative role as Daya, a sinister guy who runs a kidnapping racket. He kidnaps girls from wealthy families for money and rapes them for keeping them silent. The film won rave reviews.
According to reports, Prasanna will make his debut in the Malayalam industry this year. His lady interest of the untitled film will be Navya Nair to be pictured in Ernamkulam.
His forthcoming Tamil films Kannum Kannum opposite Udayatara and much delayed Manjal Veyyil with Sandhya will also release soon. Kannum Kannum directed by debutante G Marimuthu tells a different love story — a war between two youngsters bitten by the love bug. The support of lyricist Vairamuthu will give the movie a poetic form and Dheena tunes for the film.
Romantic action entertainer Manjal Veyyil, directed by Raja, is a love story based on a college background and Prasanna will handle the action in the film. Bala will play the second hero role and mini screen fame Thariga will play an important role. One of the highlight of the film is veteran cinematographer T Kaviyarasu's astonishing work. The cinematographer received compliments for his work in Tamil Nadu and also from Bollywood for the Shah Rukh Khan starrer Hum Thumhara Sanam. A scene in Manjal Veyyil that was shot in a Malaysian park, where the replicas of the wonders of the world are kept, is sure to delight the audience.
Although Prasanna is recognised as an accomplished actor, stardom has eluded him. He rarely acts in commercial potboilers and always plays realistic characters. The success of his heterogeneous roles in the recently released films, including the software engineer role in AA, will definitely make him a hot favourite among the other young Tamil heroes.

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