Vinu Chakravarthy

Vinu Chakravarthee (15 December 1945 – 27 April 2017) was an Indian actor, script writer and director who is known for acting in more than 1000 movies in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Badaga and Malayalam mostly as a comedian, supporting actor or in a villainous role. The 2007 released Tamil movie Muni was his landmark 1000th movie. He had been hospitalised for the last few months of his life.

Early life and education

Chakravarthy was born on 15 December 1945, in Usilampatti to Adimoola Thevar and Manjuvani Ammal. He studied at Wesley School, Royapettah and graduated in commerce from A. M. Jain College. He was eldest son among other 3 sons and a daughter.

Career

On completion of his education, Chakravarthy worked as a Reserve Sub-Inspector at the Ice House police station for six months before joining the Southern Railways where he worked for four years.

Chakravarthy was working as a script writer for Kannada director Puttanna Kanagal when he was noticed by film producer Tiruppur Mani who, in 1977, gave him a role in the Kannada film Parasangada Gendethimma which was later remade into Tamil as Rosappu Ravikkaikari (1979) with Chakravarthy returning. Since then, Chakravarthy has made over 1,000 films in four South Indian languages - 900 in Tamil, 30 in Malayalam, 5 in Telugu and one in Badaga language. He has also directed movies on his own and is credited with introducing Silk Smitha.

Controversies

Chakravarthy criticised television and film producer Ekta Kapoor for her depiction of Silk Smitha in The Dirty Picture, a biographical film on the actress. He also expressed displeasure over Kapoor's choice of casting. He also said Smitha had wide expressive, inviting eyes, which Vidya Balan does not have.