Mahendran (actor)

Mahendran (born Hyderabad, India, 23 January 1991) is an Indian film actor who works in Tamil language films. He started acting at the age of 3 and as a child actor he appeared in over 100 films in six languages, a record number for a child actor in India.
In 2013 he played the lead in Vizha, which is considered to be his breakthrough as an adult actor. His films have been made in six languages, including Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam.

Mahendran appeared in over 100 films as a child, a record for a male Indian actor. He twice won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Child Artist, for Thaikulame Thaikulame (1995) and Kumbakonam Gopalu (1998). He also twice won the Nandi Award for Best Child Actor, for Devi (1999) and Little Hearts (2001). He also appeared on the Sun TV dance show Masthana Masthana as a participant in 2009. The actor made his breakthrough into adult films when he starred alongside Malavika Menon in Vizha (2013), directed by Barathi Balakumaran.

The film is based on the award-winning short film Uthiri, and portrays the love story of Mahendran's character Sundaram, who plays the thappu instrument at funerals, and Rakkamma (Malavika), an oppari singer. The film opened to positive reviews in December 2013, with critics praising Mahendran's lively portrayal. His first Telugu film, First Love opposite Amitha Rao released on the same day, with a low key release.

Mahendran's upcoming projects include Aakki, in which he plays a hockey player. He has also signed to play a lorry driver in a film about illegal sand mining.

The shooting of the film began at Kodambakkam in December 2013.