Mahendran (actor)

Mahendran made his debut with K. S. Ravikumar's Nattamai (1994).^[7] He twice won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Child Artist, for Thaikulame Thaikulame (1995) and Kumbakonam Gopalu (1998).^[8] He also twice won the Nandi Award for Best Child Actor, for Devi (1999) and Little Hearts (2001).^[9][10] He also appeared on the Sun TV dance show Masthana Masthana as a participant in 2009.^{[citation needed]}

The actor made his breakthrough as a hero when he starred alongside Malavika Menon in Vizha (2013), directed by Barathi Balakumaran.^[11][12]

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.^[13] The film opened to positive reviews in December 2013.^[14] His first Telugu film, First Love opposite Amrita Rao released on the same day, with a low key release.^[15]

• Note: all films are in Tamil, unless otherwise noted.

• Mahendran at IMDb