Siddharth Suryanarayan (Tamil: சித்தார்த் சூரியநாராயண் ; Telugu: సిద్ధార్థ సూర్యనారాయన్; born April 17, 1979), mononymously known as Siddharth, is an Indian film actor, playback singer and screenplay writer. After his business management studies, Siddharth chose to work in film making and worked as an assistant director before making his acting debut in the 2003 Tamil film Boys. In the subsequent years, he has worked in many Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films.
Personal Life
Siddharth was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He studied at DAV Boys’ Senior Secondary School, Chennai and Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Delhi.[1] He got his Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) degree from Kirori Mal College, New Delhi. Siddharth was popularly known as “Sidy” in school and college, and was part of the reputed theatre group of the college The Players. He was also president of the college’s debating society and attended the World Debating Championships. He went on to complete his MBA in 2001 from S P Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai.[1] In 2006, he divorced his wife of four years, Meghna. The couple grew up together in New Delhi.
Career
After his MBA, Siddharth landed the role of assistant director for Mani Ratnam’s Kannathil Muthamittal. Writer Sujatha Rangarajan recommended his name to S. Shankar for casting in his then upcoming film Boys, in which he eventually made his acting debut. The film was a moderate success in Tamil but the dubbed version in Telugu gave Siddharth an opening in the Telugu film industry.
Siddharth then appeared in another Tamil film, Mani Ratnam’s Aayutha Ezhuthu (2004), after which he would shift focus and concentrate on Telugu-language projects. His first direct Telugu project, Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana released in early 2005. The comedy-drama film, marking the directorial debut of choreographer-turned-actor Prabhu Deva, became a commercial blockbuster as well as a critical success, with Siddharth winning his first Filmfare Best Actor Award for his portrayal of Santhosh, a playful NRI, who fights for his love. Siddharth, subsequently, also ventured into the writing forum as well as the singing forum as he wrote the screenplay for his next Telugu film Chukkallo Chandrudu (2006) directed by Siva Kumar and sang as a playback singer. He next debuted in Bollywood as part of the critically acclaimed Rang De Basanti which starred Aamir Khan. Siddharth received the Star Screen Debut Award for his role as Karan Singhania in the film. Siddharth’s final release of 2006 was Bommarillu, directed by then newcomer Bhaskar. The film, revolving around a father-son relationship, received critical acclaim and garnered box office success, too. He worked with director Vishal Bhardwaj and Oscar winning cinematographer Guillermo Navarro on a short film titled Blood Brothers which screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.
After the above average grossing Aata in 2007, Siddharth took a sabbatical and did not have a release for 20 months. In 2009, his Konchem Ishtam Konchem Kashtam opposite Tamannareceived good response from the critics and the audiences. Siddharth played the lead role in debutant director Anand Ranga’s Oy!, which achieved box office success despite mixed reviews. His second Bollywood venture, Striker portrayed the life of a carrom player and became the first Bollywood film to release in theatres and on YouTube on the same day. His last release was the village-based romantic family entertainer, Bava. Bava, shot in places like Palakollu, Rajol, Rajahmundry and Hyderabad. He is currently working on Prakash Rao’s fantasy epic Anaganaga o Dheerudu, produced by veteran K. Raghavendra Rao.
He has also worked in advertisements for Idea Cellular and Peter England