Devan Sreenivasan (born 8 January 1952) is an Indian film and television actor and politician. He is known for his character roles, mostly as villain, in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and a few Kannada and Hindi films. He has starred in over 380 films.[citation needed]
He began his film career as a producer with Vellam (1985). Before its release, he turned into an actor. He made his breakthrough in the 1987 film New Delhi. He played lead roles in films like Oru Minnaminunginte Nurunguvettam (1987), Oozham (1988), Simon Peter Ninakku Vendi (1988) and Aranyakam (1988). In his later career, he mostly played prominent supporting roles, mostly as villain. His well-known such films include Vietnam Colony (1992), Ekalavyan (1993), Honest Raj (1994), Baashha (1995) and Indraprasdham (1996).
Devan founded the political party Kerala People's Party in 2004. He relaunched the party as Nava Kerala People's Party in 2020, which was merged with the Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP) in 2021. In 2023, he was made the state vice-president of BJP in Kerala.
Early life
Devan was born on 8th January 1952 in Thrissur, Kerala.[1] His father, Sreenivasan, was a public prosecutor, and his mother, Lalitha, was a doctor. He has three siblings: Shobha, Sheela, and Sureshbabu. Malayalam filmmaker Ramu Kariat was his uncle.
Devan's father wanted him to be a police officer, but he wanted to be in the army. After graduation, he tried at the National Defence Academy but was not selected. He went to Madras (now Chennai) in search of a job and later took post-graduation in Master of Business Administration.[3] He was engaged in several business ventures before starting his career in movies.[4]
Career
During his time in college, he used to read books a lot. He found possibility for a film in N. N. Pisharody's novel Vellam, he approached director Hariharan, who agreed with him, M. T. Vasudevan Nair wrote the screenplay, it was the first and last screenplay of his not based on his own story. Devan produced the film, filming was halted midway due to financial crisis. He made his acting debut in Ashatapathi to raise fund to resume filming, it was followed by a number of acting projects. After which, shooting resumed, but upon release, the film failed at the box office. In an interview, he said that Vellam (1985) is the best film come out from Hariharan-M. T. Vasudevan Nair combination. It was in the 1987 film New Delhi that he first appeared as a villain, since then he was typecast as a villain in Malayalam cinema. However, in Telugu cinema, he is known for character roles. Devan recalled in an interview that his best roles were in Telugu and Tamil cinema.[3]
Devan started his acting career in supporting roles, after being approached by a producer at Spencer Plaza in Chennai.[5] His most notable movies are Ekalavyan, Baasha and Indraprasdham. He has also acted in several TV series.[6]
Personal life
He was married to his uncle Ramu Kariat's daughter, Suma. The couple has a daughter named Lakshmi.[7] His wife Suma died on 12 July 2019 due to H1N1 infection.[citation needed]
↑Bhandaram, Vishnupriya (1 October 2011). "Developing the negative". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 6 November 2020. Retrieved 22 September 2018– via www.thehindu.com.
↑വേഷങ്ങളിലെ ദേവസ്പര്ശം[The touch of god in the roles]. Malayalam.webdunia.com (in Malayalam). Archived from the original on 4 September 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2018.