Ashwin Kumar Lakshmikanthan

Not to be confused with Ashwin Kumar or (actor, born 1987).

This article is about a person whose name includes a patronymic. The article properly refers to the person by his given name, Ashwin Kumar, and not as Lakshmikanthan.

Ashwin Kumar Lakshmikanthan (born 7 May 1991) is an Indian actor who works predominantly in Tamil films and television. He played the lead roles in the series Rettai Vaal Kuruvi (2015) and Ninaikka Therintha Manamae (2017), and had supportive roles in films such as O Kadhal Kanmani (2015) and Adithya Varma (2019). He rose to prominence after contesting in the 2021 reality programme Cooku with Comali season 2.^[2] The Times of India named him the "Most Desirable Man on Television 2020", in its Chennai Times edition.^[3]

Ashwin Kumar
Ashwin Kumar in 2021
Born	Ashwin Kumar Lakshmikanthan (1991-05-07) 7 May 1991 (age 33)[1] Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India
Education	Kumaraguru College of Technology (B.E. Mech) PSG Institute of Management (MBA)
Occupation(s)	Actor Model
Years active	2014–present

He played the lead in Enna Solla Pogirai (2022), Meet Cute (2022) and Sembi (2022).^[4]

Early life and education

Born and brought up in Coimbatore, Ashwin Kumar completed his schooling in Carmel Garden. He pursued his bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from Kumaraguru College of Technology and completed Master of Business Administration from PSG Institute of Management. During his college days, he developed a passion for acting and attended auditions for films and TV series.^[5]

Career

Television

Ashwin Kumar made his television debut on Star Vijay's serial, Office. He played the lead roles in the serials Rettai Vaal Kuruvi (2015) and Ninaikka Therintha Manamae (2017).^[6][7] He also played the lead in Raja Rani, a Telugu remake of the hit Tamil serial Saravanan Meenatchi on Star Maa. Following the end of the series, he appeared in the short films Blink, Cinderella, 3 Scenes of his love story, and Kadhal Ondru Kanden.^{[8][9][10][11]}

He was one of the contestants in the cooking reality show Cooku with Comali – Season 2 on Star Vijay.^[12][13][14] He was the second runner-up in the finale,^[15] and received the "Most Popular Male on Reality Television" award at the Behindwoods Gold Icons 2021^[16] for his performance in Cooku with Comali.

Films

At the start of his film career, Ashwin Kumar played a minor role in Mani Ratnam's O Kadhal Kanmani as a colleague of Dulquer Salmaan's character. He had portrayed the role of Dhruv Vikram’s brother in the film Adithya Varma.^[2]

He played the lead in the romantic comedy movie Enna Solla Pogirai (2022). During the audio launch of Enna Solla Pogirai, Ashwin's speech that he had dozed halfway through the narration of 40 stories due to weak scripts, stirred controversy. Later he apologised, stating that he was completely distorted by fans' love and never intended to disrespect anyone.^[17] The film was released on the week of Pongal 2022 and a critic with the Times of India wrote "Ashwin makes a confident leap to leading man".^[18]

He made his Telugu debut with Meet Cute, an anthology film directed by debutante Deepthi Ghanta and produced by Nani.^[19] This Telugu anthology consists of five conversational shorts on modern-day relationships. He played the lead role in the segment, Meet the boy. He had next played the lead in Prabhu Solomon’s film, titled Sembi, alongside actors Kovai Sarala and Thambi Ramaiah.^[20] Touted to be an intense social drama, set against the backdrop of Kodaikanal, the film was produced by Trident Arts.^[21] The film received highly positive reviews from critics and audiences upon release and Ashwin’s performance as a lawyer, a nameless saviour was widely appreciated. A critic from Sakshi Post wrote "Ashwin Kumar as a lawyer keeps the audience on the egde of their seats in the second half with his brilliant show. He has made full use of the opportunity to prove his acting prowess".^[22]

He is next playing the lead in the action thriller film titled Nodikku Nodi, directed by Vijay Adhiraj alongside actors Shaam and Narain.^[23]

Web Series

Ashwin Kumar had a lead role in Thanthu Vitten Ennai, a web series produced by Zee5.^[24] He was also part of the horror-thriller web series Live Telecast directed by Venkat Prabhu for Disney+ Hotstar.

Music videos and model work

Ashwin Kumar is the lead actor in the music videos "Cloning Kadhal", "Rhythm of Life" (Sony Music), "Shades of Kadhal", "Kutty Pattas" (Sony Music),^[25] "Criminal Crush", "Loner", "Adipoli" (Think Music), "Baby Nee Sugar", "Yaathi Yaathi" (Sony Music), "Vaadi Vaadi" (Think Music), "VannaMayilae" (Noise and Grains) and "Adada" (VYRLOriginals).

He had given voice-over in the music audio 11:11 – Guru undu Bhayamillai, composed by Ady Kriz.^[26] As a model, he has worked in multiple TV commercials and print adverts for various brands.^[27] He was a brand ambassador of Zee Thirai.^[28]

Filmography

Key

†	Denotes films or series that have not yet been released

• All work is in Tamil, unless otherwise noted.

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2014	Kathai Thiraikathai Vasanam Iyakkam	Arya's friend	Deleted scene	[2]
	Nerungi Vaa Muthamidathe	Maya's friend
2015	O Kadhal Kanmani	Aditya's co-worker	Uncredited role	[5]
2019	Enai Noki Paayum Thota	Saranya's groom	Uncredited role
	July Kaatril	Shreya's yoga friend
	Adithya Varma	Siddharth Varma
2020	Indha Nilai Maarum	Surya
2021	Oh Manapenne!	Arjun		[29]
2022	Enna Solla Pogirai	Vikram		[30]
	Sembi	Sembi's lawyer		[21]
2023	Anni Manchi Sakunamule	Ram	Telugu film	[31]
2025	Nodikku Nodi †	TBA	Filming	[23]

Television

Year	Serial/show	Role	Channel	Notes	Ref.
2015	Office	Ashwin	Star Vijay
	Rettai Vaal Kuruvi	BalaMurugan
2016	Raja Rani	Karthik	Star Maa	Telugu series Remake of Saravanan Meenatchi
2017–2018	Ninaika Therintha Manamae	Aravind	Star Vijay		[32] [33]
2020–2021	Cooku with Comali – Season 2	Contestant		Second runner-up	[34]

Web series

Year	Series	Role	OTT platform	Notes	Ref.
2020	Thanthu Vitten Ennai	Vinay	ZEE5	Lead – remake of Honar Sun Me Hya Gharchi Dubbed in Telugu as Nenu c/o Nuvvu	[35]
2021	Live Telecast	Ashwin	Disney+ Hotstar		[36]
2022	Meet Cute	Abhi	SonyLIV	Telugu anthology series; segment – Meet the Boy	[19]

Short films

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2014	3 Santhipugal	Pugazh
	Bullet 350 CC	Munna
2016	Pradhi	Vijay
2017	Idar	Shiva
2018	3 scenes of Love story	Munna
2019	Blink	Akshay	Won Best Short Film award at SMIFA Shorts	[37]
	Cindrella	Abhi
2020	Kadhal Ondru Kanden	Mathew	Won Best Short Film award at Behindwoods Gold Medals 7	[38]

Music videos

Year	Title	Music	Vocals	Notes	Ref.
2015	"Cloning Kadhal"	Arun Sundar	Syed Subahan
2017	"Rhythm of Life"	Vishal Chandrasekhar	Yazin Nizar
2019	"Shades of Kadhal"	Maran Rajendraan	Sudharshan Ashok
2021	"Kutty Pattas"	Santhosh Dhayanidhi	Santhosh Dhayanidhi, Rakshita Suresh	Released in Telugu as "Rowdy Pattasu"
	"Criminal Crush"	Godson Rudolph	Anirudh Ravichander, Srinisha Jayaseelan		[39]
	"Loner"	Ady Kriz	Anand Aravindakshan		[40]
	"Ennam Pol Vazhkai"	Edwin Louis
	"Adipoli"	Siddhu Kumar	Vineeth Sreenivasan,	[41]
	"Yaathi Yaathi"	Abhishek CS	Yazin Nizar, Anuradha Sriram	Released in Telugu as "Sathi Sathi"	[42]
2022	"Baby Nee Sugar"	Osho Venkat	Osho Venkat		[43]
	"Vaadi Vaadi"	Harris Jayaraj	Ravi G, Sunitha Sarathy, Samuel Nicholas Jayaraj		[44]
2023	"Makka Makka"	Harris Jayaraj	Bamba Bakya, Satyaprakash	Co-starring with Mugen Rao	[45]
	"Vannamayilae"	AK Prriyan	AK Prriyan, Akshaya Shivkumar
2025	"Adada"	Pragathi Guruprasad	Pragathi Guruprasad

Discography

As voice-over artist

Year	Album	Song	Composer	Ref.
2023	11:11	Guru Undu Bhayamillai	Ady Kriz	[26]

Accolades

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2015	Vijay Television Awards	Favourite Screen Pair (with Pavani Reddy)	Rettai Vaal Kuruvi	Nominated
	Vijay Television Awards	Favourite Find of The Year		Nominated
2019	SMIFA shorts	Best Actor in Tamil	Blink	Won	[37]
2021	Vijay Television Awards	style="text-align:center;" rowspan="2"| Cooku with Comali 2	Won	[46]
	Behindwoods Gold Icons	Most Popular Male on Reality Television	Won	[47]

Other recognitions

Year	Featured by	Listing category	Result	Ref.
2021	Times of India	Chennai Times Most Desirable Man on Television 2020	Won	[3]
		Chennai Times 30 Most Desirable Men 2020 in Kollywood	Rank 8	[48]