Atharvaa

Atharvaa Murali (born 7 May 1989) is an Indian actor who works in Tamil cinema. The son of actor Murali and grandson of director S. Siddalingaiah, Atharvaa began his acting career with Baana Kaathadi (2010).^[1] He then garnered critical acclaim for his performance as a youngster suffering from delusion in the romantic thriller Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal (2012), before signing on to feature in Bala's period film Paradesi (2013). His role as a rural villager held as a slave in a tea plantation became his breakthrough performance, earning Atharvaa a Filmfare Award for Best Actor in Tamil.

Atharvaa
Atharvaa Murali at Eetti Success Meet.
Born	Vijay Murali (1989-05-07) 7 May 1989 (age 35) Madras, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation	Actor
Years active	2010–Present
Parents	Murali Shobha Murali
Relatives	S. Siddalingaiah (Grand Father) Daniel Balaji (Uncle) Akash Murali (brother)

Early life

Atharvaa was born as the second child to late actor Murali and his wife, Shobha. He also has an elder sister, Kavya, and a younger brother, Akash. He did his schooling in St. Michael's Academy. He attended Sathyabama Institute of Science and Technology, majoring in engineering.

Career

2010–2017

In 2009, his father found him an offer to play the lead role in a film to be produced by Sathya Jyothi Films and directed by Badri Venkatesh. Titled Baana Kaathadi, the film launched in March 2009 and had Atharvaa pair up with fellow rookie actress Samantha. Portraying a youngster from the Royapuram slum area, he stayed in the locality for forty-five days to learn about the lifestyle, while he also learned to fly a kite for the film, canning scenes at the Gujarat Kite Festival.^[2] The film, which also had Murali making a special appearance, released in August 2010 with critics mostly praising his debut performance with Sify.com writing he "makes a promising debut and he dances and emotes well".^[3] Similarly a critic from Rediff.com added "romance is a cake-walk" for the actor, drawing comparison with his father's performances in romantic roles, though noted "his dialogue delivery is a little too melodramatic".^[4] He subsequently gained recognition at the Edison Awards for Best Debut Actor, while also receiving a nomination from the Vijay Awards in the same category. The success of the film prompted Murali to begin pre-production on a Tamil and Kannada bilingual film which would feature Atharvaa.^[5] However, a month after Baana Kaathadi's release, his father Murali died after suffering cardiac arrest. Atharvaa consequently took a break to spend time with his family, before beginning work on a different venture.^[6]

Atharvaa receiving Best Actor – Tamil Award at the 61st Filmfare Awards South from Samantha Ruth Prabhu for his performance in the film Paradesi (2013)

Gautham Vasudev Menon had previously shown interest in directing Atharvaa for a film.^[7] A year later, his next release was Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal where he played a youngster suffering from hallucinations, film had an average collection and his performance was stated by Sify.com as “good but has miles to go in the histrionics department and voice modulation”.^[8] His biggest movie was Paradesi under the direction of Bala, for which he won multiple awards including the Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil. His next film was Sargunam's Chandi Veeran alongside actress Anandhi, which was a flop the box office.^[9]

Atharvaa's Eetti, a sports drama film produced by S. Michael Rayappan, in which he pairs up with Sri Divya and the thriller Kanithan in which he features alongside Catherine Tresa, were hits in the box office. In January 2016, he announced that he had set up a production studio called Kickass Entertainment. The first film under his banner would be directed by Badri Venkatesh, who had introduced Atharvaa as an actor.^[10] In 2017, Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum was released, starring the movie along with Aishwarya Rajesh, Regina Cassandra, Pranitha and Aaditi Pohankar.^[11]

2018–present

After several delays, Atharvaa's debut production Semma Botha Aagathey (2018), directed by Badri Venkatesh released and was an average success.^[12] He later appeared in 2018’s Imaikkaa Nodigal in which he acted as Nayanthara's brother (Arjun), a role that received major recognition.^[13] In March 2019, Boomerang, featuring alongside Megha Akash, was released to average reviews.^[14] In September 2019, Atharvaa made his Telugu debut in the film Gaddalakonda Ganesh.^[15] Atharvaa was initially considered to play the young Aditha Karikalan in Mani Ratnam’s 2022 film Ponniyin Selvan, however, the part ultimately went to Aswin Rao.

In 2021, Atharvaa was seen in Navarasa, an anthology streaming television series on Netflix.^[16] He then starred in Thalli Pogathey, remake of the Telugu film Ninnu Kori.^[17] Next year, he was seen the action films such as Kuruthi Aattam (2022), Trigger (2022) and Pattathu Arasan (2022).^[18][19][20] In 2023, he plays as DCP in the gangster drama television series Mathagam.^[21] Atharvaa joins with R. Sarathkumar and Rahman in Karthick Naren's Nirangal Moondru (2024), a hyperlink thriller that explores the various emotions and dimensions of a person.^[22]

Filmography

Key

†	Denotes film or TV productions that have not yet been released

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2010	Baana Kaathadi	Ramesh	Debut film
2011	Ko	Himself	Special appearance in "Aga Naga" song
2012	Muppozhudhum Un Karpanaigal	Ramachandran
2013	Paradesi	Raasa
2014	Irumbu Kuthirai	Michael Prithviraj Narayanan
2015	Chandi Veeran	Paari
	Eetti	Pugazhenthi Subramaniam
2016	Kanithan	Gowtham Ramalingam
2017	Gemini Ganeshanum Suruli Raajanum	Gemini Ganeshan
2018	Semma Botha Aagathey	Ramesh	Also producer
	Imaikkaa Nodigal	Arjun Prabhakar
2019	Boomerang	Shiva and Shakthi	Double role
	100	SI Sathya Ganesh
	Gaddalakonda Ganesh	Abhilash	Telugu film
2021	Thalli Pogathey	Karthik
2022	Kuruthi Aattam	Shakthivel
	Trigger	Prabhakaran IPS
	Pattathu Arasan	Chinnadurai
2024	Nirangal Moondru	Vetri
2025	Address †	Kaali	Filming[23]
	Thanal †	TBA	Filming
	DNA †	TBA	Filming[24]
	Parasakthi †	TBA	Filming
	Idhayam Murali †	TBA	Filming

Music Videos

Year	Title	Co-actor	Director	Ref(s)
2018	Bodhai Kodhai	Aishwarya Rajesh	Gautham Vasudev Menon	[25]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Streaming Platform	Notes	Ref
2021	Navarasa	Vetri	Netflix	Segment: Thunitha Pin
2023	Mathagam	Ashwath Rathnakumar IPS	Disney+Hotstar

Shows

Year	Title	Role	Channel	Notes	Ref
2023	Kadhanayagi	Guest	Vijay TV	Guest	[26]

Awards and nominations

Film	Award	Category	Result	Ref.
Baana Kaathadi	Edison Award	Best Male Debutant	Won
	Vijay Award	Best Debut Actor	Nominated
Paradesi	Ananda Vikatan Cinema Awards	Best Actor	Won	[27] [28]
	BFI London Film Festival		Nominated	[29]
	11th Chennai International Film Festival	Special Jury Award	Won	[30]
	Edison Awards	Extreme Performance – Male	Won	[31]
	61st Filmfare Awards South	Best Actor – Tamil	Won	[32]
	Norway Tamil Film Festival Awards	Best Actor	Won	[33]
	Techofes Awards		Won	[34]
	8th Vijay Awards		Nominated	[35] [36]
Gaddalakonda Ganesh	South Indian International Movie Awards	Best Supporting Actor	Nominated	[37]