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Karunakaran (born 28 January 1981) is an Indian actor and comedian who mainly appears in Tamil cinema. He made his breakthrough in the film Soodhu Kavvum (2013). He also appeared in supporting roles in Yaamirukka Bayamey (2014), Jigarthanda (2014) and Indru Netru Naalai (2015).
Karunakaran's father is a former RAW agent and he grew up in New Delhi, before moving to Trichy with his parents, where he met short film maker and friend Nalan Kumarasamy. He completed his secondary schooling at Sri Akilandeswari Vidyalaya, Trichy. He initially made a career as chemical engineer, graduating from SASTRA University, and then as an IT professional at Accenture, before Nalan approached him to feature in a short film he was making for the reality television show, Naalaya Iyakkunar. Karunakaran had featured in such short film ventures at school and Nalan had cast him in Nenjuku Neethi, which went on to win the first place award that season. Sundar C gave him brief roles in two of his ventures, while he made his first breakthrough portraying Vijay Sethupathi's friend in Karthik Subbaraj's Pizza (2012), after which he left work and concentrated on a career in films.[2]
Nalan subsequently cast him in his feature film debut Soodhu Kavvum (2013), for which Karunakaran won rave reviews. His appearance in the "Kasu Panam Thuttu" song also was well received and prompted several further offers for the actor.[3][4] His performance in Yaamirukka Bayamey (2014) was appreciated by critics. The Times of India wrote, "A large part of the credit should go to Karuna, who manages to make Sharath both ambivalent and funny",[5] while Sify wrote that he was "a scream"[6] and The Hindu called it an "exceptional performance".[7][8][9] Karunakaran, rose to fame in comical roles he did in such films as Yaamirukka Bayamey (2014) and Jigarthanda (2014).
Karunakaran was awarded the Best Comedian Award for his role in the movie Indru Netru Naalai (2015).[10] In 2019, he made his TV début with ‘Asaalta Alaravidum Pullingo’ on Discovery Network's Tamil channel.[11] These movies like Monster (2019) and Maanaadu (2021) which have been successful.[12] After delays, the comedy Panni Kutty, in which Karunakaran starred with Yogi Babu, was finally released in 2022.[13]
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Films
Television
| Year | Program | Role | TV Channel | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Asaalta Alaravidum Pullingo: Fail Army With Karunakaran | Host | Discovery Tamil | [18] |
| 2022 | Little Super Heroes | Kalaignar TV | [19] |
Web series
| Year | Program | Role | Network | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Time Enna Boss | Buggy | Amazon Prime | [20] |
| 2022 | Paper Rocket | Tiger | ZEE5 |
Shortfilms
| Year | Title | Role | Notes. |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Nadanthathu Yenanau | ||
| 2010 | Nenjuku Neethi | ||
| 2011 | Zero Kilometer | ||
| 2012 | Sollamaten | ||
| 2012 | Debt Trap |
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