Bharath (actor)

Personal life

Bharath was born in Tiruchirappalli. He has a younger sister named Preethi. Bharath is a trained dancer by profession and joined Swingers International Dance club when he was 11 years old. He did his schooling at DAV Senior Secondary School, Anna Nagar, and studied at The New College, Chennai. He married Jeshly, a Malayali dentist based in Dubai, in 2013.

Career

Bharath made his acting debut in the 2003 Tamil film Boys directed by S. Shankar, in which he played the guitarist of a boy band. He was selected for the role, after Shankar had seen him performing at a dance programme "Inspirations" at the Music Academy by Swingers. In 2004, he first appeared in the Malayalam film, the Jayaraj-directed vigilante film 4 The People, portraying one of the four protagonists. The film went on to become a blockbuster, grossing ₹ 10 lakhs at the Kerala box office and turning out the highest-grossing Malayalam film of that year. The film was subsequently dubbed into Tamil as 4 Students, and Telugu as Yuvasena, with its Tamil version emerging a box office success as well. Later that year, he played the antagonist role in the Tamil film Chellamae. His portrayal of Vishwa, a possessive teenager who kidnaps his childhood friend he is obsessed with and married to someone else, was acclaimed by critics. It also was a box office success. He played his first starring role in Balaji Sakthivel's Tamil romantic-drama film Kaadhal that featured him as a poor mechanic who falls in love and elopes with a wealthy 12th standard student. The film, produced by Shankar, received critical acclaim and commercial success. Pattiyal, a gangster thriller, was his first release in 2006. The Vishnuvardhan-directorial opened to negative critical response and went to become a box office hit, with Bharath garnering accolades for his performance as a deaf and dumb hitman Later that year, he starred in Azhagai Irukkirai Bayamai Irukkirathu, Em Magan, Chennai Kadhal and Veyil. While Chennai Kadhal, a romance film by Vikraman, bombed at the box office, Thirumurugan's family drama film Em Magan was declared a hit film. He has received great accolades for Veyyil, which also emerged a commercial success and was selected for screening at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival.

Following Veyyil, Bharath experienced a setback in his career as his subsequent releases—with the exception of Pazhani—proved to be commercially successful. He was facing an "image crisis" as he signed up for action and masala films and went on play repetitive roles as a "larger than life angry young man", playing "small town rowdy" or "guy seeking revenge" roles. Koodal Nagar, was released in 2007 in which he portrayed a dual role. In 2008 he appeared in Perarasu's Pazhani alongside Kajal Aggarwal and Kushboo, following which Nepali, directed by V. Z. Durai was released. That year he had two more releases, Muniyandi Vilangial Moonramandu, which saw him collaborating with the Em Magan team again, and Hari's Seval. In 2009 he acted in Arumugam, directed by Suresh Krishna and Kandein Kadhalai. The latter featured him in a totally contrasting role as a rich businessman, and became his only commercial success in two years. In 2010, he had a single release with Thambikku Indha Ooru which became a critical and commercial failure.

In 2011, he appeared in the multi-starrer Vaanam as Bharath Chakravarthy, a guitarist. Post-release, Bharath clashed with the producer and another actor in the film, Silambarasan, claiming he did not receive as much promotion and publicity as Silambarasan's character. His next film, the romantic comedy Yuvan Yuvathi co-starring Rima Kallingal, was followed by the action-masala film Thiruthani co-starring Sunaina. He was also appeared in a guest appearance in Vasanthabalan's Aravaan.

In 2013, his romantic thriller film Ainthu Ainthu Ainthu (555) released in August. The film, which was directed by Sasi, opened the negative reviews with a critic noting he "has put a lot of effort and hardwork to the role" and "is one single reason to watch the film". He made his Bollywood debut with Jackpot. The film was about four people who try to con one another for money and Bharath played one of them, a Goan named Anthony D’Souza from Puducherry. He returned to Malayalam cinema in 2014 with Koothara. Bharath subsequently appeared as autistic youngster in a Malayalam project titled 1000 : Oru Note Paranja Katha, which garnered poor reviews on release, with a critic noting that "there are plenty of moments of real terrible acting around, and it's a pity to see an actor like Bharath strut around awkwardly, trying to pass off as a youngster with a disability, but with very little success". Later in 2015 he appeared in another Malayalam movie Lord Livingstone 7000 Kandi which was an experimental movie.

Filmography

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