Venkatraman was born on 19 March 1940. After starting a job at the American Consulate in Chennai, he moved there where he found himself sharing lodging with Nagesh, Vaali, Vennirai Aadai Moorthy and Vietnam Veedu Sundaram.
He then joined various drama groups to perform stage plays, the most famous of which was K. Balachander’s play Major Chandrakanth where he played the character called Srikanth. The name stuck to him and he adopted this name when NC Chakaravathy, assistant to CV Sridhar, introduced him to Sridhar.
Sridhar cast the young Srikanth in the lead role of the film Vennira Aadai, along with other newcomers, Jayalalitha, Nirmalaand Moorthy.The film became a hit and Srikanth saw offers pouring in, leading him to play the lead role in at least 50 films.
In 1967, he played his first negative role in the Jaishankar-Rajasree film Selva magall directed by K.V. Srinivas. Despite landing various supporting roles across different genres in the ensuing years, directors kept returning to him to play negative roles – something he truly excelled in. After his role in the 1972 film Aval, these offers intensified. This led to him playing negative roles in films like Vasantha Maligai, Vairam. Thanga Gopuram, Gnana Oli, Gomatha Engal Kulamatha, Anbu Thangai and Vani Rani. However, it was his role as Jegan in Sivaji Ganesan’s Thanga Pathakkam that brought him the most acclaim, a film where he had many memorable scenes of on-screen confrontation between himself and the great Sivaji Ganesan.
Just when it appeared that he had been typecast as a villain, Srikanth returned with the romantic drama Raja Nagam where he played the lead role opposite Manjula. In the same year he played the lead role in the national award winning film, Dikkatra Parvathi which was directed by Singeetham Srinivasa Rao (director of later films like Aboorva sagodharargall, Raaja Paarvai, Pesumpadam and Michael Madhana Kamarajan)in his first Tamil directorial.
Although he shared the screen with many actors, he had the most appearances with Sivaji Ganesan, Jaishankar and Jayalalitha. He has the distinction of acting in Jayalalitha’s first Tamil film Vennira Aadai as well as her last film, Nadhiyai Thedi Vandha Kadal. He also played Jayalalitha’s brother in her 100th film, Thirumangaalyam and her stepson in the film Thanga Gopuram.
Throughout his career, he did not forsake stage productions and continued to share the stage with the likes of Sowcar Janaki, R Muthuraman and Lakshmi until the 1990s. His last film was the 2009 Vignesh starrer Kudiyarasu.
Srikanth passed away on 12 October 2021 at the age of 81.
Enjoy our mini playlist of Srikanth songs.
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