Guru Somasundaram

In 2003, director Thiagarajan Kumararaja watched Guru Somasundaram play Chandrahari in a Koothu-P-Pattarai production and promised him a part in a future film. Guru performed with that Tamil theatre group from 2002 to 2011. Born in Chennai on 3 September 1975, he now acts across Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. The promise turned into Kaalaiyan, the alcoholic in the neo-noir Aaranya Kaandam, a role for which he lost seven kilograms and trained. The film was released in 2011, won two National Film Awards and brought him strong reviews. Mani Ratnam then gave him a small part in Kadal (2013). That same year he made his Malayalam debut as a photographer in 5 Sundarikal and played the murdered brother of Vishal's character in Pandiya Naadu. In the silent short The Lost Paradise he was a prisoner returning home after fifteen years. Karthik Subbaraj's Jigarthanda (2014) cast him as an acting coach training Bobby Simha's character, which mirrored real life, since he had coached Simha in theatre. He played a district collector in the Rajinikanth film Petta (2019), and he appears in the Malayalam film Malavazhi.