R. Amarendran

Biography:

Indian theater director and actor R Amarendran, also referred to as Amarendran Ramanan or Amar, has directed and performed in a number of English and French-language plays that have been shown in Chennai and Pondicherry. When R. Amarendran was a college student in the 1980s, his passion for acting began.

Participating in the Loyola College production of Tughlaq by Girish Karnad helped him land small parts in Gilbert and Sullivan musicals directed by Mithran Devanesan in Chennai, India. Later, he performed in English plays for a number of Chennai-based theater companies.

He was one of four Indians chosen by the French government in 1989 to study acting at the L’ecole Nationale d’art Dramatique at the Théâtre National de Strasbourg in France. The acting training included performing in a French play that was performed in Strasbourg, Delhi, and Calcutta.

Upon his return from France, he made the decision to become a playwright and established the Theatre Arlequin in 1992. He presented around twenty-five pieces in both French and English, the most famous being Molière’s Tartuffe, Eugène Ionesco’s The Lesson, Jean Genet’s The Maids, and Tony Kushner’s version of Pierre Corneille’s L’Illusion Comique.

His cinematic career began in 2008 when he was cast as the lead antagonist in Siddharth Chandrasekhar’s flick Bale Pandya (2010). Ever since, he has been the actor of choice for numerous Tamil films whether they need a professor, a mad scientist, or a villain.

In the Hollywood film Life of Pi (2012), which won multiple Oscars, he also portrayed a history teacher. He played a significant part in the highly regarded 2013 film Vidiyum Munn, which drew inspiration from the British picture London to Brighton.

Despite being a secondary actor, he had a significant impact. In addition, Amarendran writes stories. His 2011 children’s book, Siri’s Smile, was written in English and has been translated into a number of Indian languages.

He is a children’s author who has created a small, happy universe for his young readers and explored his childhood recollections via his work. Salim The Knife-Sharpener (2015) is another children’s book that he has written. His other noteworthy performances were in the films Vikram Vedha (2017), Kabali (2016), and Jil Jung Juk (2016).