V.I.S. Jayapalan

Biography:

Sri Lankan-Norwegian author, political analyst, and actor V. I. S. Jayapalan has acted in Indian films, primarily Tamil productions. His first acting role was in Vetrimaaran’s Aadukalam (2011), for which he was awarded a National Film Award.

Jayapalan was born in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, at Uduvil. While attending the University of Jaffna in the 1970s, he started writing, and in 1986, he released his first anthology. During his tenure at the university, he led the student union and pursued an economics degree.

He has since contributed to at least twelve anthologies of short stories and poems. He fled to Oslo, Norway in 1988 as the Sri Lankan Civil War intensified, and he has been a Norwegian citizen ever since. He has been traveling back and forth between the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu to pursue his artistic and literary endeavors.

His poetry has been translated into English, Norwegian, and Sinhala, and he was named the finest immigrant writer by the Norwegian Writers’ Association in 1995. Along with a few poems by R. Cheran and Puthuvai Raththinathurai, some of his poetry were translated into English and published in Canada in 2009 in a collection titled “Wilting Laughter.”

He met Vetrimaaran, who was eager to cast Jayapalan in his movie Aadukalam (2011), thanks to his acquaintance with filmmaker Balu Mahendra. Upon accepting the invitation, he collaborated with an ensemble cast that included actor Dhanush.

The film was released in January 2011 to a favorable reception at the box office. His portrayal of Pettaikaran, the father of the cock fighting clan, was praised by critics; Sify.com called him a “revelation,” while Behindwoods wrote that he displayed “a new type of villainy” with the “right kind of expressions and body language.” He later received nominations for the Filmfare and Vijay Awards and won a special jury award at the 2011 National Film Awards.