Sarathkumar Ramanathan (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian actor, politician, filmmaker, and singer. He has acted in more than 130 films, predominantly in Tamil. He has also starred in Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. He has won two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and three Filmfare Awards South.
Originally a bodybuilder and later journalist, in 1986, Sarathkumar started his acting career in the Telugu film Samajamlo Sthree. He first acted in negative roles, and later played supporting roles before establishing himself as a lead actor in subsequent years, earning him the titles Supreme Star and Super Hero in Tamil cinema.
In 2007, he launched a new political party All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (AISMK) in Tamil Nadu, claiming to carry out the ideals of K. Kamaraj. He is the former Member of Legislative Assembly of Tenkasi constituency. He served as the president of the Nadigar Sangam from 2006 to 2015 for three consecutive terms.
Early life
R. Sarathkumar was born on 14 July 1954 to Ramanathan and Pushpaleela, a Tamil family in New Delhi. His father Ramanathan worked at the All India Radio before joining the Press Information Bureau of India, while his mother Pushpaleela was a housewife. Sarathkumar is the youngest child in his family, he had two siblings; an elder brother, the late Sudarshan Ramanathan and an elder sister Mallika Kandaswamy. His mother Pushpaleela died on 26 October 2013.
Sarathkumar started his schooling at the Raja Muthiah High School, after his family relocated from Delhi to Chennai. He then moved on to the Central School in the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, and finished at St. Patrick's Anglo Indian Higher Secondary School. Being an avid sports enthusiast, he played football, cricket and hockey, representing his school and college teams. He also joined the NCC, becoming an Air Wing Cadet. He was one of the cadets who marched in the Republic Day Parade of 1970. After completing his pre-university levels at Loyola College, he was subsequently graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics from The New College.
He later became a bodybuilder and earned the "Mr. Madras University" title in 1974. He then moved to Bangalore to work for the newly started Tamil newspaper Dinakaran, he started as a cycle boy distributing newspapers to shops and later graduated to become a reporter for the same newspaper. After successfully establishing the circulation, he moved on to Chennai. He shifted his energies towards running his own business, a travel agency in Chennai and meeting Kannadasan who elevated him to become a producer.
He is fluent in all major South Indian languages and is quite proficient in Russian.
