Ganesh Venkatraman is an Indian film actor who has worked in movies of different languages, predominantly covering the south Indian film industry. The Tamil movie Abhiyum Naanum gave him the fame he desired for, even though he played a supporting role. His notable work includes films like Unnaipol Oruvan and Kandahar.
Early Life
Ganesh Venkatraman, even though has his roots in Tamil Nadu, was born and raised in Mumbai on March 20, 1980, and is active as a model and actor in the industry since 2006. His inclination towards modelling and acting began with his active participation in dramas and ramp shows in college days. Before venturing into the world of glamor, he was employed with an IT company for close to two years.
Personal life
On February 2015, Ganesh Venkatraman got engaged to actress Nisha Krishnan and they got married in November 2015.
Movie career
Ganesh started off his acting career with making appearances in television serials like Antariksh and Mayavi and then made his silver screen debut in 2006 with the experimental crossover film The Angrez in Hyderabadi Urdu language. The movie revolves around two men from US who come to Hyderabad to work in a call centre and the culture differences that follow. After a pause of two years, the actor appeared in the 2008 film Abhiyum Naanum. Directed by Radha Mohan, this family drama, was Ganesh’s debut in Tamil cinema. The movie opened to positive reviews and Ganesh managed to garner critical acclaim for his role as a Sikh character, playing Trisha's Punjabi fiancé.
Hereafter, he got good offers and in his next film, the 2009 bilingual film Unnaipol Oruvan, he got to star alongside veteran actors like Kamal Haasan and Mohanlal. In the movie, Ganesh played the role of a police officer. The Telugu version of the movie, titled Eenadu, has Kamal Haasan and Venkatesh in the lead. For Unnaipol Oruvan, he won the Edison Award for Best Supporting Actor. In the following year, Ganesh then set his foot into the Malayalam industry by playing an army general in Major Ravi's war film Kandahar. In this film too, he got the chance to work with biggies like Mohanlal and Amitabh Bachchan. He then shot and completed a thriller film Muriyadi by Selva but it did not have a theatrical release because of Kavithalayaa Productions' financial troubles. After this, he made a special appearance in the song Aga Naga in K V Anand's blockbuster Ko.
The actor worked on another bilingual Tamil and Hindi film, Panithuli (2012), but this time in a lead role. This film was completely shot in the USA, but failed to perform at the box office and got negative reviews. Subsequently, he worked with the veteran actor Nagarjuna in the 2012 Telugu film Damarukam, directed by Srinivasa Reddy. Anushka Shetty plays the female lead in this movie.
Ganesh signed a handful of projects to work on, in 2013, covering movies in Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. His first project was a supporting role, where he played an office worker in Sundar C's bilingual film Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru, with Siddharth and Hansika Motwani playing the lead. The Telugu version is titled Something Something with the same lead stars. Next, he appeared in the Tamil action film Ivan Veramathiri as a police officer alonside Vikram Prabhu, Surabhi and Vamsi Krishna. In the next year, Ganesh portrayed the role of a prince in Roopa Iyer's Kannada and Tamil bilingual film Chandra, starring opposite Shriya Saran and Prem Kumar. In 2014, he worked in the Hindi movie Tum Ho Yaara and in the following year, he had three Tamil movies in hand - Achaaram, Pallikoodam Pogamale and Thani Oruvan. Action thriller Thani Oruvan, directed by Mohan Raja, was a blockbuster at the box office and Ganesh essayed the role of Shakthi- a trainee IPS officer in the film.
His 2016 projects includes Nayaki, a Telugu-Tamil bilingual horror comedy film, where Ganesh, Satyam Rajesh and Sushma Raj play supporting roles, and Trisha stars as the lead. Apart from this, his other release in the year is Thodari. His 2017 release includes 7 Naatkal, directed by Gautham V. R.