Happy Birthday Suriya: Why Did Tamil Actor Change His Name? Check Out Interesting Facts About the National Award Winning Actor

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SURIYA: South star Suriya has garnered a huge fan base with his acting finesse and dashing looks. Debuting at the age of 22 with comedy-thriller Nerukku Ner, the actor impressed the film critics with his versatile performance in blockbuster films like Nandha, Singham, Ayan, Ghajini, and Khakka Khakka among others.

On Friday, Suriya was honoured with the Best Actor Award at the 68th National Awards for his Tamil movie Soorarai Pottru.

ALSO READ: Akshay Kumar Celebrates Suriya’s National Award Win

While Suriya is a well-known name in the Tamil film industry and needs no new introduction, it is not his real but stage name. The actor’s birth name is Saravanan Sivakumar, which he changed after stepping into the film industry.

The actor changed his name after ace filmmaker Mani Ratnam recommended the same. He suggested it to him in order to avoid the clash of his name with Tamil star Saravanan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/qahCaCSmJ9s

Suriya’s debut film Nerukku Ner was back by Mani Ratnam himself. Interestingly, many of Suriya’s films featured him with the same name like Unnai Ninaithu, Varanam Aayiram, and Rakhta Charitra 2. The actor is celebrating his 47th birthday today. So, on the occasion of this special day, let’s take a look at some of the interesting facts about him.

1. While Suriya made his acting debut in 1997, the actor was the first choice for filmmaker Vasanth’s romantic thriller Aasai, which was released in 1995.
2. It is even more interesting to know that Suriya reportedly turned down Aasai because he was not interested in acting during that time. Therefore, the makers cast Ajith Kumar in the lead role and the movie emerged as a success at the box office.
3. Before kick-starting his acting career, the Vikram star worked at a garment export factory for a few months and during his tenure there, he reportedly didn’t know his true identity and the fact that he is the son of a veteran actor Sivakumar.
4. This was done with the intention of not gaining any attention or special treatment from his friends and colleagues. However, his boss later learned the truth.