Tarun Kumar (born 8 January 1981) is an Indian actor known for his works predominantly in Telugu cinema. He has also appeared in few Tamil and Malayalam films. He has received three state Nandi Awards and the National Film Award for his works.^[2] He received the National Film Award for Best Child Artist in 1991, for his work in Mani Ratnam's Anjali, which was India's official entry to the Oscars for that year.^[3] Tarun won critical acclaim with the Malayalam children's film, Abhayam (1991), which won the National Film Award for Best Children's Film for that year, and Tarun won the Best Child artist Award at the Furoshiki Film Festival in Japan.^[4]

He made his debut as a lead actor with Nuvve Kavali (2000) and starred in several successful films including Priyamaina Neeku (2001), Nuvvu Leka Nenu Lenu (2002), Punnagai Desam (2002), Nuvve Nuvve (2002), Ninne Ishtapaddanu (2003), Soggadu (2005), Nava Vasantham (2007) and Sasirekha Parinayam (2009).

Early life

Tarun is the son of Roja Ramani and Odia Director Sushant Chakrapani. He started his career as a child actor with the Telugu-language film Manasu Mamatha (1990).^[1]

Career

As a child, Tarun was a fan of Mani Ratnam's films such as Nayagan (1987) and Agni Nakshatram (1988) and accepted the offer to work in the Tamil-language film Anjali (1990) as distraught Shamlee's brother. He also worked on the Telugu-language television serial Wonder Boy for Eenadu TV. He participated on quiz show but left the show after it interfered with his education. He won the Nandi Award for Best Child Actor for Manasu Mamatha (1990), Pillalu Diddina Kapuram (1991) and Teja (1992). Tarun collaborated again with Mani Rathnam in Thalapathi (1991) in a minor role. He also starred in Aditya 369 (1991), the Malayalam films Abhayam (1991), My Dear Muthachan (1992), and Johny (1993) and the Tamil film Meera (1992). He won an award at the Furoshiki Film Festival in Japan for Abhayam. Tarun worked in the unreleased telefilm En Jeevane produced by Radhika.

After a hiatus, Tarun then worked on commercials for Spinz Talc and Fanta with Richa Pallod. His role in the Fanta advertisement helped him bag the lead role in K. Vijaya Bhaskar's Nuvve Kavali in 2000, the Telugu remake of Niram (1999).^[5] The film ran for more than a hundred days.^[6] For the film, he won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu for that year, and Tarun won the Filmfare Award for Best Male Debut – South for his work in the film. Post Nuvve Kavali, he and Richa Pallod collaborated again for Chirujallu (2001), which released to negative reviews.^[7] He had some successful films such as Priyamaina Neeku (2001), Nuvvu Leka Nenu Lenu (2002)^[8] and Nuvve Nuvve (2002) while his other films such as Ela Cheppanu flopped.^[4] The success of Priyamaina Neeku lead the makers to release the film in Tamil.^[9] He made his full fledged Tamil debut with Punnagai Desam (2002). That same year, he starred in the bilingual Enakku 20 Unakku 18/Nee Manasu Naaku Telusu, which was a failure despite having a notable soundtrack by A. R. Rahman and he stopped taking up Tamil films.^[4] Nava Vasantham, the Telugu remake of Punnagai Desam by the same director, and Sasirekha Parinayam (2009) were his last successful films.^[10][11] He collaborated again with K. Vijaya Bhaskar for Bhale Dongalu (2008), the remake of Bunty Aur Babli, but the film flopped.^[12] After a four year gap, he returned with Chukkalanti Ammayi Chakkanaina Abbayi (2013), which released to negative reviews.^[13] He was then seen in Yuddham (2014), Veta (2014) and Idi Naa Love Story (2018), all of which had a low-key release.

Filmography

Child Artist

Lead Actor

Dubbing artist

Television

• Wonder Boy (ETV)
• En Jeevene (unreleased)

References