Jai (actor)

Jai ^[1]
Born	(1984-04-06) April 6, 1984 Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation	Film actor
Years active	2002–present
Religion	Hindu

Jai (born 6 April 1984), known mononymously as Jai, is an Indian actor working in Tamil films. Nephew of music composer Deva, Jai had worked as a keyboardist in films and had made his acting debut in a supporting role in Bagavathi (2002). In 2007, he successfully auditioned for a leading role in Venkat Prabhu's sports film Chennai 600028. The film emerged as a cult classic, as did his next role of an unemployed 1980s Madurai lad in Sasikumar's Subramaniapuram (2008).

Jai subsequently garnered praise for diverse roles, including a villager on holiday in Goa (2010), a timid working factory worker in Engaeyum Eppothum (2011) and a customer care executive in the romantic drama Raja Rani (2013), which became his biggest commercial success.

Personal life

Born into a family of musicians, Jai has stated that music was close to his heart and that it influenced him in his "growing years", particularly crediting his uncle, composer Deva. He has completed fifth grade in keyboard from Trinity College London and has said that he likes to be involved in the music compositions of his films. He has called himself a "huge fan" of Yuvan Shankar Raja’s work, saying that he has "often dreamt of surpassing his work as a composer someday".^[2]

Acting career

2002–2007: Debut and breakthrough

Jai made his film debut at age 16 as Vijay's younger brother in the 2002 film Bhagavathi, with director A. Venkatesh choosing Jai as a result of his striking similarity of looks with Vijay.^[3] Jai was then set to make his debut in the lead roles in a remake of the Telugu film, 6 Teens, but the film never took off, as did not Nambiraj's Touch.^[4]^[5] Several other offers came his way including role in Alai (2003) and Devathayai Kanden (2005), but Jai was insistent that he earned his place in the film rather than being chosen on the basis that he was music composer Deva's nephew.^[6] He instead chose to concentrate on a career in music, often working for Deva's films a keyboardist alongside his cousins, music composers Srikanth Deva and Bobo Shashi.

His friend, the singer Yugendran, recommended Jai to audition for a role in Venkat Prabhu's directorial debut Chennai 600028 (2007), based on gully cricket, and he was the only actor to be auditioned amongst the eleven lead roles and was the final selection in the film.^[7] The venture was described as a cult classic shortly after release, with Jai winning plaudits for his portrayal of the fast bowler Raghu, whose transfer between teams moves the film forward.^[8] The success of the film began an association with Venkat Prabhu and Jai has repeatedly collaborated in Prabhu's ventures through leading or cameo roles. He was then selected to play a leading role by debutant director Sasikumar in Subramaniapuram (2008), after he had seen him at Deva's residence and Jai signed up for the film without hearing the script under the basis that it was to be produced by director Ameer.^[6] The film, set in a Madurai village of the 1980s, told the story of a series of violent happenings on the backdrop of a love story and Jai grew a long beard to reflect the 1980s look for the project. Upon release, the film also went on to become a cult classic and triggered off a series of similar ventures from Tamil film makers, while it also became a blockbuster at the box office. Critics raved about Jai's performance in the film with a reviewer noting "Jai as the romantic killer is the pick of the lot" and that he "lives the role".^[9]^[10] After finding himself unable to appear in a role in Venkat Prabhu's Saroja due to his long beard, he organised and helped plan a scene that would feature cameo appearances from several actors from their first film.^[11] Jai subsequently chose to make a switch from acting in off-beat films and attempted to make a career as an actor in commercial films.^[7]

2009–2010: Setback

In March 2009, Jai ran into for making controversial comments about the potential box office fare of his future films that he had signed in the period. The actor, who was filming for Vaamanan, Aval Peyar Thamizharasi, Adhe Neram Adhe Idam and Arjunan Kadhali at the time, revealed that only Vaamanan would do well and the rest would become financial failures. The producer of his films also revealed they wanted to take action against Jai for "making such irresponsible and damaging statements about his own films."^[12] Initially, the Nadigar Sangam council had asked him to complete his pending assignments before he could start work on any other project, beginning with Venkat Prabhu's Goa. The film's producer, Soundarya Rajinikanth, intervened and bailed Jai out of the ban.^[13] His next release Ahmed's Vaamanan (2009), an action thriller featuring Priya Anand, Lakshmi Rai and Rahman, marked his first commercial role with a critic noting "from swift stunts to rapid dance movements, Jai has got it all". The film did not replicate the commercial success of his previous ventures, though his performance was described as "commendable".^[14] Meanwhile, Adhe Neram Adhe Idam opened to unanimous negative reviews, with a reviewer noting Jai "with his sleepy eyes looks like he really doesn't want to be in this film at all".^[15]

He was then seen in Venkat Prabhu's romantic comedy Goa (2010), where he played a villager on a coming-of-age trip to Goa alongside Vaibhav Reddy and Premgi Amaren. Jai's temporary ban from films had delayed the project and he once again grew a beard to portray his character of Ramarajan. Despite a positive hype surrounding the film prior to release, it only won average reviews and collections at the box office. He appeared in Aval Peyar Thamizharasi with different looks throughout the film to reflect his character's growth, with the main ones being that of an eighteen-year-old boy and a twenty-eight-year-old man. He shed weight to sport the school boy look and later added weight and muscle to look a matured man in his late twenties for the film.^[16] Critics lauded Jai's performance citing "he shows that he is in the process of grooming himself to become a well-rounded actor" and "that he can bring in complex emotions on his face at the drop of a hat", but the film did not fare well at the box office. Similarly his performance in the romantic film Kanimozhi was described "as endearingly likeable" that "he had come out with a natural performance", but the film failed commercially.^[17] Discussing his five consecutive failure films, Jai accepted that during the period in his career that he had chosen to feature in films without considering the true scope of its potential success only for the reason of not having a long gap in between releases. Since then he has actively chosen to associate himself with big banner films rather than ventures by debut production houses in order to ensure his films are well publicized prior to release.^[3]

2011–present: Successful comeback

After his string of failures, Jai signed up to play a role in AR Murugadoss's debut production Engaeyum Eppothum after being impressed by Saravanan's script. Portraying a timid working class professional, his role was well received and the film performed well at the box office. A critic noted "the highlight of the film is it lead actors Anjali, Ananya, Jai and Sharwanand who live the role of the characters they play".^[18] Jai then accepted to play a secondary role in Atlee's Raja Rani (2013) and admitted he was initially apprehensive about accepting the offer, only choosing to do so after being convinced by the film's climax. He mentioned he wanted to portray a memorable guest role like that of Karthik in Mani Ratnam's Mouna Raagam, and worked hard to get in to the skin of his character, Surya, taking close to ten takes in certain scenes.^[3] Featuring Jai alongside an ensemble cast of Arya, Nayantara and Nazriya Nazim, Raja Rani opened to positive reviews and became a blockbuster at the box office, with Jai's role being well received by critics.^[19] His second release of the year was the fantasy comedy Naveena Saraswathi Sabatham, where Jai played a Siddha doctor who becomes deserted on an island after a bachelor party with his three friends. The film opened to mixed reviews and became an average grosser at the box office, with critics noting that Jai was "disappointing" and that he "hams it up".^[20]^[21]

Jai currently has several films scheduled for release in 2014, including the long-delayed venture Arjunan Kadhali, which he began work on in 2008. His next release is likely to be Vadacurry, a comedy venture produced by Dayanidhi Azhagiri, where he features with Swati Reddy. He also plays the lead role in Aascar Films' romantic-comedy Thirumanam Ennum Nikkah alongside Nazriya Nazim, as well as featuring in Gautham Menon's production Tamilselvanum Thaniyar Anjalum, where he portrays a mail carrier. As of April 2014, he began production on two further films, Jagajalan directed by Parthy Bhaskar and Valiyavan with Saravanan.^[22] He has also shot scenes for the delayed multi-starrer Vettai Mannan, while agreeing terms to feature in Manimaran's Podiyan with Priya Anand.^[23]

Racing career

Jai is also a car racer. "Crazy about racing" since his childhood, he said he was inspired by Tamil actor Ajith Kumar to get into racing.^[2] In June 2014, he participated in his first car racing tournament, the JK Tyre National Racing Championship at the Irungattukottai Race Track in Sriperumbudur, Chennai.^[24]

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
2002	Bhagavathi	Guna
2007	Chennai 600028	Raghu
2008	Subramaniapuram	Azhagar
2008	Saroja	Himself	Cameo appearance
2009	Vaamanan	Anand
2009	Adhe Neram Adhe Idam	Karthik
2010	Goa	Vinayagam
	Aval Peyar Thamizharasi	Jyothi Murugan
	Kanimozhi	Rajesh
2011	Ko	Himself	Cameo appearance
2011	Engaeyum Eppothum	Kathiresan
2013	Raja Rani	Surya	Nominated, Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor – Tamil
	Naveena Saraswathi Sabatham	Ramarajan
	Biriyani	Jai Kanth	Cameo appearance
2014	Bramman	Himself	Cameo appearance
	Vadacurry	Sathish
	Thirumanam Ennum Nikkah	Vijayraghavan Chari
2015	Valiyavan	Vinod
	Masss	Kathiresan	Special appearance
	Vaalu	Himself	Special appearance
2016	Pugazh	Pugazh
	Idhu Namma Aalu	Himself	Guest appearance
	Sangili Bungili Kadhava Thorae	Himself	Filming (Cameo appearance)
	Chennai 600028 II: Second Innings	Raghu	Filming
	Tamilselvanum Thaniyar Anjalum	Tamilselvan	Delayed
	Arjunan Kadhali	Arjun	Delayed

References

External links

Jai at the Internet Movie Database
Jai on Facebook

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