Popular Tamil actor Rajesh passes away, TN film fraternity mourns
Chennai, May 29 (UNI) Popular Tamil actor Rajesh, celebrated for his extensive contributions to Indian cinema and television, passed away on Thursday after a brief illness.
He was 75.
He is survived by a son and daughter.
His wife Joan Sylvia pre-deceased him in 2012.
Rajesh, who worked as a teacher in the Kellett Higher Secondary School in Chennai, taking classes
for seventh and eighth standards before entering the tinsel world, complained of breathing difficulties.
He was rushed to a hospital but died on the way.
He has shown his versatility by donning a variety of roles including, hero, villain and in character
roles and family dramas.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, also a prominent
actor, leaders of various political parties, leading actors including Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, actors,
producers, directors, lyricist Vairamuthu, among others paid their last respects to the departed soul
and offered their deepest condolences.
Born as Rajesh Williams on December 20, 1949, at Mannargudi in Tiruvarur district of Tamil Nadu,
Rajesh began his professional journey as a school teacher before transitioning to acting.
He made his film debut with a minor role in iconic director K. Balachander's 'Aval Oru Thodar Kathai"
(1974).
His first lead role came in 'Kanni Paruvathile (1979), which marked the beginning of a prolific career.
Over the next five decades, Rajesh appeared in over 150 films across Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu
showcasing his versatility in both lead and supporting roles.
His notable films include 'Sathya', 'Mahanadhi', and 'Virumaandi', in which he shared screen space
with acclaimed actor Kamal Haasan.
In addition to his film career, Rajesh made significant contributions to television, with prominent roles
in serials such as Alaigal, Roja, and Karthigai Deepam.
Rajesh was also an author, writing biographies of Hollywood actors in Tamil, and was actively
involved in astrology, penning several books and articles on the subject.
Rajesh's body is kept at his Ramapuram residence in the where a large number of people, including
from the Tamil film world and political leaders, paid their last respects.
The final rites will be conducted after the arrival of his daughter from the United States.
UNI GV 1718
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
18 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Abhishek Banerjee, Rana Daggubati react to row over Kamal Haasan's Kannada comment: ‘Same about Marathi-Bihari…'
Actor Kamal Haasan finds himself in the midst of a language row ahead of the release of his film Thug Life. The Mani Ratnam-directed film has been barred from release in Karnataka, with Kamal doubling down and not apologising for a statement he made on Kannada being born out of Tamil. Recently, the Karnataka HC slammed his statement and called him out for not apologising. In an interview with India Today, Rana Daggubati and Abhishek Banerjee, however, said this when asked about it. (Also Read: 'I thank the people of Tamil Nadu for supporting me': Kamal Haasan in 1st press meet after Kannada language row) When asked to comment on Kamal's language row, Rana questioned why actors are being looked up to for the way society lives instead of scholars or politicians. He said, 'Now, social media has become a place to make an opinion. Earlier, you didn't have that. Anything gets touchy and political quite quickly. If the media and the news, and people become smarter (and understand) that actors are not the ones to advocate for the way society lives - it will be a better place. I think you should look at scholars, politicians and learned men and women to lead a way into society.' His Rana Naidu co-star Abhishek also agreed with Rana and compared it to the Marathi-Bihari conflict in Maharashtra and said, 'When I came to Bombay many years back, I heard the same thing about the Marathi-Bihari and Kannada-Tamil conflict, which has been going on. I feel it's completely worthless and useless. People who don't have anything better to do, will just try and get attention while doing this.' He also stated that language is great when used to educate people and cultivate culture, rather than to cause divide. Thug Life will be released across the country on 5 June except for Karnataka. It remains to be seen if the move will affect its box office collections.
Hindustan Times
24 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
‘You don't know which format will be more important in a couple of years'
Stavanger: Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand says he likes of compartmentalize the various hats he currently wears. Over the last 10 days in Stavanger, though, he's been a busy man. Amidst his daily commentary gig with Norway Chess, Anand made a quick dash for the 'Clash of Generations' exhibition game in Italy, and was among the speakers at the Norway Summit on Wednesday. Sitting down with members of Indian media here ahead of that, the five-time world champion spoke on a range of issues — from Gukesh's performance in the tournament to Magnus Carlsen's fist bang. On Gukesh's tests of survival in Norway Chess It is nothing that wasn't unknown to me. He is tough, quite tenacious. He copes pretty well with setbacks. Obviously, this is a higher test, a more intense tournament. He seems to be under pressure every day, but several days he came out well. Yesterday (on Tuesday, in the loss against Hikaru Nakamura) he flipped a little bit. Suddenly too much success, perhaps two days of getting lucky — of course, you make your luck — and something was off with him. But, that happens. On whether Gukesh is playing too much It depends on what you want to try. And also, you have to grab opportunities. Maybe, going forward, careers won't be as long. But yes, you have to schedule some tournaments. It's good that after this, he gets some break. He has to enjoy those moments as well. I mean, there's no use if the brain refuses to switch off. On his advice to Indian youngsters in dealing with playing all formats (classical, rapid, freestyle), and the risk of burnout Not only is it difficult to compare, the situation is also not the same. I no longer feel my advice is what's the right mix is necessarily the only one. But I know that you cannot cope by taking in everything. And at some point you have to stop, and say these are things that I'll leave out and these I'll prioritize. Because that's the way we do things. Beyond that, the scenario is changing so much. You don't know which format will be more important in a couple of years. A lot of this is decided by public opinion and what they want to watch. On the Gukesh-Grzegorz Gajewski partnership I guess it's a normal relationship. But they've had to deal with such wild swings. I don't think they expected Toronto (Candidates). Obviously without Toronto, you can't expect Singapore (World Championships), and you can't expect this kind of meteoric rise. So they're also adjusting to it. On whether he's seen extreme reactions like Carlsen's fist bang on the table before Yes, enough anger. All this has been around for a while, people screaming and cursing. The only difference is the cameras. The other thing I would say is that this was very intense. Maybe Magnus isn't that excited about classical chess, but he has certainly taken on Gukesh. Or if not that, (to) show that he can fight the youngsters. A lot of stuff (that was) probably going on in his head, and it came out. So those two games (against Gukesh), he took very intensely and seriously. That's kind of partially what brought it on. And that he essentially threw away a carefully nursed game in half a second. On comments by Carlsen and Nakamura in Norway speculating their classical future They've been saying this for some time. Hiraku doesn't play much anyway. He is really quite busy with his other commitments. Same with Magnus, and he's mentioned it many times. You can't ask what the future is every time someone tries to dial it down. I mean, nobody asked me — I had also dialled it down. The sport goes on. There are hundreds of new talents. In this case, we had a lot of warnings. On Nakamura's comments here that chess needs more personalities to sell, and whether that also applies to the current Indians in the elite bunch People are supposed to do what they do best, focus on the best outcomes, and that is supposed to be interesting. You're not supposed to go out there and make being interesting separate from what you do. They (the likes of Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi) are all also very young. Hikaru is able to bring his experience over many years into this, and he's been someone who has done things on the online platform and has a good sense of what people react to and like to watch. That's something he has managed to leverage well. They (Indian players) are welcome to take advice from him, but how they implement it is on them.
Indian Express
28 minutes ago
- Indian Express
FIDE chief Arkady Dvorkovich on Magnus Carlsen's fist thump: ‘It was extreme emotion… but emotions make any sport more exciting'
When a frustrated Magnus Carlsen slammed his fist on the table after a blunder against world champion Gukesh Dommaraju during a match at Norway Chess, the sound was heard across the world. While many in the chess fraternity were a little taken aback by that display of emotion, that moment has prompted plenty of people who would otherwise not follow the sport to track the drama keenly. Now FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich has said that what Carlsen did was 'a bit unusual' but 'not disrespectful'. 'I saw a video that showed that Gukesh had also done the same (once). The reaction (from Carlsen) was a bit unusual, yes. It was like extreme emotion. But, people like emotions. Emotions make sport more exciting sometimes,' Dvorkovich told Indian media in Stavanger on Wednesday. OH MY GOD 😳🤯😲 — Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) June 1, 2025 'Of course, everyone should keep himself respectful. I would not call what Magnus did disrespectful. It was emotional as he was really disappointed. Gukesh fought back in a very tough game. But at the end, Magnus appreciated that Gukesh was really fighting for that (win).' Dvorkovich-led FIDE and Carlsen have recently clashed a few times, especially when the world no.1 was threatened with a forfeiture for wearing jeans at the World Rapid and Blitz Championship. In response, Carlsen quit the tournament and butted antlers with the top brass of chess' world governing body. He was later coaxed back to play the World Blitz Championship, the title which he subsequently opted to share with Ian Nepomniachtchi. FIDE then objected to the Freestyle Grand Slam chess tour events, organised by people backed by the Norwegian. In Stavanger, when Dvorkovich was asked whether he thought Carlsen banging his fist on the table would draw in newer audiences to the sport, he said: 'You can always say that in any sport, any scandal creates more excitement. And this was not a big scandal, happily, it was just a short moment.' 'Major channels start following those things, like it was once with the (Hans Niemann) cheating scandal, Jeansgate or whatever. Magnus is a top player, so when he is involved in something like that, of course everyone pays attention. But I have great respect for Magnus and I would not blame him for those things.' Dvorkovich felt that in cases where a player acts out physically during a game, an arbiter should give a soft warning. But 'if there are no complaints (from the other player), it doesn't go anywhere.' Right after the fist thump incident, Carlsen had spoken out about how this year's Norway Chess could be the last classical event he plays. When asked about Carlsen quitting classical chess, Dvorkovich said: 'That would be unfortunate, but I hope that he'll come back to some classical events or some mixed events. Magnus is the best player, but not the only strong player in the world. He's in his mid-thirties already, so it's good that he's doing other things as well.' Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More
