Mahat Raghavendra Indian Actor Born 1987 in Chennai

Early life

Mahat Raghavendra was born on 18 February 1987 in Chennai, India. His early schooling took place at Zion Matriculation School in Kodaikanal, and he also attended Chettinad Vidyashram in Chennai. After his schooling he completed a college degree and then turned to films. A childhood friend of his, the actor Silambarasan, was already working in cinema, and Raghavendra first appeared on screen in the background of two of that actor's films, Vallavan in 2006 and Kaalai in 2008.

Career

Raghavendra works mostly in Tamil cinema, with a smaller number of Telugu and Hindi films. Before his first full role, a Tamil remake of the Telugu film Ullasamga Utsahamga was planned as his debut, but that project was dropped. His acting career took shape with Mankatha, an ensemble heist thriller directed by Venkat Prabhu and released in August 2011. The cast was led by Ajith Kumar, with Arjun and Vaibhav among the others, and Raghavendra played the owner of a bar in the Dharavi area of Mumbai. The film did well with critics and at the box office, and the Edison Awards committee named him Best Male Debut Actor for the part.

His first lead role came in the Telugu film Backbench Student, released in 2013, in which he appeared with Piaa Bajpai and Archana Kavi. He has said that the makers cast him after seeing an interview he gave while promoting Mankatha. That same year he took a part in the fantasy comedy Bunny n Cherry, working with Prince Cecil. He then returned to Tamil films in a supporting role in Jilla, which starred Mohanlal and Vijay. Vadacurry, from 2014, is another film listed among his better known credits.

Raghavendra continued with smaller productions in the following years. He appeared in Ladies & Gentlemen in 2015 and made a guest appearance in Run in 2016. In February 2019 he featured in Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven, a Tamil film starring Silambarasan and Megha Akash. He then worked on the Telugu film Cycle, which reached audiences in January 2021, appearing opposite Punarnavi. His part in Maanaadu, in which he plays a traffic cop, is one of the roles he is best remembered for in recent years, and Maruthi Nagar Police Station from 2023 is his most recent film credit on record. Around the time of Cycle, he was also shooting his scenes for several further Tamil films, including Kettavanu Per Edutha Nallavanda, Ivan Than Uthaman and Kaadhal Conditions Apply, a light romantic drama directed by the newcomer Arvind R.

Raghavendra has also worked on television. In 2018 he was a contestant on the second season of the reality show Bigg Boss, where he left the house on the seventieth day. The same year he appeared in Unlimit, and in 2019 he took part in Dancing Superstars. He returned to the Bigg Boss franchise as a guest on its third and fourth Tamil seasons, in 2019 and 2020, and again as a guest on the sixteenth season of the Hindi version in 2022.

Recognition

Raghavendra received the Edison Award for Best Debut Actor in 2012 for Mankatha. He is also listed as a winner of the Iconic Gold Award for Best Debut Actor for the film Double XL.

Personal life

Raghavendra began a relationship with the actress and model Prachi Mishra, who had been Miss India in 2012, in 2017. The two became engaged in April 2019 and were married on 1 February 2020. They have a son, who was born in June 2021.