Siddharth (born 17 April 1979) is an Indian film actor, producer and playback singer from Chennai, Tamil Nadu, who mainly works in the South Indian film industry. He occasionally works as screenplay writer as well. After his business management studies, Siddharth chose to work in film making and worked as an assistant director before making his acting debut in the 2003 Tamil film Boys, which became a successful film along with his later works such as Telugu films Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana (2005), Bommarillu (2006) and Rang De Basanti (2006) in Hindi .
Siddharth was born to a Tamil speaking Iyer family in Chennai, India on 17 April 1979. He studied at DAV Boys' Senior Secondary School, Chennai and Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, Delhi. He graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce (Honors) degree from Kirori Mal College, New Delhi. Siddharth was part of the reputed theatre group of the college, The Players. He was also president of the college's debating society and attended the World Debating Championships. He went on to complete his MBA from S. P. Jain Institute of Management and Research, Mumbai. He was exceptionally bright in his speaking skills, which ultimately led him to win CNBC Manager of the year award in 1999.
Siddharth has stated that directing was his "ultimate dream". After finishing his education Siddharth landed the role of assistant director for Mani Ratnam's Kannathil Muthamittal. The script writer of that film, Sujatha, was insistent that Siddharth audition for S. Shankar's Boys which would feature five debutants. After consulting with Mani Ratnam, he met Shankar and got the role of Munna. The film was a moderate success in Tamil but the dubbed version in Telugu gave Siddharth an opening in the Telugu film industry. Siddharth then appeared in another Tamil film, Mani Ratnam's Aaytha Ezhuthu (2004), after which he would shift focus and concentrate on Telugu-language projects. His first direct Telugu project, Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana released in early 2005. The comedy-drama film, marking the directorial debut of choreographer-turned-actor Prabhu Deva, became a commercial blockbuster as well as a critical success, with Siddharth winning his first Filmfare Best Actor Award (Telugu) for his portrayal of Santhosh, a playful NRI, who fights for his love. Siddharth, subsequently, also ventured into the writing forum as well as the singing forum as he wrote the screenplay for his next Telugu film Chukkallo Chandrudu (2006) directed by Siva Kumar and sang as a playback singer. He next debuted in Bollywood as part of the critically acclaimed blockbuster Rang De Basanti which also starred Aamir Khan. Siddharth received the Star Screen Debut Award for his role as Karan Singhania in the film.[9] Siddharth's final release of 2006 was Bommarillu, directed by then newcomer Bhaskar. The film, revolving around a father-son relationship, received critical acclaim and garnered box office success, too. He worked with director Vishal Bhardwaj and Oscar winning cinematographer Guillermo Navarro on a short film titled Blood Brothers, which premiered at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival as part of Mira Nair's AIDS Jaago project.
