Before he was Soori, before he was even Surya, he was Ramalakshmanan. A twin boy from Madurai, named alongside his brother Lakshmanan in the traditional Ram-Laxman pairing that Hindu families have used for generations. He grew up in a modest household with six siblings, watching Rajinikanth films in single-screen theatres and dreaming about a world that had no reason to let him in.
Now, speaking publicly about the origin of his name, Soori has traced the journey from Ramalakshmanan to the screen name the entire Tamil film industry knows him by, and in doing so, has told a story about fandom, desperation and survival that is more compelling than most of the scripts he has acted in.
“I changed my name from Ramalakshmanan to Surya after being inspired by Rajinikanth,” Soori said in an interview with Behindwoods. “The Soori you see today came from that inspiration. From being a fan named Suriya, I entered cinema as Surya, and eventually became Soori in the film industry.” He added, without any hesitation: “I am an absolutely crazy fan of Rajinikanth.”
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The specific moment that triggered the name change was Rajinikanth’s Thalapathi (1991), directed by Mani Ratnam, in which Rajinikanth played a character named Surya. The young Ramalakshmanan, watching the film in Madurai, was so moved by the character and the performance that he adopted the name as his own. When he later entered cinema, the name was shortened from Surya to Soori, the version that stuck.
The struggle began earlier than most people realise. Before Soori even attempted to enter the film industry, he was working as a daily wage labourer in Tiruppur in 1993, at the age of 16. He earned Rs 20 per day and would allocate half of what he earned, roughly Rs 70 from his weekly wages, to send back to his family in Madurai. What remained was barely enough to survive on. He frequently skipped meals and got by on tea alone, sometimes unable to afford even a Rs 1.25 coconut bun.
In 1996, at the age of 19, Ramalakshmanan Muthuchamy left Madurai and moved to Chennai with the intention of becoming an actor. He had no meaningful connections in the film industry and could not get proper roles. To survive, he took up work as a cleaner and painter, using whatever money he earned to fund his continued attempts to break into the industry. He hung around film sets, made himself known to assistant directors and unit managers, and waited for the kind of break that comes to one person out of every thousand who tries.
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What came, slowly and painfully, were uncredited roles. Junior artiste parts where he would stand in the background of a scene, sometimes visible for a second or two, sometimes not visible at all. He appeared in uncredited comedy scenes in films like Maru Malarchi, doing whatever was needed, getting paid almost nothing, and going home to start the process again the next day.
The break came in 2009 with Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu, a sports drama about a kabaddi team. Soori was cast in a supporting comic role that included a now-famous scene involving a parotta-eating competition. The scene became popular with audiences. It was funny, physical, perfectly timed and performed by a man who had spent over 10 years learning comedy by watching it happen around him on sets where nobody knew his name.
The scene earned him the nickname “Parotta Soori.” More importantly, it earned him a phone that started ringing. From 2009 onward, Soori became one of the most in-demand comedians in Tamil cinema. He appeared in Sundarapandian (2012), Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam (2013), Pandiya Naadu (2013) and Jilla (2014), starring Vijay and Mohanlal. His partnership with Sivakarthikeyan, which began with Varuthapadatha Valibar Sangam, became one of the most popular actor-comedian pairings in Tamil cinema. He went on to appear alongside Sivakarthikeyan in multiple films including Rajini Murugan (2016) and several others.
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Then came the moment the Rajinikanth fan had been waiting for his entire life. In 2021, Soori appeared in Annatthe, starring Rajinikanth.
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For most comedians in Tamil cinema, the career trajectory ends with comedy. Very few successfully transition to leading roles, and Soori did. In 2023, Vetrimaaran cast him as the lead in Viduthalai Part 1, a political drama based on Jeyamohan’s short stories, opposite Vijay Sethupathi. Soori played Kumaresan, a police constable caught between duty and conscience in 1980s Tamil Nadu. The film received critical acclaim, with Soori’s performance widely praised as one of the strongest lead debuts in recent Tamil cinema. He reprised the role in Viduthalai Part 2 (2024), deepening the character further.
Soori currently has multiple projects in various stages of production, cementing his position as one of Tamil cinema’s most in-demand leading men. His next release is Mandaadi, a sea-based sports action drama directed by Mathimaran Pugazhendhi, a former assistant of Vetrimaaran, co-starring Telugu actor Suhas and Mahima Nambiar. The film, produced by Elred Kumar under RS Infotainment with Vetrimaaran as creative producer, involves catamaran racing and will release simultaneously in Tamil and Telugu on September 10.
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