J. K. Rithesh (5 March 1973 – 13 April 2019) was an Indian actor and member of the

All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian regional political party with great influence in the state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry. It is a Dravidian party founded by the former chief mini ...

. He was a

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; DMK) is a political party based in the state of Tamil Nadu where it is currently the ruling party having a comfortable majority without coalition support and the union territory of Puducherry where it is curre ...

(DMK) Member of Parliament (MP) in the 15th

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

from Ramanathpuram constituency. In the Indian general elections of 2009, Rithesh received 294,945 votes to defeat his closest rival, Satiyamoorthy of

(AIADMK) party by a margin of 69,215 votes. On 10 April 2014, he joined

AIADMK The All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (; AIADMK) is an Indian Regionalism (politics), regional political party with great influence in the Federated state, state of Tamil Nadu and the union territory of Puducherry (union territory) ...

as a primary member. He died on 13 April 2019, due to heart attack.

Early life and education

Rithesh was born in

Kandy Kandy ( si, මහනුවර ''Mahanuwara'', ; ta, கண்டி Kandy, ) is a major city in Sri Lanka located in the Central Province. It was the last capital of the ancient kings' era of Sri Lanka. The city lies in the midst of hills ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

in 1973 before migrating to

Rameswaram Rameswaram (; also transliterated as Ramesvaram, Rameshwaram) is a municipality in the Ramanathapuram district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is on Pamban Island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel and is about 40 kilo ...

in 1976, where he was brought up. His father was employed in the agricultural sector and his mother is a housewife. Rithesh has two elder sisters, Shanthi and Mani. Rithesh married Jotheeswari in 2007 and has a son, Arik Roshan (born 2008). He completed Diploma in Civil Engineering at Mohamed Sathak Polytechnic College Kilakarai, Ramanathapuram district.

Career

His first film was '' Kaanal Neer'', directed by

Chinni Jayanth Chinni Jayanth (born Krishnamurthy Narayanan on 26 July 1960) is an Indian film director, producer, comedian, actor and mimicry artist who has appeared in many main, character and supporting roles in Tamil films. He is also a popular televisio ...

. Rithesh had helped produce the project but the film failed to become a success at the box-office. His second film, ''

Nayagan ''Nayakan'' (; ) is a 1987 Indian Tamil-language gangster film written and directed by Mani Ratnam. Produced by Muktha Srinivasan, the film stars Kamal Haasan, Saranya (in her feature debut) and Karthika, with Janagaraj, Vijayan, M. V. Vasude ...

'' took an average opening at the box-office. After the moderate performance of ''Nayagan'', the actor announced several projects and started work on films including ''Thillu Mullu'' alongside another debutant Siddique, a film with Chinni Jayanth, ''Deivamagan'' and his home production, ''Thalapathy''. As of 2019, none of these projects have been completed. He made his acting comeback with a negative role in ''LKG''. He was arrested in November 2011 in a

land grabbing Land grabbing is the contentious issue of large-scale land acquisitions: the buying or leasing of large pieces of land by domestic and transnational companies, governments, and individuals. While used broadly throughout history, land grabbing as ...

case. He was booked in charges of cheating a US citizen of Indian origin for promising him buying a land.

Death

Rithesh died on 13 April 2019, due to a heart attack at

Ramanathapuram Ramanathapuram (), also known as Ramnad, is a town and a municipality in Ramanathapuram district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the administrative headquarters of Ramanathapuram district and the second largest town (by population) in ...

at the age of 46.

Filmography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rithesh, J. K. Tamil male actors Indian actor-politicians India MPs 2009–2014 1973 births 2019 deaths Actors from Kandy Sri Lankan emigrants to India Lok Sabha members from Tamil Nadu People from Ramanathapuram district Male actors from Tamil Nadu Male actors in Tamil cinema