Thesingu Rajendar (born 9 May 1960), also known as Vijaya T. Rajendar or T. R., is an Indian actor, filmmaker, musician, cinematographer and distributor who works primarily in

Tamil film industry Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywood ...

. He is also a politician in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. Rajendar is known for being able to speak in rhyming sentences spontaneously.

Family

T. Rajendar is married to former actress Usha Rajendar. They have two sons,

Silambarasan Silambarasan Thesingu Rajendar, nicknamed as Simbu or his initials S. T. R., is an Indian actor, filmmaker and musician in Tamil cinema. He began his acting career by playing roles as a child artist in films directed by his father T. Rajendar, b ...

and

Kuralarasan Kuralarasan is an Indian actor and composer who works in Tamil-language films. He has collaborated with his father, T. Rajendar, and his brother, Silambarasan, in all his films to date. Personal life Kuralarasan is the younger son of T. Rajen ...

, and one daughter, Ilakiya. His wife has served as the producer for some of his films, such as ''

Kadhal Azhivathillai ''Kadhal Azhivathillai'' () is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language romantic action film written, directed and produced by T. Rajendar, who also composed the music and portrayed a supporting role as Vakkeel Dada. It stars his son Silambarasan (his debu ...

'' (2002).

Film career

Rajendar started off in the

Kollywood Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywood' ...

industry making successful films which included him as an actor, playback singer, dancer and scriptwriter. He gained popularity through his one-of-a-kind style of acting. He normally serves as, but not limited to director, actor, songwriter, art director, production manager and

playback singer A playback singer, also known as a ghost singer, is a singer whose singing is pre-recorded for use in films. Playback singers record songs for soundtracks, and actors or actresses lip-sync the songs for cameras; the actual singer does not app ...

. During the 1980s, all his movies were blockbusters, running for years and the songs were also well appreciated.Anantharam, Chitra Deepa (27 March 2017
I am the pioneer of kuthu: T Rajendherr
''The Hindu'' He is known for introducing new faces in his movies, and many of the actresses who debuted in his movies have been successful in South Cinema, including

Amala Amala may refer to: People * Amala Akkineni, South Indian actress * Amala Chebolu, playback singer in the Telugu film industry, also known as Tollywood * Amala Paul (born 1991), South Indian actress * Amala Shankar (1919–2020), Indian dancer * ...

Nalini Nalini (Devanagari: नलिनी) is a female gender Indian given name, which means "lotus", "goddess Gayatri","mother of Vedas", "sweet nectar", "Amrit", Feminine "lily" in Sanskrit.''Baby Names''"Nalini" Retrieved on 9 January 2016. The name ...

, Jyothi,

Jeevitha Jeevitha or popularly known as Jeevitha Rajasekhar is an Indian actress, who has primarily worked in the Southern film industry (featuring in predominantly Tamil and Telugu language movies) of the Indian film industry. She was a prominent lead ...

and

Mumtaj Mumtaz, also credited as Mumtaj, (born Nagma Khan) is an Indian actress and a former item number known primarily for her work in Tamil cinema. Besides Tamil films, She has also appeared in Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam and Telugu films. She entered ...

. After some years, Rajendar's films started to decline in popularity because his films became too predictable, tending to follow the same storyline and oratory style of repetitious dialogues with little if any meaning. For example, his films always contain a sentimental scene involving the hero's younger sister in distress, coupled with the same rhyming rhetoric and gestures. Rajendar recently started his own web TV channel called 'Kural TV' (Voice TV). Originally he wanted to start a

24-hour The modern 24-hour clock, popularly referred to in the United States as military time, is the convention of timekeeping in which the day runs from midnight to midnight and is divided into 24 hours. This is indicated by the hours (and minutes) pas ...

TV channel but could not, due to problems arising while securing a license. The channel, apart from broadcasting his movies and speeches, tends to echo sentiments towards the plight of Tamils (especially women) in Sri Lanka. Rajendar had started talking with "common" people through Skype and discussing latest politics in the recent years. Rajendar also distributes films under his home banner "Simbu cine arts". His latest film distribution, as of mid-2011 is his son Silambarasan's film ''

Vaanam ''Vaanam'' () is a 2011 Indian Tamil-language action drama film written and directed by Krish. It is the remake of his own Telugu film '' Vedam'' (2010) starring Allu Arjun, Manchu Manoj and Anushka Shetty. It features an ensemble cast of Si ...

'', which will be distributed in the

and

Madurai Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...

region. Since early 2008, Rajendar has been slowly working on the production of a film titled ''Oru Thalai Kadhal'', a tale based on a village singer, in which he stars in the lead role. In 2011, he released a first look poster for the film and revealed that three heroines from Mumbai would star alongside him. He provided an update in 2014, that the film was still under production and that it was sixty-five percent complete. He has also revealed that he was working on a script to launch his second son, Kuralarasan, as a lead actor.

Political career

Rajendar founded the Thayaga Marumalarchi Kazhagam party in 1991 after he had been expelled from the

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) party. In 1996, after

Vaiko Vaiyapuri Gopalsamy, better known as Vaiko, is an Indian politician. He is a member of the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the Parliament of India from Tamil Nadu. He is the founder and General Secretary of the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra K ...

's departure from the DMK and the formation of

Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam The Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam ( 'Renaissance Dravidian Progressive Federation') is a political party active in the Indian states of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry. It was established by Vaiko in 1994 after ...

, Rajendar's TMK merged with the DMK. Rajendar left the DMK again in 2004, to form the

All India Latchiya Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

.1991 Tamil Nadu Election Results, Election Commission of India
''accessed'' 19 April 2009 Before expulsion, he was the propaganda secretary of DMK and was elected from Park Town constituency in the 1996 Assembly polls. He further supported the

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) ...

in the 2006 Assembly elections. After those 2006 elections, the DMK came back to power and he was made vice-chairman of the Small Savings Scheme. He subsequently quit the post.

Filmography

;As playback singer ;Distributor *''

'' (2011) *''

Vaalu ''Vaalu'' () is a 2015 Indian Tamil-language romantic action comedy film written and directed by debutante Vijay Chandar. The film stars Silambarasan and Hansika Motwani, with Santhanam, VTV Ganesh and Brahmanandam portraying supporting role ...

'' (2015) *''

Kadamaiyai Sei ''Kadamaiyai Sei'' () is a 2022 Indian Tamil-language psychological action comedy drama film written and directed by Venkat Ragavan in his second directorial film after ''Muthina Kathirika'' (2016). The film stars S. J. Suryah and Yashika Aan ...

'' (2022) ;Television *''Super Kudumbam'' - Sun TV *''Arattai Arangam'' - Sun TV *''Nyayam Endrum Solven - Vijay TV

References

External links

*
Interview with TR
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rajendar, Vijayan T. Tamil male actors Tamil film score composers Living people Tamil film directors Tamil film poets Film directors from Tamil Nadu Tamil film cinematographers Tamil playback singers Tamil Nadu MLAs 1996–2001 People from Mayiladuthurai district Annamalai University alumni Male actors in Tamil cinema Indian actor-politicians Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians Tamil screenwriters Screenwriters from Tamil Nadu 21st-century Indian singers Male actors from Tamil Nadu 20th-century Indian male actors 21st-century Indian male actors 20th-century Indian composers 21st-century Indian composers Musicians from Tamil Nadu Film producers from Tamil Nadu Indian film distributors Indian male film actors 1955 births