Prashant Narayanan is an Indian actor, known for his roles in films like ''
Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II'', ''
Shadows of Time'', ''
Bombil and Beatrice'', ''
Via Darjeeling'' and ''
Murder 2''. He also worked in the telefilm ''Ek Tamanna''. His break came in the Bhatt banner film ''Murder 2''.
He has acted in many
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...
films along with a few
Malayalam
Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...
films. He was last seen in the Netflix Mai.
Early and personal life
Born in
Kerala
Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South C ...
, Narayanan grew up in
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders wi ...
. He was the state badminton champion and studied at the
Kirori Mal College of
Delhi University
Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate university, collegiate Central university (India), central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and ...
.
There, he joined a
theater
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...
group called ''Act 1'', which included actors like
Ashish Vidyarthi,
Manoj Bajpayee,
Gajraj Rao and Girish Mishra.
Career
In 1991, Narayanan moved to
Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the secon ...
with plans to start an ad agency.
He started as assistant art director for films like
Govind Nihalani's ''
Rukmavati Ki Haveli'',
Subhash Ghai's ''
Saudagar'' and
Shyam Benegal's ''
Sardari Begum''.
He also worked as a costume director for the TV series ''
Chanakya''. He started acting in plays again, and soon got several television shows like ''Saturday Suspense'', ''Parivartan'', ''Farz'', ''Phulwa'', ''Gatha'', ''Kabhi Kabhie'', ''
Jaane Kahan Mera Jigar Gaya Ji'' and ''
Shagun''.
Narayanan got his first film role in 2002 in
Hansal Mehta's ''Chhal'' as a hit man working in the Mumbai underworld. Though the film got mixed reviews from the critics, he was highly appraised for his portrayal of a hot-tempered, fun-loving goon. His next film was debutante director Shashanka Ghosh's ''
Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II''. Although Narayanan's role was similar to that in ''Chhal'', the actor was once again appreciated by the critics widely.
In 2003, Narayanan was offered the lead role in the
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment in ...
winning German director
Florian Gallenberger's film ''
Shadows of Time''. Narayanan played ''Ravi'' in the film.
''Shadows of Time'' was challenging for him, as the film set in
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...
, was to be in
Bengali language. Narayanan, being a Malayalee, had to take lessons in Bengali to convincingly portray the role.
In 2009, he played a notable role in the show ''
Bandini'', aired on
NDTV Imagine. He played the antagonist in ''
Peter Gaya Kaam Se'', which also starred
Rajeev Khandelwal and
Lekha Washington. In 2010, Narayanan appeared in Pravesh Bhardwaj's ''
Mr. Singh Mrs. Mehta
''Mr. Singh / Mrs. Mehta'' is a 2010 Hindi-language film starring Prashant Narayanan and Aruna Shields. It is directed by Pravesh Bhardwaj. The film was produced by Manu Kumaran and was released on 25 June 2010.
Mr. Singh/Mrs. Mehta is the dir ...
'', alongside
Aruna Shields, where he portrayed the role of Ashwin Mehta, an artist and a painter who has an extra-marital affair with someone's wife, sometimes he even paints her nude picture.
In 2011, he appeared in the role of
Dheeraj Pandey in the film ''
Murder 2'', which was a sequel to the 2004 film ''
Murder''. In the film, he played a straight man turned eunuch and psychopath serial killer, who pretends as a customer to call-girls and kills them mercilessly. The film turned out to be the success and one of the highest grossing Bollywood films of 2011, where Narayanan's role was highly acclaimed by the critics and public alike.
In 2013, he acted in a Malayalam film ''
Edavappathy (The Monsoon)'', directed by
Lenin Rajendran. Rajendran had a special role in his new film ''Edavappathy'' that he had bookmarked for actor
Jagathy Sreekumar, since he thought Jagathy was the only actor who could do justice to this very special role. Jagathy was hospitalized because of an accident and Lenin awaited Jagathy, for his return to the screen. Thus, Lenin came across Narayanan, who was reported to have done an awesome job in ''Edavappathy'' that stunned the entire unit.
Awards and nominations
Narayanan has received the following recognitions:
Filmography
Movies
Television
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Narayanan, Prashant
Malayali people
Indian male film actors
Male actors in Hindi cinema
Kirori Mal College alumni
Living people
Indian male television actors
Male actors from Thiruvananthapuram
1969 births
Screen Awards winners
20th-century Indian male actors
21st-century Indian male actors
Male actors in Malayalam television
Male actors in Tamil cinema
Male actors in Kannada cinema
Male actors in Telugu cinema
Male actors in Bengali cinema