Ashok Kumar Balakrishnan

Ashok was born on 12 December 1981 in Thiruvaiyaru, Thanjavur District of Tamil Nadu into a middle-class family to Shri.R.Balakrishnan and Smt.Rohini Balakrishnan. He was brought up in Mumbai, Maharastra and did his schooling there as well. He then graduated with Majors in Sociology, Psychology & Hindi Literature from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. He is fluent in Hindi, English, Tamil, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu and Malayalam. Ashok is established as the Main Lead (Protagonist - Hero) in feature films in South India, primarily in Tamil. His journey in the Tamil Film Industry began with Murugaa, directed by R. T. Neason, released in 2007, followed by Pidichirukku (Tamil), directed by Kanagu, was released for Pongal 2008. He also did a cameo for a song in a Malayalam film titled Mulla, directed by Lal Jose. Premistava (Telugu) released in 2010, Kozhi Koovuthu (Tamil) in 2012 and Vetkathai Kettal Enna Tharuvaai (Tamil) and Ela Cheppanu (Telugu) in 2013. His current project titled 'Ula' has been directed by Mr.Rajan Madhav (Muran fame) where Ashok plays 'Saleem - the Baddie/Villain' for the first time. Other releases in 2015 would be the Thriller - Priyamudan Priya (bilingual-Tamil/Telugu), the lighter vein Romantic Comedy - Kannighapuram Sandhippil and the hard core rugged rustic villager "Karuppan" in the project tentatively titled Vaanam Partha Seemayilae. Ashok learnt Bharatnatyam at the age of four and was the youngest disciple of Shri.T.S.Kadhirvelu Pillai. He is also trained in Western Contemporary Jazz Ballet and has worked with ace choreographers Terence Lewis, Remo D'souza and also got trained under the able guidance of dancers / choreographers from the Cunningham School (USA). As a teenager, he played the role of Little Krishna in Ramanand Sagar's teleserial Sri Krishna for which he won the "Best Child Actor Award" from Uptron. It was telecast in Doordarshan in 1994-95. He also was awarded the coveted Nritya Mayur for excellence in dance from the State Government of Maharashtra. He has since been actively involved in a lot of plays/stage and dance/theatre projects. He was involved in stage productions like the musical "Evita" directed by Alyque Padamsee, "Love is the Best Remedy" by Jean Jacques Bellot, "Katha" in Hindi directed by Ravi Mishra of Ekjute Productions for which Ashok won the Best Actor Award during the IPTA, Manch and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan's/Bhavan's Kala Kendra Theatre Festivals. He also directed the play "Cryptic Death" for the Thespo Theatre Festival. He choreographed several stage shows with Bollywood Celebrities like Asha Bhonsle, Sonu Nigam and Aamir Khan - for the Brittania Lagaan Match Event), before becoming an actor. He also worked as an assistant dance choreographer with Raju Khan for several Bollywood films. Ashok worked as a choreographer for an album as a tribute to (Late) Smt.M.S.Subbalakshmi. He also performed at a Peace Concert post WTC Attacks 9/11. He has performed at various stages across India and toured all over U.S.A. and Europe for dance/theatre projects and acted and choreographed several Indo-German and Indo-French Dance/Theatre Projects. He has won several awards and honours. Ashok holds formal training in acting from Kishore Namit Kapoor's Acting Institute (Mumbai). He is also trained in Film stunts, fights and gymnastics.