Devan (actor)

Devan was born on 8th January 1952 in Thrissur, Kerala. His father, Sreenivasan, was a public prosecutor, and his mother, Lalitha, was a doctor. He has three siblings: Shobha, Sheela, and Sureshbabu. Malayalam filmmaker Ramu Kariat was his uncle. Devan did his schooling at the Government Model School, Thrissur. He then completed his B.Sc. degree from St. Thomas College, Thrissur. During his college time, he was a member of the Kerala Students Union (KSU), and his parents were Indian National Congress-leaning. Devan's father wanted him to be a police officer, but he wanted to be in the army. After graduation, he tried at the National Defence Academy but was not selected. He went to Madras (now Chennai) in search of a job and later took post-graduation in Master of Business Administration. He was engaged in several business ventures before starting his career in movies. == Career ==

During his time in college, he used to read books a lot. He found possibility for a film in N. N. Pisharody's novel Vellam, he approached director Hariharan, who agreed with him, M. T. Vasudevan Nair wrote the screenplay, it was the first and last screenplay of his not based on his own story. Devan produced the film, filming was halted midway due to financial crisis. He made his acting debut in Ashatapathi to raise fund to resume filming, it was followed by a number of acting projects. After which, shooting resumed, but upon release, the film failed at the box office. In an interview, he said that Vellam (1985) is the best film come out from Hariharan-M. T. Vasudevan Nair combination. It was in the 1987 film New Delhi that he first appeared as a villain, since then he was typecast as a villain in Malayalam cinema. However, in Telugu cinema, he is known for character roles. Devan recalled in an interview that his best roles were in Telugu and Tamil cinema. His most notable movies are Ekalavyan, Baasha and Indraprasdham. He has also acted in several TV series. ==Personal life==

He was married to his uncle Ramu Kariat's daughter, Suma. The couple has a daughter named Lakshmi. His wife Suma died on 12 July 2019 due to H1N1 infection. Politics Devan was active in Kerala Students Union (KSU) in his college days. In 2004, he founded the Kerala People's Party, a political party in Kerala. He contested and lost in the Wadakkanchery Assembly constituency by-election in the same year as an independent candidate. He contested in the 2006 assembly election from Thiruvananthapuram West as an independent candidate, but lost. In a 2014 interview, Devan revealed his admiration for politician Ramakrishna Hegde. In 2021, it was merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the presence of Home Minister of India Amit Shah. In 2023, Devan was made the state vice-president of BJP in Kerala. ==Filmography==

Malayalam 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s Tamil Telugu Kannada Hindi Television ==See also==