Prashant Narayanan
Name: Prashant Narayanan
Birthday: 31st March
Zodiac: Aries
Awards: Prashant was awarded with the Best Actor in the Negative Lead by Screen Awards for his outstanding performance in Murder 2.
Trivia: A badminton champion at the state level, Prashant has shown his talent even as an assistant art director, costume director and also as a theatre and film actor. More than two decades into the industry, he has a number of films to his credit with impressive performances in many of them.
Biography: Prashant Narayanan was born in Thiruvananthapuram but brought up in Delhi. He studied at Kirori Mal College of Delhi University. He was a state level badminton player, but later got associated with a theatre group called Act 1, which boasted of big names like Ashish Vidyarthi, Manoj Bajpai, Girish Mishra and Gajraj Rao.
1991 was a turning point for Prashant as he shifted base to Mumbai to start his own ad agency. However, he began working as an assistant art director on films such as Rukmavati Ki Haveli, Subhash Ghai’s Saudagar and Shyam Benegal’s Sardari Begum. He even contributed as a costume director for a popular television series named Chanakya. Not much later, he took to acting in theatre plays and television serials like Parivartan, Farz, Gatha, Kabhi Kabhie, Jaane Kaha Mera Jigar Gaya Ji, and Shagun.
Prashant’s first break in films was in the year 2002 with the film Chhal. It was directed by Hansal Mehta and was related to Mumbai underworld. In spite of the fact that the film was not very well received, his performance grabbed many eyeballs and was appreciated by critics. Thereafter, he played a significant role in Waisa Bhi Hota Hai Part II, for which he received due acclaim.
In 2004, Prashant Narayanan played a pivotal role in Academy Award winner director Florian Gallenberger’s film Shadows of Time. It was a romantic German film but based in Calcutta. The film required Prashant to take lessons in speaking Bengali, which was quite difficult for him being a Malayalee himself. The film won prestigious awards like the Bavarian Film Award and the German Film Award.
Ever since, he has acted in different films with varied themes. Films like Instant Karma, Summer 2007, Via Darjeeling, Rang Rasiya, Peter Gaya Kaam Se, Rasgulla, Doors and Yeh Saali Zindagi saw the versatile actor play a variety of roles with much ease. However, it was only in 2011 that he gained more popularity after starring in Mohit Suri’s film Murder 2 in which he played a psychopath serial killer of women. This was his best performance by far, and he was nominated for Best Supporting or Negative Role awards like Stardust Awards and Apsara Film & Television Producers Guild Award. He went on to win the Screen Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role.
Prashant Narayanan has acted in a few other films after that but they were not successful. He is set to appear in a Malayalam film named Idavapathy and a Tamil film named Nedunchalai.