S. Ve. Shekher

Shekher was born to Sattanathapuram Venkataraman on 26 December 1950. He completed his diploma in Mechanical Engineering and post diploma in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration.

Shekher is married to Uma(Grand daughter of G. Ramanathan) - Renowned Tamil film Music director during 50's. The couple have a daughter named Anuradha and a son named Ashwin who debuted in the Tamil movie Vegam.

Shekher's stage career began in 1974 when he acted in his first stage play. He entered Kollywood as a still photographer for the film Mogham. Then, was spotted by director K. Balachander who provided him a role in the film Ninaithale Inikkum and later gave him a full-fledged role in his movie Varumayin Niram Sivappu.[5] After performing movie roles in around 96 Tamil films, Shekher moved into television, appearing in Vanna Kolangal and Nam Kudumbam. Vannakolangal created a sensation as it was re-telecast eight times in Doordarshan.[5]

Shekhar was a member and later a team leader of the popular drama troupe Mylapore Boys, who performed over 50 plays and over 100 drama skits from 1978 to 1988. Shekhar later became the president and the chairman of the troupe (by then renamed Mylapore Nataka Arangam). Most of his later plays and television dramas include characters from his troupe and from his former plays.

Shekhar and his Mylapore Boys provided stiff competition for another popular drama troupe in Madras, The Crazy Troupe, led by Crazy Mohan. They have also worked together, with Crazy Mohan writing three plays for Shekher's troupe, Crazy Thieves in Palavakkam, One More Exorcist and Oru Sondha Veedu Vaadagai Veedagiradhu, and the cult comedy Katha Nayagan (1988 film) starring Pandiarajan and Shekher.

An expert in broadcast, sound effects and theatrics, he won the Best All India Programme Producer Award for four years in a row from RAPA (Radio & Television Advertisers & Producers Association).[5] As a photographer, his colour transparencies have adorned the covers of popular Tamil magazines. Encouraged by the success of a Singapore drama tour in 1973, he formed his drama troupe, Natakhapriya, which has so far staged 24 plays, with over 6,200 shows.[5] His troupe frequently tours the United States, Europe, South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates.

Starting eight full-length plays at one go, from 7:47 A.M. to 1:49 A.M. of the following day, Shekher performed a record of sorts in April 1985. While this is acknowledged an unsurpassed feat of a stage artist in the Limca Book of Records, Shekher credits this to his audience and fellow artists. The Mylapore Academy adjudged him "The Best Comedian" for three years in a row. Wisdom Magazine chose him as the 1990s Best Comedian, the Jaycees honoured him as the Outstanding Youth. Awards galore, the state's prestigious Kalaivanar Award, Iyal Isai Nataka Mandram's Kalai Maamani Award and Best Drama Troupe Award are other awards he has won.

The play Adhirshtakaaran was made into a film, Krishna Krishna, with Shekher in the lead.

Taking his technical proviso along with histrionics, he produced recently a television show, S. Ve. Shekher meets S. Ve. Shekher, where he is both the interviewer and interviewee. Some of the shows written by Sabhas and other agencies are Drama Superstar, Comedy King, Sirippalai Chirpi, Nathaka Vasool Chakravarthy, Nagaichuvai Nayagan, Nagaichuvai Thenral, Nagaichuvai Ilavarasan.

In 2015 S. Ve. Shekar got appointed as one of the members of Central Board of Film Certification.[6][7]

• Official web site of S Ve Shekher

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