One of India's richest actors once worked in factory, won more National Awards than all Khans combined, his wife is..

Born on July 23, 1975, Saravanan Sivakumar or Suriya is one of the top most actors in Indian cinema. Suriya is a Tamil cinema star and is one of the highest paid actors in India. Suriya has won two National Film Awards and six Filmfare Awards South. He has also featured six times in the Celebrity 100 list of Forbes India.

Suriya is the son of Tamil film star Shivakumar. Suriya started his acting career in 1997 with Mani Ratnam's film. Before becoming an actor, Suriya worked in a garment factory for a few months but he did not inform anyone about his famous father. Suriya worked in the garment factory for few months by keeping his identity a secret but finally his boss came to know the truth.

Suriya made his acting debut at the age of 22 with Nerukku Ner (1997). His breakthrough role however came in 2001 in Nandha and had his first major commercial success in 2003 with Kaakha Kaakha. The name Suriya was given by Mani Ratnam because he did not want his name to clash with an actor named Saravanan.

In 90s, Suriya gave many hit films and became a big star of South cinema. Suriya worked in several path-breaking films in his career. Apart from the 'Singham' series, films like 'Ghajini' and Aayutha Ezhuthu proved to be milestones in Suriya’s career. Suriya is married to actress Jyothika and the couple has worked in seven films together, the first being Poovellam Kettuppar (1999). The couple got married on September 11, 2006 and have two children: a daughter and a son. Suriya is regarded as one of the richest actors in India.