Kollywood Kisnan - 6

Doctor 's payyan , doctor. A Lawyer's ponnu may , may not become a lawyer.. a vaadhyar's pillai is a makku .. An actor's ponnu / payyan most often becomes an actor or ends up being a director/ producer / cinematographer / costume designer etc. 

In Kollywood we have three generations of actors viz. Sivaji-Prabhu-Vikram Prabhu, Muthuraman-Karthik-Gautham Karthik etc.

This Kapoor family in Bollywood is termed as the first family of Indian cinema. Prithviraj Kapoor, his sons Raj kapoor, Shashi, Shammi kapoor, their sons Randhir, Rishi, 'Bombay dyeing' Kapoor, Chintu, Chikki-mukki Kapoors and the fourth generation Kapoors of Ranbir, Kareena-Karisma Kapoors are all actors / directors/ producers. 

But you know , even before the fourth generation (Karishma) Kapoor made her debut in '91, in namma Kollywood we had a fourth generation actress who made her debut in 1990?

Aishwarya Bhaskar has this privilege of being the fourth generation actor in Kollywood. She made her debut in '90. Her mother is the famous Lakshmi who won the best actress National award for Sila nerangaLil sila manidargal. Lakshmi's mother Rukmini acted in a lot of pazhaya movies including Sri Valli where she played the title role. Watch a clip from the movie here.

Rukmini's mother was Nungambakkam Janaki who was a dancer in Tamil films. Do read the article about her here. If you have a video clip of hers, do share it in the comments space.

As Indian cinema celebrates its 100th year, if any of your Amit friends try and put pult talking about Bachchan / Kapoor / Khan being the first family of Indian cinema etc. you put double pult and show them this post I say! Kollywood Kisnan is proud to say the first family of Indian cinema is from namma Kollywood.

Edited to add on 7th May '13

Sarang tweeted to say the first family of Indian cinema could be from Bollywood. Not Kapoors, Khans.. it's the Kajol family. Kajol's mom Tanuja's mother was popular actress Shobhna Samarth . Shobhna Samarth's mother Rattan Bai made her debut in 1933 has acted in 12 films. Though Kajol's debut was in '92 few years after Aishwarya (Lakshmi's daughter) made her debut, her cousin Mohnish Behl (Shobhna Samarth's daughter Nutan's son) made his debut in 1983 making him the fourth generation actor in Indian cinema.

Thank you Sarang for the tweet and the link. So namma Lakshmi, Aishwarya and family go back to being the first family of Kollywood. Will come back and update this post whenever Aishwarya's daughter makes her debut.