Ramanathan Sarathkumar (born 14 July 1954) is an Indian film actor, journalist, politician, the former president of the South Indian Film Artistes' Association and former body builder. Sarathkumar has acted in more than 130 Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannadafilms. He can speak Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and English fluentlySarathkumar made his acting debut, in 1986, in the Telugu film Samajamlo Sthree at the behest of a producer friend. In 1988, while running his travel agency in Chennai, Sarathkumar got an opportunity to act as well as produce in the Tamil film Kan Simittum Neram.[8] The film was directed by Kalaivanan Kannadasan, he co-starred with Karthik and Ambika. In 1989, R. Sarathkumar was spotted by Raju, the personal make-up man of actor Vijayakanth, and recommended him to the Pulan Visaranai's team. Finally, R. Sarathkumar acted as a villain in Pulan Visaranai and the film turned out to be a blockbusterIn the start of 2009, he acted in the film 1977, donning six different looks. The film, made with a whopping budget of 15 crores, was directed and produced by newcomer G. N. Dinesh Kumar. The film, released to negative reviews, took an average opening and was declared a flop at the box office.[60][61][62][63] In October 2009, Sarathkumar made his debut in Malayalam through Pazhassi Raja, in which he co-starred with Mammootty and he played the role of Edachena Kunkan. The film, directed by Hariharan, became the highest-grossing film of the year in the Malayalam industry and Sarathkumar won the Vanitha Film Awards for Best Supporting Actor.