13.0826° N, 80.2747° E

CHENNAI

Most Famous People Born in Chennai, India

Notable people
1,072
Peak decade
1980s
Median birth year
1965
Most distinctive
Cinema 11.9×

Tamil cinema's entire machine lives in these numbers — cinema, film, choreographer, and actor all over-index between 5.1× and 11.9×, a fingerprint no other Indian city comes close to. Add Viswanathan Anand's chess dominance and the mathematician footprint behind Ramanujan's home district, and the city balances movie glitter with something much quieter.

Through the Decades

One face per decade — the most globally famous figure born in Chennai during each.

Notable Births by Decade

Click a decade to filter the list below. Peak: 1980s with 186 notable births.

What Chennai Is Known For

Click any row to filter the list of people below.

Actor is Chennai's biggest profession — 27% of all notables (292).

Chennai over-indexes on cinema — 11.9× the global rate.

Chennai under-produces politician — only 0.4× the global rate.

  1. Actor292
  2. Film89
  3. Cricket83
  4. Politician56
  5. Singer44
  6. Composer38
  7. Writer22
  8. Player21
  1. Cinema1411.9×
  2. Choreographer1111.6×
  3. Film896.8×
  4. Cricket836.1×
  5. Actor2925.1×
  6. Photographer163.1×
  7. Mathematician152.8×
  8. Composer382.7×
  1. Politician560.4×
  2. Writer220.6×

Profession Mix Over Time

Each band shows a profession family's share of Chennai's notable births by decade. Hover the chart for the breakdown at any decade.

175018001850190019502000
  • Film & TV
  • Sports
  • Music
  • Politics & Law
  • Science
  • Writing
  • Other
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All1,072
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Showing 36 of 1,072 notable people

0048 ASTRONOMER

Vainu Bappu

1927 - 1982

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0072 SINGER

M. L. Vasanthakumari

1928 - 1990

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0094 HISTORIAN

Sarvepalli Gopal

1923 - 2002

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0104 FILM

A. Bhimsingh

1924 - 1978

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0134 PHYSICIST

Alladi Ramakrishnan

1923 - 2008

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0137 INVENTOR

Rangaswamy Srinivasan

Born 1929

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0147 WRITER

Santha Rama Rau

1923 - 2009

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0153 AUTHOR

Leland Bardwell

1922 - 2016

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0174 COMPUTER SCIENTIST

Rangaswamy Narasimhan

1926 - 2007

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0223 WORKER

Sarojini Varadappan

1921 - 2013

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0231 PHYSICIST

S. Ramaseshan

1923 - 2003

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0256 AUTHOR

Vijay Raghav Rao

1925 - 2011

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0277 FILM

P. Madhavan

1928 - 2003

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0312 FILM

Dasari Yoganand

1922 - 2006

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0316 ACTOR

Garard Green

1924 - 2004

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0365 CRIMINAL

Varadarajan Mudaliar

1926 - 1988

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0373 FUTURIST

Robert Theobald

1929 - 1999

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0387 NAVAL

Michael MccGwire

1924 - 2016

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0427 PHILOSOPHER

Swami Parthasarathy

Born 1927

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0447 MUSIC

William Mann (critic)

1924 - 1989

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0474 FILM

N. Sankaran Nair

1925 - 2005

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0505 ASTRONOMER

Venkatraman Radhakrishnan

1929 - 2011

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0549 WRITER

Kamala Laxman

1924 - 2015

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0564 AUTHOR

Johannes Lehmann (Journalist)

1929 - 2011

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0582 CIVIL SERVICE

C. R. Krishnaswamy Rao

1927 - 2013

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0583 JOURNALIST

Rajalakshmi Parthasarathy

1925 - 2019

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0718 LAWYER

J. Rameshwar Rao

1923 - 1998

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0826 AUTHOR

Lakshmi Krishnamurti

1925 - 2009

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0827 PAINTER

Solamalay Namasivayam

Born 1926

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0876 SCULPTOR

Mani Nagappa

Born 1925

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0893 ATHLETIC

Eric Prabhakar

1925 - 2011

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0908 EXECUTIVE

Thiruvengadam Lakshman Sankar

1928 - 2014

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0973 FILM

K. Mohan

1925 - 2014

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0981 INVENTOR

K. K. Srinivasan

1925 - 2009

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0984 JOURNALIST

Gopalan Kasturi

1924 - 2012

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0999 GOVERNOR

T. R. Satishchandran

1929 - 2009

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