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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Composer38
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Showing 38 of 1,072 notable people

0001 COMPOSER

A. R. Rahman

Born 1966

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0042 COMPOSER

L. Shankar

Born 1950

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0051 COMPOSER

Anirudh Ravichander

Born 1990

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0065 COMPOSER

Lalgudi Jayaraman

1930 - 2013

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0069 COMPOSER

Andrea Jeremiah

Born 1985

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0091 COMPOSER

G. V. Prakash Kumar

Born 1987

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0239 COMPOSER

S. A. Rajkumar

Born 1964

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0258 COMPOSER

Sean Roldan

-

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0289 COMPOSER

N. R. Raghunanthan

-

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0297 COMPOSER

Nivas K. Prasanna

-

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0395 COMPOSER

Dharan Kumar

Born 1983

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0398 COMPOSER

Mikey McCleary

Born 1969

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0438 COMPOSER

Leon James

Born 1991

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0481 COMPOSER

L. Vaidyanathan

1942 - 2007

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0568 COMPOSER

G. J. R. Krishnan

Born 1960

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0627 COMPOSER

Arrol Corelli

Born 1985

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0634 COMPOSER

Vishal Chandrasekhar

-

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0723 COMPOSER

Bobo Shashi

Born 1981

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0755 COMPOSER

Santhosh Dhayanidhi

-

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0758 COMPOSER

Karthikeya Murthy

Born 1985

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0769 COMPOSER

Satish Chakravarthy

-

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0810 COMPOSER

Lalgudi Vijayalakshmi

Born 1963

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0835 COMPOSER

Simon K. King

Born 1984

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0865 COMPOSER

Radhan

-

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0898 COMPOSER

Pravin Mani

-

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0904 COMPOSER

Sundar C. Babu

-

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0922 COMPOSER

Ved Shankar

-

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0943 COMPOSER

Balamurali Balu

-

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0944 COMPOSER

Soundaryan

-

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0954 COMPOSER

Bjorn Surrao

Born 1992

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0958 COMPOSER

Navin (music director)

-

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0972 COMPOSER

Vijay Ebenezer

-

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0976 COMPOSER

Ron Ethan Yohann

Born 1990

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0980 COMPOSER

F. S. Faizal

-

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0985 COMPOSER

Jagadeesh Kumar

Born 1985

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1003 COMPOSER

John Peter (music director)

-

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1007 COMPOSER

Ganesh Raghavendra

Born 1979

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1008 COMPOSER

Sudharshan M. Kumar

Born 1991

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