Goundamani

He gained entry into the Tamil film industry, the Kollywood, due to his strong theatrical background. His original name was Mani and when he played the famous role of "Oor Gounder" in one of his plays, the name got stuck and henceforth he came to be known as "Goundamani".

Goundamani was initially a solo actor and then paired up with Senthil to form a comedy duo. He is widely considered as Kollywood's Laurel and Hardy, Senthil and Goundamani have now performed slapstick humour and acted more than 450 films.

His most famous piece of comedy is the "Vazhaipazham" (Banana) scene with Senthil in the film Karagattakaran. His famous dialogue Arasiyalla ithellam saatharanampa (meaning all these are usual in politics), from the movie Suriyan, later became one of his trademarks. He has also played the protagonist in 10 films including Raja Enga Raja, oru nallavan oru vallavan and Piranthaen Valarnthaen.

Some of his memorable movies are with leading actors such as Prabhu, Sathyaraj, Karthik, Vijayakanth, Rajinikanth, Arjun, Parthiban, Jayaram, Kamal Hassan, Ajith Kumar, Sarath Kumar and Vijay. In several Tamil films, he has even accompanied the lead actor in almost all of the scenes and in a few songs.

n 1989 film called Karagattakaran he had acted one of most famous comedy sequence of Tamil Cinema which is "vazhai pazham comedy" "Oru pazham inga iruku, innonnu enga?" with Senthil. In 1992 released film Suriyan came famous for his comedy sequences. And dialogues were became more familiar in Tamil cinema such as "Arasiyalla ithellam saatharanam appa"("This is very normal in politics") added with 'Yaaru danraja' " narayana intha kosu tholla thaanga mudila da ". In Nattamai he acted as son of Senthil. And the dialogue "dae thagapa" ("Hey father(without respect))" also added into his famous comedy dialogue collection.

He cemented a strong pair with Sathyaraj as acting with him several films such as Nadigan, Rickshamama, Maaman Magal, Pangali, Thai Maaman, Vallal, Senadhipathi, Thangam, Pollachi Mappillai etc. And with Karthik Muthuraman he acted notable films like Ullathai Allitha, Chinna Jameen, Mettukudi, Unakkaga Ellam Unakkaga, Lucky Man etc.
His most recent film is Jagghubai starring Sarath Kumar.