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Napoleon
Born	Kumaresan Duraisamy (1963-12-02) 2 December 1963 (age 61) Tiruchirappalli, Madras State (now Tamil Nadu), India
Education	St. Joseph's College, Trichy
Occupations	Actor Politician Entrepreneur
Years active	1991–present
Spouse	Jayasudha ​(m. 1993)​
Children	2
Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Government of India
In office 13 June 2009 – 20 March 2013
Preceded by	Manmohan Singh
Succeeded by	Selja Kumari
Personal details
Political party	Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (1980-2014)
Other political affiliations	Bharatiya Janata Party (2014)
Website	actornepoleon.com

Kumaresan Duraisamy (born 2 December 1963), known professionally by his stage name Napoleon, is an Indian actor, entrepreneur and former politician. He was the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment in Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cabinet. He has acted predominately in Tamil films apart from some Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and English movies.

Early life

Napoleon was born as Kumaresan Duraisamy on 2 December 1963 in Tiruchirappalli. He graduated from St. Joseph's College, Trichy.

Career

Politics

Napoleon became enthused by the ideologies of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party. He joined the party in which his uncle K. N. Nehru was already a member and at that time the Public Welfare Minister of the state government.

Napoleon contested the State Assembly elections of 2001, winning the Villivakkam constituency contest and thereby becoming a Member of the Legislative Assembly of Tamil Nadu. He lost his membership in the 2006 elections, when he contested from the Mylapore constituency and was defeated by actor S. Ve. Shekhar. Subsequently, Napoleon nurtured the Perambalur constituency in the hope of becoming a member of parliament for the DMK and succeeded in the 2009 Lok Sabha election. He was then appointed Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment in Union government. Seen as a loyalist of Azhagiri, he was sidelined by DMK after the expulsion of the latter from the party in 2014. He joined the BJP in the presence of party President Amit Shah on 21 December 2014. He was made the party's state vice-president on 26 November 2015.

Films

When aged 27, he watched the film Udhayam, the dubbed version of the Telugu film Siva, and was inspired to take up acting. He entered the Tamil film industry in 1991 with Bharathiraja's rural film Pudhu Nellu Pudhu Naathu, playing the antagonist role. After the stupendous success of Ejamaan (1993), Napoleon went on to play the villain to great effect in Malayalam and Telugu cinema too. He has been praised for his performance and acting in the Malayalam movie Devasuram (1993). Napoleon turned hero on-screen too with Kizhakku Cheemayile (1993) in which he played an anti-hero. After that film, Pratap Pothen gave Seevalaperi Pandi (1994). That film turned out to be a mega hit. He was awarded Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for his performance in Ettupatti Rasa (1997).

In 1998, he was awarded the Kalaimamani and MGR Award. From 2000 to 2006, he was appointed as the vice-president of the South Indian Film Artistes Association.

Later after years into film industry, he also got the chance to work as a supporting actor in stone blockbuster movies such as Pokkiri (2007) and Dasavathaaram (2008).

Though he settled in Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America, at the insistence of the industry stalwarts, he made his acting comeback with Kidaari (2016). He then went on to portray Gautham Karthik's father in Muthuramalingam (2017) replacing Karthik.

After making his Hollywood debut in the supernatural thriller, Devil's Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge (2019), he is seen in another American independent film titled Christmas Coupon (2019). Napoleon also proudly announced that he is the only Tamil actor, who had acted in a Hollywood film, which was completely shot in the US.

Entrepreneurship

Nepoleon Duraisamy forayed into IT Entrepreneurship and kick started "Jeevan Technologies" IT operations in Chennai, India in the year 2000. Jeevan is a trusted technology transformation partner of enterprises across the globe under his able mentorship.

Social entrepreneurship

In 2010, Napoleon established Myopathy Unit of Jeevan Foundation, the Institute for Muscular Dystrophy & Research Center. It is a non-profit organization registered under the Tamil Nadu Trust Act.

Achievements and awards

• Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for Ettupatti Rasa (1997)
• Kalaimamani and MGR Award (1998)
• Vice-president of the South Indian Film Artistes' Association (2000–2006)
• Murasoli Trust "Kalaignar" Award, which is given to people who contribute to Tamil language, literature and culture (2007).

Filmography

Tamil films

Other language films

As singer

References

1. Manoj, CG (29 May 2009). "After MLA napoleon ready for real power". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 27 May 2013. Retrieved 5 August 2012.
2. "INTERVIEW | Actor Napoleon on his Hollywood debut film 'Devil's Night: Dawn of the Nain Rouge'". The New Indian Express. 7 July 2020. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
3. "Illustrious alumni/ae". St. Joseph's College, Trichy. Archived from the original on 3 February 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
4. "Napolean Calls Uncle the Reason Behind Quitting DMK". The New Indian Express. 28 December 2014. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
5. "DMK Leader and Former Union Minister Napoleon Joins BJP". NDTV. IANS. 21 December 2014. Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
6. Siva, CG (26 November 2015). "தமிழக பாஜக துணைத் தலைவராக நடிகர் நெப்போலியன் நியமனம்". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 27 November 2015. Retrieved 26 November 2015.
7. Sekhar, Arunkumar (19 December 2017). "A villain is what I call an 'edhir naayagan': Napoleon, a veteran Tamil actor who almost quit acting". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 10 May 2023. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
8. "Napoleon". Nettv4u. Archived from the original on 23 October 2020. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
9. Suganth, M. (29 November 2016). "In the US, my son leads a normal life: Napoleon". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 11 September 2018. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
10. Suganth, M. (7 September 2016). "How Napoleon became Gautham's father!". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 14 September 2019. Retrieved 7 April 2020.
11. "Actor Napoleon plays a sports agent in his second Hollywood project, Christmas Coupon". Cinema Express. 3 July 2019. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
12. "Management Team". Archived from the original on 20 June 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
13. "Mayopathy". Jeevan Foundation. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
14. "Mayopathy". actornapoleon.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2021. Retrieved 26 March 2021.

External links

• Napoleon at IMDb
• Official biographical sketch in Parliament of India website
• Actor Napoleon's website
• Jeevan Technologies
• Jeevan Foundation

• 1963 births
• Living people
• 21st-century Indian male actors
• Tamil male actors
• Indian actor-politicians
• India MPs 2009–2014
• Male actors in Malayalam cinema
• Male actors from Tiruchirappalli
• Union ministers from Tamil Nadu
• Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam politicians
• St Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli alumni
• Recipients of the Kalaimamani Award
• Lok Sabha members from Tamil Nadu
• Tamil Nadu State Film Awards winners
• Male actors in Tamil cinema
• Indian male film actors
• Male actors in Telugu cinema
• 20th-century Indian male actors
• People from Perambalur district