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29 March 2024

Actor Prithviraj to open Sharjah silk showroom

Published
By V M Sathish

Top Malayalam film actor Prithviraj will on Wednesday be in Sharjah where a big crowd is expected to throng the new Kalyan Silks showroom in the Clock Tower area in the evening.

Prithviraj is a crowd puller and his popularity in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Hindi movies has been  tapped by Kerala-based Kalyan Silks, which is opening a 20,000 square feet showroom in Sharjah, its second outlet in the UAE, after the first outlet was inaugurated by the same brand ambassador in Dubai almost a year ago.

The group plans more showrooms in other Gulf countries too, according to T S Pattabhiraman, chairman and managing director of Kalyan Silks.

After acting in about 70 Malayalam movies, Prithvi will be playing a key role in Yash Raj’s ‘Aurangzeb’ and alongside Shah Rukh Khan in Farah Khan’s ‘Happy New Year’. 

Continuing the celluloid history of his actor-father the late Sukumaran, Prithvi started his career with ‘Nandanam’, a much talked about Malayalam movie, followed by many hit films. He has forayed into Tamil, Telugu and Hindi movies and has tried his luck as a singer and film producer.

His latest released movie ‘Celluloid’ is currently in the midst of a controversy, allegedly for portraying former Kerala chief minister and leading Congress politician K Karunakaran in a bad light.

“We expect a big crowd to throng our new showroom in Sharjah, which will be one of the largest saree showrooms in West Asia. We have alerted Sharjah Police about the expected crowd and a special security service is also being arranged to control the crowd. We don’t want any traffic congestion in the Clock Tower area of Sharjah on Wednesday evening. Last time when he was inaugurating our Karama showroom, there was a traffic block and Dubai Police closed Zabeel Road,” said Prakash Pattabhiraman, owner of Kalyan Silks.

“Col. Jehad Saeed Bin Sahoo, Director of CID, Sharjah Police Headquarters, will be the chief guest,” he added.

“We have been doing very well in Dubai as elsewhere in the world and our association with Prithviraj is paying off. We plan to open our next UAE showroom in Abu Dhabi and the fourth outlet will be opened in Qusais, Dubai,” Prakash added.

Prithviraj won the best actor award for his performance in ‘Celluloid’ and ‘Ayalum Njanum Thammil’ in the Kerala State Film Awards 2012 announced recently. The movie, directed by Kamal, is based on the life of J C Daniel, pioneer of Malayalam cinema, which got the ‘best movie of the year’ award. However, the movie has been criticised for the portrayal of Congress leader and former Kerala Chief Minister K Karunakaran in a bad light and his son K. Muraleedharan has come out openly against the movie.

This is the second time that Prithviraj has won the best actor award after 2006.

Prithviraj is rated as a sophisticated Malayalam actor and has a large fan following. His Twitter account has nearly 80,000 followers and his movies are usually well received.

His elder brother Indrajith too is a budding actor, having played leading roles in many Malayalam movies including ‘Arabikatha’, the story of a non-resident Keralite, part of which was shot in the UAE.