Suresh Gopi (born June 25, 1959) is a National Film Award-winning Malayali Indian actor who is famous for his roles in police dramas, though lately he has been typecast with such cop roles. He is noted for his leading roles as much as he is for the character roles. He is also famous for his philanthropic efforts.
Early life
He did his schooling at Infant Jesus High School Fathima Mata National College
Career
Suresh Gopi first came on screen as a child artist in K. S. Sethumadhavan's Odeyil Ninnu (1965). It was a popular film during the 60s which had Sathyan in the lead role, along with Prem Nazir.
He came back into acting during the mid-80s in Sathyan Anthikkad's T.P. Balagopalan M.A. (1986), where he played a prospective groom in a small scene. He was noted and went on to play supporting and villain roles. Some interesting roles of his include Balan in Nandi Veendum Varika (1986), Vinod in January Oru Orma (1987), Shekaran Kutty in Irupatham Noottandu (1987), Suresh in Joshi's New Delhi (1987), Harry in Oru CBI Diary Kurippu (1988), Unni in Nineteen Twenty One (1988), and Aromal Chekavar in the critically and commercially successful Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (1989). Its interesting to note that he played a comic role of Inspector "Minnal" Prathapan in Manu Uncle (1988). He had the chance to play Dr. Narendran in Padmarajan's Innale (1989).
He played Sethumadhavan in Siddique-Lal's blockbuster In Harihar Nagar (1990). Another interesting role was of Christopher Luke in Viji Thampy's Nagarangalil Chennu Raparkam (1990). The film to probably get him noticed as a serious police officer was the satirical comedy Aanaval Mothiram (1990), he plays Sub-Inspector Nandakumar and co-stars with Sreenivasan.
The films that made Suresh Gopi a star over night were Thalastanam (1992), Ekalavyan (1993), and Commissioner (1994), all by Shaji Kailas. All of them were police dramas and mainly followed a similar theme. He is most popular for playing Bharathchandran I.P.S in Commissioner.
Suresh Gopi started his acting career in 1965 as a child artist in a malayalam film Odayil Ninnum which was a screen adaptation of the novel by the same name. He subsequently stopped acting and returned to Malayalam movies in the eighties. His first roles in the eighties were those of a supporting hero or the villain. His most notable works of this period include 'Irupatham Noottandu' (Twentieth Century), Rajavinte Makan ('The son of the King'), which are Superstar Mohanlal starrers, and Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha, which was a Mammootty starrer.
His major break in a leading role came with "Thalasthanam" (The Capital) followed by Ekalavyan and Commissioner all of them Police dramas. He shot to superstardom with these movies and followed it up with roles in 'Pathram' (newspaper), 'Lelam' (Auction) and 'Vazhunnor' (The Rulers). His portrayal of the police commissioner 'Bharath Chandran IPS' in Commissioner (1994) shot him to stardom and is etched in Malayalam movie history as one of the most recognized roles. His famous monologue "Ormayundo ee mugkham?" ("Do you remember this face?") is synonymous with the role and has been subject to much imitation and parody. With the movie, he was established as the third superstar of Malayalam film industry after Mammootty and Mohanlal which he keeps till date. Also his association with Shaji Kailas and Ranji Panikkar was much acclaimed.
He is famous for his fervent delivery of English dialogues in the movies that he acts in.
He is an English graduate, which enables him do it with great ease.
He became noted and was glorified for playing larger than life roles that were anti-establishment and often were a dig at political and social corruption. In 1997 his acting prowess was proved as "Kannan Perumalayan" a role that he played in "Kaliyattam" (The play), a screen adaptation of Othello by William Shakespeare for which he got the National Award for best actor in the same year. Other noted hits were 'Pathram' (The Newspaper), Crime File, Kashmeeram, Janadhipathyam (Democracy),Sathyameva Jayathe, Thenkasipattanam, Highway, Summer in Bethlehem, Bharathchandran IPS, 'F.I.R' (First Information Report), Tiger and Chinthamani Kolacase.
After 2000, when his films were doing fairly good in box office, he decided against acting in movies including violence. It was rumored that he was giving up acting career and pursuing a political career. But he acted in off beat movies and accepted only soft roles in the period 2001-05. In 2005, realizing his mistake, he decided to make a come back in action movies. Ranji Panikkar, script writer of his most successful movie Commissioner directed the sequel Bharath Chandran IPS portraying him as the angry police commissioner. The movie was a super hit and was followed by a number of movies which he played the typical police officer and detective. While some of them like Tiger, Chinthamani Kolakkase and Naadiya Kollappetta Rathri all directed by Shaji Kailas were successful, a number of them Time, Detective, Aayudham, Thavalam , Rashtram , Pathaka,Bullet and Smart City were flops. He performed well in a very different role in Lanka which went unnoticed among the crowd of movies.
Before coming to Cinema field, he was English literature field and his favourite authors are Bernard Shaw, Shakespeare, Camilla way, etc. He is famous for his philanthropic efforts. He has done many charity activities in Kerala, Tamilnadu, Gulf, etc. Once he gave up the chance of standing for the election with Congress Party. His charity activities are spearheaded by his fans club which has a strength of about 800 members. He frequently visits sree chitra poor home, Trivandrum
In 2008, Suresh Gopi along with other super stars gave a stunning perfomance in Twenty 20 produced by AMMA. Again he acted with Mohanlal in PakalNakshathrangal, an off beat movie directed by Rajiv Nath, but rejected the role of Sekharan Kutty, the villain he played against Mohanlal in Irupathaam Noottandu, super hit of 1980s in the sequel Sagar Alias Jackey by director Amal Neerad.
Controversy
During the election of 2001, there were lot of issues with the newly prepared electoral list from which many eligible people excluded. On the polling day, Suresh Gopi went to polling booth with his family and found that his mother in la's name is missing from the list. Agitated, he decided that he won't vote as a protest against mal practices in the preparation of electoral list.
Awards
National Film Award for Best Actor - Kaliyattam
Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor - Kaliyattam
In July, 2005, he was considered for the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of a mentally distressed person in Ullam and as a Doctor in Makalkku, but lost out to Mammootty.