Engineers' Day: 12 times engineers were reel-life heroes in Tamil cinema
India celebrates September 15 as National Engineers’ Day to appreciate the contributions of Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya. A Bharat Ratna awardee, Visvesvaraya had designed and patented automatic water floodgates, and was a renowned precursor of economic planning in India.
From Raghuvaran in Mani Ratnam's Anjali to Madonna Sebastian in KaKaPo, we take a look at our Tamil cinema protagonists, who graduated in engineering.
Madhavan and Abbas play arch-rivals Rajesh (Mechanical) and Sam (Computer science) in engineering college, who vie for the same girl many years later, in Gautham Menon's debut film, Minnaley (2001).
Dhanush plays Raghuvaran, a graduate in Civil Engineering, who is unemployed for four years, and then gets serious in life, after his mother's death, in Velaiilla Pattadhari (2014)
Suriya plays Suriya, who completes his mechanical engineering from Trichy, and then goes on to join the armed forces in GVM's Vaaranam Aayiram
Madonna Sebastian plays Yazhini Bakthirajan, a young Villupuram-based engineering graduate, who arrives in Chennai against her parents' wishes to pursue a IT career in Kadhalum Kadandhu Pogum (2016).
Raghuvaran is civil engineer Shekhar, who lives with his wife and two young children in an apartment in Chennai in Mani Ratnam's Anjali.
Simbu plays Karthik, a Mechanical Engineering graduate in Chennai, who aspires to become a filmmaker, and falls in love with a Malayalee woman (Jessie) in GVM's Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa (2010).
In Nanban, the official remake of 3 idiots, Vijay, Jiiva and Srikanth play first year engineering students, who share a room in the hostel of Ideal Engineering College (IEC), Chennai.
Prashanth and Karan are engineering students of the same college, who become the thickest of friends, after a brief period of friction, in Kannedhirey Thondrinal (1998).
Jiiva plays engineering student Varun, who meets his childhood crush, Nithya Vasudevan, during a inter-college fest and falls in love with her, in Gautham Menon's Neethaane En Ponvasantham (2012)
Dhanush is Vinoth, the introverted genius, who grows up in an orphanage, and is forcibly sent to engineering college by his mentor, where he remains a misfit, in Selvaraghavan's Kaadhal Kondein (2003)
Suriya plays Gautham, who aspires to be an engineer from a young age, and subsequently forces his father's brother to pay for a seat in Coimbatore for mech eng., in Sillunu Oru Kaadhal (2006).
Shaam, Arya, Laila, Asin, and Pooja play engineering college students, who gather for a friend's wedding, years after everyone have parted ways, in Ullam Ketkumae (2005).
