22 July 2022 is a monumental day for the Tamil film industry. Suriya-starrer Soorarai Pottru emerged as the biggest winner at 68th National Film Awards winning bagging 5 major accolades for Best Feature Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, and Best Background Score. Following this amazing feat, 23 July is a monumental day as well as it is the National Award Winner Suriya's birthday. The actor has been in everyone's hearts ever since the start of his career and this has served as a great birthday treat for both the actor as well as his fans.
This is not the first time a Tamil actor has won the National Award for Best Actor. This tremendous feat has been previously achieved by 5 other actors of great talent - MGR, Kamal Haasan, Vikram, Prakash Raj and Dhanush. M. G. Ramachandran won the National Film Award for Best Actor for his role in the 1971 vigilante film Rickshawkaran and became the first South Indian actor to do so too.
Kamal Haasan is next on the list and his abilities and versatility as an actor are unparalleled. He has not won just one but 3 National Awards for his roles in the 1982 romantic drama Moondram Pirai, 1987's epic crime film Nayakan and the 1996 vigilante action thriller Indian.
Vikram won the National Award for Best Actor for his part in the 2003 drama film Pithamagan. Vikram had to portray his difficult character who does not even have any dialogue to support him. But Vikram was still able to carve a niche for himself in the viewer's mind with his expressions and excellent body language. This was not gone unnoticed and therefore resulted in him getting the prestigious award.
Prakash Raj's portrayal of a Vengadam in the 2008 period drama Kanchivaram bagged him the National Award for Best Actor. He gave a sensational performance as it was all so natural from the very beginning that we cannot help but revere him for this movie.
Dhanush bagged the National Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of Karuppu in 2011's drama film Aadukalam. His raw and natural performance complimented by a well-written screenplay to help him out, helped him bag this award.
