Subbu Panchu

Subbu, born to writer-producer Panchu Arunachalam, had been in the film industry since his childhood. He made his acting debut at age 14 as a child artist in the Malayalam film Daisy, directed by Pratap Pothen, who was then his neighbour.^[1][2] He was soon made by his father to work as an assistant production manager under Balagopi in his father's P. A. Art Productions for the Rajinikanth-starrer Guru Sishyan. Since Guru Sishyan, Subbu was involved in all the productions until the most recent release Maya Kannadi (2007),^[1][2] with Subbu being promoted from an executive producer to the main producer.^[3]

In 2002, Subbu acted in a film directed by Agathiyan, Kadhal Samrajyam, as one of its lead actors,^[4] However, after the release of the soundtrack, the film was shelved and was never released. In 2008, he ventured into television and appeared in the popular television drama series Arasi on Sun TV. He was approached by its director Samuthirakani to play the antagonist's role in the film, a role which was initially supposed to last for a week only, but was extended following positive responses. His first Tamil film was Saroja (2008), in which he had a cameo appearance.^[1][2] Subbu returned to the big screen with M. Rajesh's comedy film Boss Engira Bhaskaran, in which he played a pivotal character as the brother of the character played by Arya.^[5] The film became one of 2010's biggest commercial successes, which brought Subbu into the limelight and subsequently led to several more acting offers. He starred in Cloud Nine Movies' Thoonga Nagaram as a tahsildar,^[5] and appeared in films including Ajith Kumar's Mankatha where he played a CBI officer, and Aranmanai 2, both in negative roles.^[1][6]

Subbu had previously also worked as a choreographer in the K. Balachander-produced Vidukadhai,^[7] and as a voice actor, dubbing for actors Suman and Mukesh Tiwari in Sivaji: The Boss and Kandaswamy, respectively.^[1][8]

He has also appeared in advertisements for Hamam and Lakshmi ceramics. In 2012-13, he hosted a game show, Aayirathil Oruvan, on Zee Tamil channel.