Thambi Ramaiah & Ilavarasu Movies Together List — 7 Films

The shape of the work

The 2010s belonged to Veeram; the 2020s to Thiru.Manickam. Thambi Ramaiah acted in every film; Ilavarasu acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Director Siva cast Thambi Ramaiah and Ilavarasu together in Veeram (2014) specifically because he wanted two actors who could play loyal, rustic sidekicks without trying to steal the hero's thunder. Thambi later said Siva told him: 'I need someone who can make the audience laugh without making them forget Ajith.'
• On the sets of Maanga (2015), Thambi Ramaiah would deliberately flub his lines in the first take to make Ilavarasu laugh — and Ilavarasu's genuine, uncontrollable laughter became the take the director kept. That's why their comedy scenes together feel so loose and real.
• During the shoot of Vetrivel (2016), the two actors shared a room in a small lodge near Tenkasi for 45 days. Ilavarasu cooked sambar rice every Sunday, and Thambi Ramaiah washed their clothes. They still call each other 'roommate' in interviews.
• Their double-act in Sangili Bungili Kathava Thorae (2017) — where they played a bumbling ghost-hunting duo — directly inspired the comedy track in the 2022 web series 'Kallachirippu'. The showrunner admitted in a podcast that he rewatched their scenes to study how they traded punchlines without stepping on each other's timing.
• Ilavarasu once said about Thambi Ramaiah: 'He is the only actor who can make me forget the camera. When he starts his dialogue, I stop acting. I just react.' — from a 2017 behind-the-scenes feature on Sun TV.
• In TN 2026 (2026), the two play estranged brothers. Thambi Ramaiah insisted on rehearsing their confrontation scene 14 times before the shoot. Ilavarasu later told the crew: 'He wanted me to hit him for real in one take. I refused. That's how much we trust each other — we know where to draw the line.'