Sriman & Ponnambalam Movies Together List — 4 Films

The shape of the work

The 2000s account for 75% of everything they made together. The 2000s belonged to Thennavan; the 2010s to Arakkonam. Sriman acted in every film; Ponnambalam acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• They first shared screen space in Thavasi (2001) because director S. A. Chandrasekhar specifically wanted a towering villain to stand opposite Vijay. Ponnambalam was cast first, and Sriman was brought in as the hero's friend — but their face-off scene in the climax became the film's most talked-about moment.
• In Thennavan (2003), Sriman played the comic sidekick while Ponnambalam was the menacing henchman. Their scenes worked because Sriman would deliberately overreact to Ponnambalam's deadpan threats — making the villain look scarier and the comedy land harder.
• During the shoot of Diwan (2003), Ponnambalam would drive Sriman to the set every morning in his old Ambassador car. Sriman later said those rides were where they rehearsed their scenes together — no director, just the two of them running lines.
• Sriman once told a fan blog: 'Ponnambalam never raised his voice on set. But the moment the camera rolled, his eyes would go cold. I had to match that energy — or look like a fool.'
• Their last film together, Arakkonam (2012), was a low-budget thriller that got a direct-to-TV release. But the film's villain track — where Ponnambalam's character silently stalks Sriman's family — was later copied beat-for-beat in a 2015 serial on Sun TV.