R. Dilip – South Indian Actor associated with Visu’s films of 1980s

R. Dilip was a well-known South Indian film actor of 1980s, who predominantly worked in director Visu’s Tamil films. He worked as hero of many Visu films of 1980s, and also in few of his films playing supporting roles such as Samsaram Adhu Minsaram. He played parallel lead in very popular Malayalam romantic film, Njan Ekananu (1982) aside Madhu & actress Poornima Jayaram who marked her Malayalam debut with this film. It was Dilip’s debut Malayalam film as well. He has acted around 15 movies in Kannada language too.

He marked his acting debut in a Kamal Hassan film

R. Dilip hailed from Chennai, and was born on 26 August 1956. He was married to Hema, and the couple had one son and one daughter. After doing bit roles in the late 1970s, he marked his acting debut in Tamil Film Varumayin Niram Sivappu (1980), co-starring Kamal Hassan. The movie got noticed and he continued doing supporting roles for movies like Rail Payanangalil, Kilinjalgal, Ninaivellam Nithya etc. He regularly shared screen space with Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan in many movies and got noticed as well.

Jnan Ekananu – R. Dilip’s popular role in Malayalam

O Mridule (Happy Version) Song from Njan Ekananu

In 1982 he marked his Malayalam debut as a romantic hero through the film, Njan Ekananu. Though he has appeared in only one Malayalam movie throughout his career, Njan Ekananu in 1982 he is still remembered for the evergreen songs pictured on him – Oh Mridule and Pranayavasantham.

His real talent was recognized by filmmaker, Dwarakish Shruthi. Apart from Tamil films, he acted in Kannada films like Indina Ramayana, Arishina Kumkuma, Tooguve Krishnana, Shrudi, Oru cinema kathe, Ongadi Baalu, Onde Goodina Hakki etc.

Permanent fixture in Visu films

Dilip was regularly featured in Visu’s films. Vedikkai En Vadikkai (1990), Samsaram Adhu Minsaram (1985), Penmani Aval Kanmani (1988) etc are some of their associations. He was last seen in Sigamani Ramamani (2001), which was also last film of Visu as a director. They also worked together in a few movies as co-actors; Samsaram Adhu Minsaram, Mappilla Sir etc among those.

Oorukku Upadesam (1984), Selvi (1985), Samsaram Adhu Minsaram (1985), Padikkadha Pannaiyar (1985), Mappillai (1989), Dharma Durai (1991), Valli (1993) etc are some of his memorable roles in Tamil. He acted in around 50 films belonging to different languages.

Though he acted in around 50 films, he is not counted among successful actors. He mostly played hero’s friend or similar kind of roles on screen. In 2004, he lost huge sums of money in a business investment and got settled in Chennai. Suffering from kidney ailments for a long time, R. Dilip died on 25 May 2012 following a major heart attack, aged only 57.