Sanjeev Venkat

Sanjeev is a close friend of Tamil actor Vijay.[1][2] Both of them studied visual communications at Loyola College. He is the nephew of late actress Manjula Vijayakumar. Sanjeev married leading television actress Preethi Srinivasan in 2009. His only sister Sindhu has done few films as a heroine and later acted in many successful serials like Metti Oli, Penn, Anandham and so on. His sister Sindhu died in 2005 and Sanjeev took full responsibility for his sister's daughter (who was only 9 years old at the time of her mother's death). Sanjeev and his wife Preethi had conducted her wedding in 2017, as her parents. His close friends in the television industry are Deepak Dinkar and Shreekumar and Vijay. Sanjeev has two children: Laya, who was born in May 2010, and Adhav, who was born in April 2014.[3]

Sanjeev started his career doing supporting roles playing Vijay's friend in most of the movies. He entered the television industry with the serial Metti Oli in which he played a negative role in 2002. After doing a number of negative and supporting characters, he got his break with Thirumathi Selvam (2007-2013) in which he played the main lead for the first time. The serial led to his popularity among the Tamil audience, and his performance in the show was well appreciated and received. Sanjeev is known to Tamil families as Selvam, the character he portrayed in the serial. Awards he received for this include a Tamil Nadu State Award for Best Television Actor in 2008 and Sun Kudumbam Award for Best Actor 2010.