List of people from Madurai
The following is a list of notable people from the Indian city of Madurai, Tamil Nadu.
Religious figures
Scholars
Dancers
- Rukmini Devi Arundale – Bharatanatyam dancer; founder of the Kalakshetra Foundation, an art and cultural academy
 - Anita Ratnam – classical and contemporary dancer
 
Entrepreneurs and business leaders
- Chitra Bharucha – former vice chairman of the BBC Trust[1]
 - Rajashree Birla – wife of Aditya Vikram Birla
 - Karumuttu Thiagarajan Chettiar – Indian independence activist, industrialist and the founder of Thiagarajar College of Engineering and Thiagarajar School of Management
 - Sundar Pichai – chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google Inc.
 
Social activists
- Narayanan Krishnan
 - Gopi Shankar Madurai[2] – The Commonwealth Awardee,[3][4] youngest candidate in the Tamil Nadu Assembly election and also the first openly intersex and genderqueer person to do so[5][6][7][8]
 - S. Swapna – first Indian transgender to take the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) recruitment examination for public-service employees in the Tamil Nadu state
 
Literature
Music
Film industry
- Ameer (director)
 - Atlee (director)
 - Bala (director)
 - Bharathiraja
 - Cheran (director)
 - Chimbu Deven
 - Susi Ganeshan
 - G. Gnanasambandam
 - Ilaiyaraaja
 - Kanika
 - Ganja Karuppu
 - C. V. Kumar
 - Maniratnam
 - Meenal
 - Pandi (actor)
 - Solomon Pappaiah
 - Mohan Raja
 - Pattimandram Raja
 - Ramarajan
 - Jayam Ravi
 - Samudrakani
 - M. Sasikumar
 - Vijay Sethupathi
 - Shaam
 - Robo Shankar
 - Shanmugarajan
 - Soori (actor)
 - Srinivasan (Tamil actor)
 - Karthik Subbaraj
 - Vadivelu
 - Velraj
 - Vijayakanth
 - Vivek (actor)
 
Politicians and public servants
- P. Amudha
 - S. K. Balakrishnan
 - Mayandi Bharathi
 - R. Chidambara Bharathi
 - Angidi Chettiar – former vice president of Mauritius
 - A. Vaidyanatha Iyer
 - Jana Krishnamurthi
 - P. Mohan
 - S. Muthu
 - Pazha Nedumaran
 - P. T. Rajan
 - Palanivel Rajan
 - S. M. Muhammed Sheriff – former Consecutive Member of Parliament
 - Nirmala Sitharaman – Minister of Finance
 - Palanivel Thiagarajan
 
Sportsmen
Software
References
- ^ "DITN: Chitra Bharucha, Acting Head of the BBC". Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 16 July 2015.
 - ^ Vasudevan, Shilpa Kappur (13 April 2015). "One Who Fights For an Other". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 19 May 2015.
 - ^ "Finalists of 2016 Commonwealth Youth Worker Awards Announced". Commonwealth Secretariat. 27 October 2016. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
 - ^ Veerappan, Devanathan (21 October 2016). "Gender Rights Activist Shortlisted for International Award". The Times of India. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
 - ^ "Intersex Person to Contest from Madurai North". The Hindu. 30 April 2016. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
 - ^ Menon, Priya (22 April 2016). "3rd Gender Gets a New Champion in Tamil Nadu Poll Ring". The Times of India. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
 - ^ "Intersex Candidate Alleges Harassment". The Times of India. 10 May 2016. Retrieved 2 March 2025.
 - ^ Mathew, Pheba (24 April 2016). "This Intersex Person Is Contesting TN Polls, 'Ze' Wants to Change Your Mind on Sexual Minorities". The News Minute. Retrieved 2 March 2025.