Devan Sreenivasan (born January 8, 1952), is an Indian film and television actor, producer, and politician from Kerala. He is known for his character roles in Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu language films. After many second hero and supporting actor roles, he made his breakthrough in the 1987 film New Delhi. He later advanced to a lead actor with films like Oru Minnaminunginte Nurunguvettam (1987), Oozham (1988), Simon Peter Ninakku Vendi (1988) and Aranyakam (1988). His well-known movies such as Vietnam Colony (1992), Ekalavyan (1993), Honest Raj (1994), Baashha (1995) and Indraprasdham (1996). He is also known as 'Devji' among his fans. Early life Devan was born on 5 May 1952 in Thrissur, India. His father, Sreenivasan, was a public prosecutor and his mother, Lalitha, was a doctor. He has three siblings, Shobha, Sheela and Sureshbabu. His family has a Kalaripayattu lineage. Malayalam filmmaker Ramu Kariat was his uncle. Devan completed his schooling at Government Model Higher Secondary School, Thrissur. He took bachelor's degree from St. Thomas College, Thrissur, during his college time he was a member of Kerala Students Union (KSU); his parents were Indian National Congress-leaning. His father wanted him to be a police officer, but he wanted to be in army. After graduation, he tried at the National Defence Academy, but was not selected. He went to Madras (now Chennai) in search of a job and later took post-graduation in Master of Business Administration. Career During his time in college, he used to read books a lot. He found possibility for a film in N. N. Pisharody's novel Vellam, he approached director Hariharan, who agreed with him, M. T. Vasudevan Nair wrote the screenplay, it was the first and last screenplay of his not based on his own story. Devan produced the film, filming was halted midway due to financial crisis. He made his acting debut in Ashatapathi to raise fund to resume filming, it was followed by a number of acting projects. After which, shooting resumed, but upon release, the film failed at the box office. In an interview, he said that Vellam (1985) is the best film come out from Hariharan-M. T. Vasudevan Nair combination. It was in the 1987 film New Delhi that he first appeared as a villain, since then he was typecast as a villain in Malayalam cinema. However, in Telugu cinema, he is known for character roles. Devan recalled in an interview