It was ten years back that Prashanth began his career with Vaikasi Poranthachu. Known as actor- director Thigarajan's (also known as Mammotiyan in film circles for his role in Malayora Mamootiyan) son he hit the limelight with his first film itself. A rustic love story, Prashanth emerged as a lover boy in a field dominated by superstars and the Prabhu's and Vijaykanth's.

His later career graph has not been very upward but at the same time he has managed to be a survivor against the onslaught of the young blood that is giving him a run for his money. Today Ajith and Vijay are compared to the Rajanikanth- Kamalhassan duo and the MGR- Sivaji duo and where does that leave Prashanth in the box office?When the producers council came up with a list of saleable heroes he was left out. Year 2000 gave Prashanth a hit Parthean Rasithean.

And this year he has Star with Jyothika. The movie has music by A R Rahman, Majnu from CTV (the producers of Jeans and Minnale) and directed by Ravichandran who teamed up with Prashanth earlier to give the smash hit Kannaethirey Thondrinal.

This 'Chocolate' hero answers our querries:
Today the industry talks about Ajith- Vijay as the successful heroes. What do you say about this?
You make it sound like all other heroes are sitting at home and doing nothing. Today the scenario is that all the young lot are very busy. I don't have even breathing space. The generation when the two rival heroes clashed through the fan clubs or had a distinct section of the audience rooting for him does not exist.

If the film is good the audience will support it and nothing else matters. Today's heroes also do not evaluate a film on just the box office trends but see whether the hero has done his part well and where he scores. The competition is healthy. I think today we are competing on friendly terms. The bottom line today is to do your part well and leave the numbers game on the side.

Does it not hurt you to see others over take?
To me its a great feeling to have the same producers, directors and co artistes who saw me in the first film still treat me with the same fondness and warmth, which they had done even ten years back. Working with directors like Manirathinam, Balu Mahendra, Shankar are achievements for me in themselves.

Does your father hear the stories first or you?
Till Jeans my father heard the story first and sent the director to me if he liked but now I spare him the trouble and sent him only those director's with a good story.

Some of your flop films had no story at all?
Sometimes we accept a film for the producer. For instance, if he is an old friend of Dad and we want to help him out. These projects have landed us up in trouble because the producer is in a hurry to clear up the debts and is least interested in the quality of the film. Compromises start happening. If we put our foot down then the story goes out that we are interfering types.

Why have you not slotted your position in the market?
Box office wise I have not reached the zenith and nor have I slipped to the bottom. I firmly believe that one has to grow gradually. Acting wise, I have steered clear of being slotted into any model because I don't want to get stuck in any slot. Whether it's my dialogue delivery or mannerisms I have never been the same .As a result nobody can predict how I will do a role or speak my lines. But again the few successes that have come my way are slowly shaping up a style. The coming year will show the results.

Now you have Rinkie khanna, Amisha Patel as your heroines and earlier you had Pooja Bhatt, Aishwarya Rai, Rhea Sen. Why this fixation for bringing heroines from Mumbai?
In my first film we had Kaveri and then later on we had Mamta Kulkarni, Preethi Zhingania and so on. The reason is that my producers benefit from this because they are able to dub the film in Hindi and Telugu and earn more money and I also get an exposure in these languages.

After you entered films your father has given up acting. Are there any plans to come together in a film?
He gave up his acting so that he can concentrate on my career and I too wanted him to stop working because he had struggled hard to give us all the best things in life. Yes, I think its time that Dad and I came together in a film.