Dhanush undergoes body test

In a rare paternity suit, an elderly couple approached a Judicial Magistrate claiming that the young actor was their biological son

National award-winning Kollywood film actor Dhanush (the hero of Hindi film Raanjana), who is the son-in-law of superstar Rajinikanth, was on Tuesday subjected to a physical examination by the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) to check for identification marks on his body in an unusual paternity-cum-maintenance suit. Dhanush’s father Kasthoory Raja and his elder brother Selva Raghavan are both well known Tamil film directors.

An elderly couple R Kathiresan and K Meenakshi, who hail from Melur in Madurai district, had approached a Judicial Magistrate last November claiming that the young actor was their biological son. They claimed that Dhanush was actually born Kalaichelvan and had studied in a government school in Melur up to Class X. Later he went to a school in Sivaganga district to attend Class XI and dropped out of school in 2002 and left for Chennai as he was interested in film acting.

Producing a school Transfer Certificate, which the couple claimed was that of Dhanush’, they said that he had a mole on his right collarbone and a scar on the right forearm. The couple wanted the actor to pay them a monthly maintenance of Rs 65,000.

Rejecting the claims made by the couple, Dhanush had moved the Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) seeking a direction to the Judicial Magistrate, Melur, to quash the proceedings initiated by them. He insisted that he did not have the said birth marks on his body. The actor insisted that he was born in Chennai on July 28, 1983 to R Krishnamurthy and K Vijayalakshmi and was named R K Vengadesha Prabhu.