Murali Karthikeyan Muthuraman (born 13 September 1960), better known by his stage name Karthik, is an Indian actor, playback singer and politician who works in Tamil cinema.

[2] He collaborated with leading film directors such as Mani Ratnam, Bharathiraja, Visu, R. Sundarrajan, Ameerjan, R. V. Udayakumar, Priyadarshan, Fazil, Vikraman, Agathiyan, Sundar C, K. S. Ravikumar, P. Vasu and K. V. Anand.

[7] He garnered acclaim for his role in the Telugu thriller Anveshana by Vamsy[8] and his cameo in Mouna Ragam (1986) was very well received by the audience.

He followed with commercial successes like Agni Natchathiram (1988), Varusham Padhinaaru (1989), Idhaya Thamarai (1990), Kizhakku Vaasal (1990) and culminated with the black comedy Gopura Vasalile (1991).

Ponnumani (1993) was a village-based melodrama, which was a super hit at the box office and fetched Karthik his fourth Filmfare award.

In the same year, he acted in his biggest commercial success: the full-length comedy Sundar C's Ullathai Allitha, alongside Rambha and Goundamani.

Karthik carried on his good streak at the box office in 1998, while also winning accolades for his performances in Vikraman's Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen (1998) (100th film), Cheyyar Ravi's Harichandra (1998) and Selva's Pooveli (1998), and won a Tamil Nadu State Award for Best Actor for the latter.

[12][13] In 1999, he played drama films like Chinna Raja, Nilave Mugam Kaattu, Anandha Poongatre, Suyamvaram and Rojavanam.

His career as a lead actor subsequently began to dwindle in the early 2000s, with several of his ventures opening with little publicity or being delayed after financial troubles.

[15][16] Likewise, other ventures including Mahesh's Manathil alongside Kausalya, Soundarrajan's Click co-starring Prabhu, and Selva's Kai Korthu Vaa progressed before being halted.

[17][18] Similarly, other projects in the early 2000s, such as Gurudeva with Rimjim, Muthalaam Santhippil with Kausalya again and Enrum Unnai Naesippaen were dropped soon after filming had begun.

During the nadir of 2002, Karthik was signed on by producer Keyaar to make a film titled Enna Peyar Veikalaam directed by Vincent Selva.

[26] Other ventures that the actor described as "comeback projects", such as Kicha's Unnidathil and Raj Kapoor's Sivalingam IPS, were shelved mid-production.

[29] Karthik opted to make a comeback into acting in 2010 and chose to appear in supporting rather than leading roles, much like his contemporaries Prabhu and Sathyaraj.

He was first seen portraying a caring police officer in Maanja Velu, before winning positive reviews for his small role as a forest guard in Mani Ratnam's Raavanan.

He again started another party named Manitha Urimaigal Kaakkum Katchi on 15 December 2018 at Tirunelveli before Lok saba elections and he expressed his support to AIADMK alliance.