He belongs to Brahmin community and hence he is generally a typical Gurukkal who performs various pooja and other rituals in kovils, cultural events and weddings.
He received an opportunity to feature in AVM Studio's Tamil television soap opera Nambikkai where he played the role of a poosari performing rituals.
He also performed pooja rituals for the inauguration of Sun TV's Tamil television soap opera Metti Oli and he also acted in the first episode of the serial.
During the film shooting of Varalaru (2006), Ajith Kumar affectionately nicknamed him as "High-Tech Iyer" after seeing how Mangalanathan had motorbike keys around his stomach and simultaneously he was performing mantra rituals.
[1] In 2021, Mangalanathan Gurukkal formally lodged an official police complaint against scammers for allegedly spreading fake news and rumours about his health conditions whereas he was also speculated to have died due to COVID-19 pandemic.