Shamshuddin Ibrahim (born 4 April 1977), known professionally as Shaam, is an Indian actor and model who mainly appears Tamil and Telugu-language films.
[7] He then, following the recommendation of his model coordinator Biju Jayadevan, got to meet cinematographer Jeeva, who was planning to make his directorial debut and was on the lookout for a new face for the film's lead role.
[9][6] The promos of the film were critically praised with Shaam signing on to appear on several projects before 12B even released.
[11] The film which was a blatant rip-off of Sliding Doors, which itself had numerous comparisons with director Krzysztof Kieślowski's 1982 Polish film Blind Chance, fetched rave reviews and was seen as a "dream entry" for Shaam,[6] whose performance was praised as "apt".
[15] He was approached to play the third male lead role in Aaytha Ezhuthu, but was unable to sign the film because of date issues with Iyarkai.
[16] Iyarkai by debutant S P Jananathan was his final release of 2003 and also failed at the box office due to a delayed release, but opened to high critical acclaim, even winning the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil.
[31] Then he tried his luck in Hindi with director Faisal Saif in the Hindi-Tamil bilingual titled Mujhe Maaf Karo.
[33] Regarding his role in Veera, a critic noted that "Shaam fits into his character perfectly, but he has hardly any screen time to shine".
[39] For his role in the film, he spent more than a dozen sleepless nights, which resulted in a big swelling below his eyes and for another look, hereduced his weight and grew his hair long and a beard.
In a review of the film, a critic stated that "Shaam as the arrogant elder brother Ram delivers a good performance".
[44] In 2015, he won critical acclaim for his portrayal of an honest police officer in Jananathan's political drama Purampokku Engira Podhuvudamai (2015), which had an ensemble cast featuring Arya and Vijay Sethupathi.
[45] Shaam's next release was the Kannada suspense thriller Game, which was also shot in Tamil as Oru Melliya Kodu alongside Arjun and Manisha Koirala.
[50] In August 2017, he was cast in Venkat Prabhu's multi-starrer Party in a negative role; however, the film remains unreleased since 2018.
[52] He played a negative role in Naanga Romba Busy (2020) starring Prasanna and Ashwin Kakumanu.