J. P. Chandrababu

J. P. Chandrababu
Casual Poster of CB
Born	(1927-08-05)5 August 1927 Tuticorin, India
Died	8 March 1974(1974-03-08) (aged 46) Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupation	Comedian, actor, director, playback singer, singer and dancer
Spouse(s)	Sheila (m. 1958; div. 1958)

Joseph Panimayadas Chandrababu Rodriguez (1927–1974) was a Tamil film comedian, actor, director, singer and dancer, whose Chaplinesque style on-screen movements and singing style made him popular from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. He had a mastery of the Madras Bashai, a dialect unique to the Madras region. His slapstick style of comedy has been emulated by subsequent actors. Many of his songs have remained popular.

There is confusion regarding his full name. He hails from Paravar community and his catholic church christian name is Panimayadasa Rodriguez - which is a normal way of naming in Paravar community. Since most Tamils do have a family name, Indian passport use his fathers first name, Pichai, is confused as his surname in the media. Both his parents family names are written in his grave in Tuticorin which followed in some family in Paravar community which uses Dutch, Portuguese and French cultures in their lifestyle. His father was Joseph Pichai Rodriguez and his mother Roselin Correra.

Chandrababu was born to a wealthy and eminent Christian Paravar family in 1927 at Tuticorin, India. His father, a freedom fighter, ran a paper called Sudhandhira Veeran which, along with the family assets, was seized by the British government in 1929 when he was arrested for participating in the satyagraha movement. He and the family were exiled to Colombo, Sri Lanka on his release, where his father worked for a Tamil newspaper. Chandrababu was educated at St. Joseph's College, Colombo and Aquinas College prior to his family moving once more, this time to Chennai in 1943. Here they lived in Triplicane, where his father worked for the Dinamani newspaper.