The following people were born or based their life in Tiruchirappalli, earlier known as Trichinopoly.
- Akilan, Indian film director and producer
- Balaji Mohan, Tamil film director
- Vaali, Tamil film lyricist, screenwriter
- V. V. S. Aiyar, Indian independence activist, Tamil writer
- Madhan, cartoonist, journalist, writer and film critic
- Manushyaputhiran (S. Abdul Hameed), poet, writer, lyricist, publisher
- Samuel Vedanayagam Pillai, Tamil poet, novelist and social worker
- Sujatha, Tamil writer, engineer, novelist, Tamil film screenwriter
- Kalki Sadasivam, co-founder of Kalki
Politics and administration
[edit]- F. G. Natesa Iyer, Indian National Congress leader from South India, Tamil dramatist
- N.M.Kajamian Rowther, businessman, politician and philanthropist
- M. R. Sethuratnam Iyer, former Minister of Development in the Madras Presidency
- T. V. Seshagiri Iyer, Indian lawyer and politician
- Khan Bahadur P. Kalifullah Sahib Rowther, politician and Dewan of Pudukkottai State from 1941 to 1947
- T. S. S. Rajan, Indian independence activist, Minister of Public Health and Religious Endowments in the Madras Presidency from 1937 to 1939
- K. Subrahmanyam, former strategic affairs analyst of India and journalist
- P. Rathinavelu Thevar, Chairperson of the Trichinopoly Municipality from 1924 to 1946 and former vice-president of the Justice Party
- K. A. P. Viswanatham, Tamil scholar, activist and General secretary of Justice Party until 1940