Sendhil Ramamurthy fights back as a CIA operative on Covert Affairs.

ISSUE: Winter 2011-12

DEPT: Personalities

STORY: Jimmy Lee

A warning: Cockblocking can be hazardous to your health. Especially if your college fraternity brother is now a writer on the hit TV show you’re starring in, and he thinks you got in his way when it came to getting the ladies. It’s one possible reason why Sendhil Ramamurthy’s chiseled features were on the opposite end of a fist so often on Heroes.

“I’ve never seen anybody get punched in the face as much as Suresh did. I mean, he got manhandled,” said Ramamurthy, referring to his character on the now-defunct NBC series, last July at Comic-Con. “I think he enjoyed just pummeling me, and bloodying me up.

“I was like, dude, I was not your problem,” the 37-year-old remembered telling his frat friend. “As flattering that you think I was the problem, it wasn’t that.”

Now on the hit USA Network series Covert Affairs,” Ramamurthy gets to do some of the pummeling. “Oh, it’s coming, don’t you worry about it. I just did a scene last week where I ….” He paused before continuing. “Yeah, it’s coming.”

Keeping secrets is just a part of what the son of Indian American immigrants does as CIA operative Jai Wilcox, in addition to wooing women and killing bad guys. And there’s one thing his new character has in common with Suresh: an air of mystery. What Jai’s motivations are and who his allegiances are with (maybe the show’s star, Piper Perabo?) have been kept under wraps. But expect some revelations during the second season’s second half, which began in November.

“You can expect Jai to do whatever he needs to do to get what he wants. I look at him as quite Machiavellian,” said Ramamurthy.

Though Ramamurthy is probably done stealing away any more women — he’s now married with a daughter — it sounds like Jai is not done wooing hearts.

— Jimmy Lee