Sivaji Ganesan

Villupuram Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001), better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, was an Indian actor and film producer. He was mainly active in Tamil cinema and theatre during the latter half of the 20th century. Sivaji Ganesan is acknowledged as one of the greatest Indian actors of all time and among the most imitated one by other actors. He was known for his versatility and the variety of roles he depicted on screen, which also gave him the Tamil nickname Nadigar Thilagam (transl. the pride of actors). In a career that spanned close to five decades, he acted in 288 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. Sivaji Ganesan is the only actor in Tamil cinema to have played the lead role in over 250 films.

Ganesan was the first Indian actor to win the "Best Actor" award at the first Afro-Asian Film Festival held in Cairo, Egypt in 1960. Many leading South Indian actors have stated that their acting was influenced by Ganesan. In 1997, Ganesan was conferred the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest honour for films in India. He was also the first Indian actor to be made a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. In addition, he received National Film Award (Special Jury), four Filmfare Awards South and three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.

Ganesan is remembered as an iconic figure of Tamil cinema. Upon his death, The Los Angeles Times described him as "the Marlon Brando of India's film industry".

In his career, he mostly paired with K.R. Vijaya, Padmini, Savitri, B. Sarojadevi, P. Bhanumathi and also worked alongside several writers and co-stars who later became Chief Ministers: C.N. Annadurai, M. Karunanidhi, MGR, NTR and J. Jayalalithaa.

Early life

Ganesan was born on 1 October 1928, as the fourth son of Chinnaiya Manrayar and Rajamani Ammal in Villupuram, India in a Kallar (Thevar) family. Early in his career, Ganesan acted under the name V. C. Ganesan. Media outlets said that the initial 'V' stood for Villupuram, though one of Ganesan's sons stated that it stands for Vettaithidal, a village from which their family originates. Without his father's consent, Ganesan decided to join a touring stage drama company at the age of seven. At the age of 10, he moved to Tiruchirappalli and joined a drama troupe in Sangiliyandapuram and began to perform in stage plays. From the drama troupe trainers, he was fortunate enough to learn acting and dancing. He was trained in Bharatanatyam, Kathak and Manipuri dance forms.

Ganesan exhibited the ability to remember lengthy lines easily. The group favoured Ganesan to play the lead and he would continue to do so. His portrayal of Shivaji I in the stage play Shivaji Kanda Hindu Rajyam written by C. N. Annadurai earned him the monicker "Sivaji", which was conferred on him at a public function presided over by social reformer Periyar. Since then, he has been referred to by the name of "Sivaji".

Film career

Early career: 1951–1953

Ganesan lent his voice to Mukkamala Krishna Murthy, a Telugu actor, for the Tamil film Niraparadhi (1951). He made his acting debut in the 1952 Tamil film Parasakthi, which was directed by the Krishnan–Panju duo and co-starred actress Pandari Bai. The film became an instant commercial success, running for over 175 days in several theatres, and ran for over 50 days in all the 62 centres it was released, and at the Sri Lanka–based Mailan Theatre, it ran for nearly 40 weeks. Film distributor P. A. Perumal Mudaliar of National Pictures, with the patronage of A. V. Meiyappan of AVM Productions, bought the film rights of Parasakthi. P.A. Perumal cast Ganesan after being impressed with his performance as Nur Jahan in the Sakthi Nadaga Sabha play of the same name. It was he who, in 1950, gave Ganesan a flight ticket to Madras for the screen test for Parasakthi. Ganesan had simultaneously shot for the Telugu-Tamil bilingual film Paradesi (titled Poongothai in Tamil), which was supposed to be his actual film to release first, but released much later after Perumal requested its co-producer Anjali Devi to let Parasakthi release first, and she agreed.

Parasakthi did not begin well for Ganesan. When shooting began and 2000 feet of the film was shot, Meiyappan was dissatisfied with Ganesan's "thin" physique, and wanted him replaced with K. R. Ramasamy. Perumal refused, and Ganesan was retained. Meiyappan was also satisfied with the final results of the film. The initial scenes of Ganesan which he earlier disliked were reshot. Ganesan was paid a monthly salary of ₹250 (valued at about US$52.5 in 1952) for acting in the film.The script was written by later Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi. Since actors who are well-trained in classical dance can effectively showcase expressions called Nava Rasa on their faces, Ganesan went on to become one of the popular actors in Tamil cinema in the 1950s. His unique voice had a greater appeal. His style of dialogue delivery with a long spell of dialogues—like a poetry recitation with much clarity—earned him critical recognition.

Two factors can be attributed the entry of Ganesan into films: the principal artists in Tamil films during the 1940s and 1950s were Telugus, whose acting was not matched by their dialogue delivery in Tamil. Secondly, the 1950s saw the growth of the Dravidian movement in Tamil Nadu, under the leadership of C. N. Annadurai, and M. Karunanidhi. Their transformation of language skills to films through script writing ensured their instant acceptance.

Donning versatile roles: 1954–1969

Andha Naal (1954) was a trendsetter in Tamil cinema because it had no songs and Ganesan played an anti-hero. The film won the president's silver medal the following year. The same year, he co-starred with his competitor M. G. Ramachandran in Koondukkili, where he played the antagonist.

His role in the film Veerapandiya Kattabomman won him the Best Actor Award at the Afro-Asian Film Festival held in March 1960 at Cairo. Incidentally, Ganesan was also the first Indian actor to get an award for Best Actor abroad. Often considered to be a landmark film in Tamil cinema, Pasamalar is arguably one of the best films of Sivaji Ganesan and Savitri together. Once again directed by A Bhimsingh, the film has a cult following and rightly so. When it released in 1961, it became a trendsetter of sorts and was a money spinner at the box-office. Post its release, several films based on a similar theme were made, for example, Mullum Malarum. It also won the National Award that year and was remade in several languages.

Uthama Puthiran is the first film to feature Ganesan in dual roles and the first Indian film to have the shots with zoom technique. Sivaji Ganesan has acted in many Tamil movies co-starring with many popular and talented Tamil actresses of his time. He gave many commercial success films such as Palum Pazhamum, Irumbu Thirai, Padikkadha Medhai, Paava Mannippu, Padithal Mattum Podhuma, Aalayamani, Iruvar Ullam, Annai Illam, Aandavan Kattalai, Kappalottiya Thamizhan, Kai Koduttha Dheivam, Puthiya Paravai and his 100th film, Navarathri whereby ganesan acted nine distinct roles in the film. It is arguably one of Sivaji Ganesan's best films in its tribute to the actor.

He had comedic roles in several movies, such as Kalyanam Panniyum Brahmachari (1954), Sabaash Meena (1958), Ooty Varai Uravu (1967), and Galatta Kalyanam (1968).

His portrayal of Lord Shiva in the movie Thiruvilayadal (1965) won him many accolades. Ganesan could strike a balance between commercial cinema, Mythological cinema and experimental cinema. His epical portrayals in films such as Thiruvilayaadal, Thiruvarutselvar, Saraswati Sabatham, Thirumal Perumai and Thillana Mohanambal won him critical acclaim. He played a variety of roles such as freedom fighters, like V.O. Chidambaram Pillai,Tiruppur Kumaran, Bhagat Singh and epic characters like Karna, Bharatha, Narada, Appar, Nayanmars and Alwars. Spanning genres like epics to Crime thrillers; from romantic escapades to comic flicks and action flicks, Ganesan has covered it all.

Superstardom – varied roles: 1970–1979

Ganesan played supporting role to Rajendra Kumar in the Hindi film Dharti in 1970, which was a remake of his 1969 Tamil film Sivandha Mann, in which he played the lead role. In the Hindi version, Ganesan played the role which Muthuraman had played in the original. Several directors such as Krishnan–Panju, T. R. Sundaram, T. R. Ramanna, A. P. Nagarajan, L. V. Prasad, B. R. Panthulu, T. Prakash Rao, D. Yoganand, A. Bhim Singh, K. Shankar, C. V. Sridhar, A. C. Tirulokchandar, P. Madhavan, K. S. Gopalakrishnan, Muktha V.Srinivasan, C. V. Rajendran, and K. Vijayan directed Ganesan in different roles. Jaggayya offered his voice to Sivaji when his movies were dubbed into Telugu.