Sivaji Ganesan

Villupuram Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy, better known by his stage name Sivaji Ganesan, (1 October 1928 – 21 July 2001) was an Indian Actor and Film producer.

He was active in Tamil cinema 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 gave him also the Tamil nickname Nadigar Thilagam.

In a career that spanned close to five decades, he had acted in 288 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi.

Sivaji Ganesan is the only Tamil actor to have played the lead role in over 250 films.

Ganesan was born on 1 October 1928, as the fourth son of Chinnaiya Manrayar and Rajamani Ammal in Villupuram, India.

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 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 was referred to by the name of "Sivaji".

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.

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 / Poongothai, 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.

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.

Ganesan 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.

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.

Ganesan was the first Indian actor to win a "Best Actor" award in an International film festival, the 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 south India's film industry".

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.