Sivaji’s great acting skills gave him the Tamil nickname ‘Nadigar Thilagam’ means The pride of actors. He also won highest honour award for films in India Dada Saheb Phalke award in 1996.
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| Google Doodle honours Tamil producer and actor Sivaji Ganesan on the national homepage (Pic:-Google) |
Google doodle celebrates 93rd birth anniversary of legendary Tamil actor and producer Sivaji Ganesan on October 1, 2021 friday. Doodle is created by Bengaluru based artist Noopur Rajesh Choksi.
Sivaji’s full name was V. Chinnaiya Manrayar Ganesamoorthy and he was popularly known as Sivaji Ganesan. He was versatile actor and played many kind of roles on the screen. His great acting skills gave him the Tamil nickname ‘Nadigar Thilagam’ means The pride of actors.
Ganesan was born on October 1, 1928 in Villupuram, India. He was the fourth son of his family. At the age of seven, he joined touring stage drama company without his father’s consent. He joined drama troupe at the age of 10 and began performing stage plays. He learnt acting and dancing from the drama troupe trainers.
Once when Ganesan portrayed the role of Maratha ruler Shivaji on the stage play then on the public occassion, presided by Social reformer E.V. Ramasamy conferred on him the name ‘Sivaji’.
Ganesan made his acting debut in the 1952 Tamil film ‘Parasakthi’. He remained active in the film industry for almost five decades. During his career, he won number of awards. He became the first Indian film actor to win International award for the Best actor in Afro-Asian film festival held in Cairo, Egypt in 1960. He won this award for his blockbuster film ‘Veerapandiya Kattabomman’.
Sivaji Ganesan did almost 288 films in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and kannada language and won four filmfare awards and a national award. He received Kalaimamani award in 1962, Padma Shri award in 1966, Padma Bhushan award in 1984. He also won highest honour award for films in India Dada Saheb Phalke award in 1996 and NTR National award in 1998.
In 1952, Ganesan married to Kamala and had four children. Ganesan launched his film production company in the late 1950’s, now called Sivaji Productions.
Sivaji Ganesan also remained active in the politics. In 1962, he supported Indian National Congress. He was made the member of Rajya Sabha by the then Prime minister Indira Gandhi. In 1988, Sivaji made his own party named ‘Thamizhaga Munnetra Munnani’.
Due to respiratory problems, Ganesan was admitted to the Apollo Hospital, Chennai on July 1, 2001. He had also been suffering from heart disease for 10 years. On July 21, 2001 he died at the age of 72.
In 2006, Tamil Nadu government honoured Sivaji by making his statue at Kamarajar Road in Chennai.
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