40 th Anniversary of First Cinemascope Film in South India

We are now celebrating the 100 Years of INDIAN  CINEMA. This year also happens to be the 40 th Anniversary of the First Cinemascope Film in South India - RAJA RAJA CHOZHAN ( Tamil) which was released in 1973. The First Indian Cinemascope film was Guru Datt's KAGAZ KE PHOOL ( Hindi - B&W ) released in 1959.The legendary  Cinematographer V.K.Murthy was the man behind the camera.

RAJA RAJA CHOZHAN   CinemaScope - Colour

  

First CinemaScope Tamil Film Produced in South India

The film was produced by G. Umapathy of Anand Theatres , Chennai and Directed by A. P. Nagarajan. The Music scored by Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan and the Cinematography by  W.R. Subba Rao.

Censor Certificate Dated 16 th March 1973

 

The cast :  Sivaji Ganesan,  R. Muthuraman, Sivakumar, M.N.Nambiar, Lakshmi, Manorama,Vijayakumari,S. Varalakshmi. It also had Singer actors T. R. Mahalingam  and Sirkazhi Govindarajan 

Sivaji Ganesan and M.N.Nambiar

Many, even from the Film Industry are not aware of the fact that CinemaScope is the Registered  Trade Mark  of 20 th Century Fox  International Corporation and Royalty had to be paid for the use of the name "CinemaScope" in the publicity material. But in the First CinemaScope film, there is a special title card regarding this:

License from 20 th Century Fox

Inspite of the new wide screen CinemScope format,  grand settings and super actors the film bombed at the box office and it was only few years later that Cinemascope as format was revived and came into vogue. I think that the next one was my film ALLAVIDHEENUM ARPUTHA VILAKKUM (Tamil and Malayalam - 1979) Directed by I.V.Sasi.

ALLAVIDHEENUM ARPUTHA VILAKKUM

 

Afterwards there was no going back and now it had become the most widely accepted format in India!

My Unreleased Tamil Films - 2

The film PAADUM VANAMPADI which was the Tamil remake of Mithun Chakraborty's Super hit Hindi film DISCO DANCER, starring new comer Anand Babu ( son of veteran actor Nagesh ) was a very great Musical hit and ran for more than One Hundred days at Chennai and other centres. The Director of the film M. Jayakumar was flooded with many film offers from big production companies. After some failed projects he took up a film named KADHAL VIDUTHALAI. The Puja invitation card can be seen below:

The film starred Ramki, Janakaraj, Nizhalgal Ravi, Vennira Aadai Murthy, Nishanthi, Manorama, Subha etc. and Music by S.A. Rajkumar. The shooting took place in Chennai and Ootty and other locations.

With Director M. Jayakumar

Actress Manorama with the crew

The film shoot went on smoothly without any hitches. The editing and re-recording done and finally the first copy was taken. Unfortunately there was some dispute amongst the producers and the film never got released ever. After a few years I heard that there was a change of title and the film will be released, but that never happened.

The Director Jayakumar never could make any other film and had started a retail business for livelihood.


Another Tamil Film that failed to take off

Director Bhadran wanted me to work in his Tamil film EZHAVATHU SWARAM in which he wanted to introduce Actor Vineedh to Tamil audiences. The Puja was conducted with all pomp and publicity with Chief Minister Kalaignar Karunanidhi inaugurating the function. But the film never progressed any further!