{"id":34828,"date":"2014-11-10T10:46:31","date_gmt":"2014-11-10T15:46:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=34828"},"modified":"2014-11-10T10:51:19","modified_gmt":"2014-11-10T15:51:19","slug":"sivajiganesan-geminiganeshsilksmitha-sowcarjanakijayamravicidshakunthala-film-name-phenomenon-in-tamil-cinema","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=34828","title":{"rendered":"“Sivaji”Ganesan, “Gemini”Ganesh,”Silk”Smitha, “Sowcar”Janaki,”Jayam”Ravi,”CID”Shakunthala-Film Name Phenomenon in Tamil Cinema."},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/p>\n

Mohan V.Raman
\n<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s not a nickname; it\u2019s not a surname, middle name or even a first name. It\u2019s a unique phenomenon that takes a film you became famous with, or a character you played, adds it to your name and lo and behold \u2014 you get a totally different name. It\u2019s the process by which Villupuram Chinnaiah Mandrayar Ganesha Murthy becomes Sivaji Ganesan. <\/p>\n

It is this new name that I call the nom du film or simply the film name phenomenon that\u2019s fairly unique to the Tamil film industry. We see something similar only in the world of American sports or gangsters perhaps \u2014 Tiger Woods and Magic Johnson; Scarface Capone or Bugsy Malone come to mind.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a logic to these names. They could be based on physical attributes like \u2018Gundu\u2019 Karuppaiah or Kalyanam, \u2018Semia\u2019 Mani, \u2018Kulla\u2019 Mani and \u2018Omakuchi\u2019 Narasimhan. Smitha supposedly had skin as smooth as silk and became \u2018Silk\u2019 Smitha. It could be based on the actor\u2019s ability \u2014 thus, Mani’s talent for quick repartee got him the moniker \u2018Counter\u2019 Mani, which was soon corrupted to \u2018Gounder\u2019 Mani and then \u2018Gounda\u2019 Mani.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018Kutty\u2019 Padmini, who attained fame as a child star, retained her nom du film even after she grew up. Since there were quite a few Subbiahs, we had a \u2018Vellai\u2019 Subbiah as opposed to a \u2018Karuppu\u2019 Subbiah or the more famous S.V. Subbiah.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sandow\u2019 Chinnappa Thevar, as is obvious, was a wrestler. One of Tamil\u2019s earliest action heroes was \u2018Battling\u2019 Mani \u2014 a leading star like his female counterpart in Bollywood \u2018Fearless\u2019 Nadia.<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the category of names that come from the films that made them famous. Brothers Raja and Ravi, who directed and acted in Jayam, became \u2018Jayam\u2019 Raja and \u2018Jayam\u2019 Ravi. Not to be confused with \u2018Nizhalgal\u2019 Ravi, the star of Bharathiraja\u2019s Nizhalgal; while CID Shankar gave us CID Shakunthala. Murthy the comedian and Nirmala, one of the female leads, got their names from the film Vennira Adai. \u2018Pasi\u2019 Narayanan, \u2018Pasi\u2019 Sathya, \u2018Poovilangu\u2019 Mohan, \u2018Thalaivasal\u2019 Vijay and \u2018Sangili\u2019 Murugan all got their prefixes from the films that made them popular.<\/p>\n

The Telugu film Shavukar launched a young girl Janaki, who would soon become the famous \u2018Sowcar\u2019 Janaki. Another Telugu film Sakshi was added to Ranga Rao to differentiate him from S.V. Ranga Rao; his son Siva, a popular TV star, has added Sakshi to his name, a rare case of the nom du film moving to the second generation, another example being that of \u2018Isari\u2019 Velan and his son Ganesh, where \u2018Isari\u2019 came from the line \u2018adhu seri\u2019.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to the next category \u2014 dialogues or phrases that made them famous. \u2018Ennatha\u2019 Kanniah, \u2018Danaal\u2019 Thangavelu, \u2018Kaakka\u2019 Radhakrishnan, \u2018Ayyatheriyaadhayya\u2019 Rama Rao, \u2018Pakodah\u2019 Khadar, \u2018Aleik\u2019 Nirmala, who later dropped \u2018Aleik\u2019 and became just Vijayanirmala (the Guinness record holder for lady director with the maximum number of films in the world), \u2018Fatafat\u2019 Jayalakshmi and \u2018Achchacho\u2019 Chithra are some examples.<\/p>\n

Another lot got their names from the place they came from, the most famous of these being \u2018Gemini\u2019 Ganesh, who took the name of the studio he represented. AVM Rajan made the studio name his initials. Some, like the famous stage actor Viswanathan, added the city he lived in, Calcutta, to his name. \u2018Delhi\u2019 Ganesh was christened thus by his mentor K. Balachander to distinguish him from Sivaji, Gemini and Jai, all Ganeshs. Then, there\u2019s \u2018Delhi\u2019 Kumar on television, while from Balachander\u2019s company we got \u2018Kavithalaya\u2019 Krishnan.<\/p>\n

Then there are the roles they immortalised on screen \u2014 \u2018Major\u2019 Sundarrajan played Major Chandrakanth in a play and film by K. Balachander, and there were \u2018Nawab\u2019 Rajamanickam, \u2018Typist\u2019 Gopu, \u2018Thengai\u2019 Srinivasan, and \u2018Kaththadi\u2019 Ramamurthy.<\/p>\n

Inspector Javert of Les Miserables, when played in Tamil by Seetharaman, became Jhaver Seetharaman. T.K. Shanmugam and Rathinam became \u2018Avvai\u2019 and \u2018Kaali\u2019, respectively, with even a road named Avvai Shanmugam Salai today.<\/p>\n

We also have \u2018Judo\u2019 Rathinam, \u2018Stunt\u2019 Somu, \u2018Gana\u2019 Ulaganathan, \u2018Joker\u2019 Ramudu, and \u2018Buffoon\u2019 Shankara Iyer \u2014 from the stuff they do in films.<\/p>\n

The tradition continues. For his role as Captain Prabhakar, Vijaykanth forever became Captain Vijaykanth, just as Vikram became \u2018Chiyaan\u2019 Vikram after Sethu. Of course, as we said, the most famous of them all being the man who played the title role in a play by C.N. Annadurai, after which Periyar christened him ‘Sivaji’ Ganesan.<\/p>\n

\u2018What\u2019s in a name,\u2019 the poet famously asked. If it\u2019s Tamil cinema, then quite a lot, we think\u2026<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

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by Mohan V.Raman It\u2019s not a nickname; it\u2019s not a surname, middle name or even a first name. It\u2019s a unique phenomenon that takes a film you became famous with, or a character you played, adds it to your name and lo and behold \u2014 you get a totally different name. It\u2019s the process by …<\/p>\n

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