Sri MGR Year 95, 16th April, Monday
The first Tamil movie with 70 mm was Maaveeran which was released in 1986. But before that, in 1975 a 70 MM movie was planned by G.Umapathy who was the first producer for Tamil Cinemascope movie Nadigar Thilagam’s Raja Raja Cholan in 1973.
I had an opportunity to handle the Thirai Ulagam 1.9.1975 edition. In that the first page article is titled “Makkal Thilagam MGR Iru vedangalil nadika Oru Kodi Rubai selavil 70 MMyil uruvagum muthal Tamil padam – G.Umapathy thayarikirar”.
The movie is based on the novel written by Kalki titled Sivagamiyin Sabatham. The 7th century story – The vow of Sivagami, MGR doing a dual role as the King Mahendra Varman and Mamallan Narasimha Pallavan, Muthuraman as aide in the role of Paranjothi, the villain for MGR is M.N.Nambiyar he is also doing a dual role of Naganandhi and Chalukya King Pulikesi. The supporting characters will be enacted by S.V.Subbaiah and S.Varalakshmi.
The background music is by S.M.Subbaiah, dialogues by P.Neelakantan, choreography by Gopalakrishnan, since the movie is a historical one, the huge sets will be done by Angamuthu and camera is handled by two cameramen Balakrishnan and for the wrestling fight it will be Ravikanth who is a famous cameraman for trick shots.
The movie project was dropped as MGR became the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, we were unfortunate in a way that this 70 MM MGR movie was not made.
The Newspaper Thiraiulagam was forwarded by Olikirathu Urimaikural MGR Editor B.S.Raj to share in our MGR Blog.