Rameswaram is a municipality in the Ramanathapuram district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is on Pamban Island separated from mainland India by the Pamban channel and is about 40 kilometres from Mannar Island, Sri Lanka. It is in the Gulf of Mannar, at the tip of the Indian peninsula. Pamban Island, also known as Rameswaram Island, is connected to mainland India by the Pamban Bridge. Rameswaram is the terminus of the railway line from Chennai and Madurai. Together with Varanasi, it is considered to be one of the holiest places in India to Hindus and is part of the Char Dham pilgrimage.
Kannagi sometimes spelled Kannaki, is a legendary Tamil woman who forms the central character of the Tamil epic Cilappatikaram. Kannagi is described as the chaste woman who stays with her husband despite his unfaithfulness, their attempt to rebuild their marriage after her husband had lost everything but repented, how her husband is falsely framed then punished without the due checks and processes of justice. Kannagi proves and protests the injustice, then curses the king and city of Madurai leading to the death of the unjust Pandyan King of Madurai, who had wrongfully put her husband Kovalan to death. The society that had made her suffer, suffers in retribution as the city Madurai is burnt to the ground because of her curse. In Tamil folklore, Kannagi has been deified as the symbol – sometimes as goddess – of chastity, with sculptures or reliefs in Hindu temples iconographically reminding the visitor of her breaking her anklet or tearing her bleeding breast and throwing it at the city.
Kannathil Muthamittal is a 2002 Indian Tamil-language musical war film produced and directed by Mani Ratnam. It was based on a short story, "Amuthavum Avanum" by Sujatha. The film stars R. Madhavan, Simran and P. S. Keerthana with Nandita Das, J. D. Chakravarthy, Prakash Raj and Pasupathy portraying other pivotal characters. The film's score and soundtrack were composed by A. R. Rahman, while Ravi K. Chandran handled the cinematography. Mani Ratnam presents the story of a child of Sri Lankan Tamil parentage adopted by Indian parents, whose desire is to meet her biological mother in the midst of the Sri Lankan Civil War. It was released on 14 February 2002.
Sri Lankan Tamils, also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province and are in the minority throughout the rest of the country. 70% of Sri Lankan Tamils in Sri Lanka live in the Northern and Eastern provinces.
Tamil cinema is a part of Indian cinema that produces motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is nicknamed Kollywood, a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam and Hollywood. The first Tamil silent film, Keechaka Vadham, was directed by R. Nataraja Mudaliar in 1918. The first Tamil talking feature film, Kalidas, a multilingual directed by H. M. Reddy was released on 31 October 1931, less than seven months after India's first talking motion picture Alam Ara.
Nainativu, is a small but notable island off the coast of Jaffna Peninsula in the Northern Province, Sri Lanka. The name of the island alludes to the folklore inhabitants, the Naga people. It is home to the Hindu shrine of Nagapooshani Amman Temple; one of the prominent 64 Shakti Peethas, and the Buddhist shrine Nagadeepa Purana Viharaya.
Katchatheevu is a 163-acre uninhabited island administered by Sri Lanka. It was a disputed territory between India and Sri Lanka until 1974. It was never demarcated by the Indian government.
The Naga people are believed by some to be an ancient tribe who once inhabited Sri Lanka and various parts of Southern India. There are references to Nagas in several ancient texts such as Mahavamsa, Manimekalai, Mahabharata and also in other Sanskrit and Pali literature. They were generally represented as a class of super-humans taking the form of serpents who inhabit a subterranean world.
Senthamizhan Seeman is an Indian politician, filmmaker and the chief-coordinator of the political party Naam Tamilar Katchi in Tamil Nadu. He is an advocate of the creation of vote bank for Tamils.
Ganesan Subbiah, popularly known as Susi Ganesan, is an Indian film director, producer, scriptwriter and screenwriter.
India–Sri Lanka relations, Indian-Sri Lankan relations, or Indo-Sri Lanka relations, are the bilateral relations between India and Sri Lanka. India has emerged as the foremost partner for Sri Lanka in the endeavor to revitalize its economy, reform its bureaucracy, and enhance decision-making processes for future economic collaborations. Both countries have reached an agreement to strengthen their economic and energy ties, signaling a new phase of cooperation and mutual benefits. Only 4% of Sri Lankans have a negative view on India, the lowest of all the countries surveyed by the Ipsos GlobalScan. The two countries are also close on economic terms with India being the island's largest trading partner and an agreement to establish a proto single market also under discussion at an advanced stage. There are deep ethnic and cultural links between the two countries. India and Sri Lanka share a maritime border. India is the only neighbour of Sri Lanka, separated by the Palk Strait; both states occupy a strategic position in South Asia and have sought to build a common security umbrella in the Indian Ocean. Both India and Sri Lanka are republics that are members of the Commonwealth of Nations. India has achieved the distinction of being the initial nation to submit its formal endorsement for the financial assistance and debt restructure proposal of Sri Lanka to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), headquartered in Washington. In a bid to foster and safeguard the Buddhist connections between India and Sri Lanka, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi unveiled a grant assistance of USD 15 million during the Virtual Bilateral Summit in September 2020. This financial support is intended for various purposes, including the restoration or establishment of Buddhist monasteries, the education of young monks, the enhancement of interaction among Buddhist scholars and clergy, the establishment of museums dedicated to Buddhist heritage, the facilitation of cultural exchanges, collaborative efforts in archaeology, and the mutual showcasing of The Buddha's relics.
Leena Manimekalai is an Indian filmmaker, poet and an actor. Her works include five published poetry anthologies and several films in genres, documentary, fiction and experimental poem films. She has been recognised with participation, mentions and best film awards in many international and national film festivals.
Madras Cafe is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language political action thriller film directed by Shoojit Sircar and starring John Abraham, Nargis Fakhri with newcomer Raashi Khanna in lead roles. The film is set in the late 1980s and early 1990s, during the time of Indian intervention in the Sri Lankan civil war and assassination of Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. The film deals with an Indian Army special officer who is appointed by the intelligence agency R&AW to head covert operations in Jaffna shortly after Indian peace-keeping force was forced to withdraw.
S. R. Prabhu is an Indian film producer. During his tenure at Studio Green (2010–13), he has produced 10 Tamil films and distributed 16 films in Tamil and Telugu. Later he founded Dream Warrior Pictures, a film production company in which his brother S. R. Prakashbabu has become partner in 2014. He is also a partner in Potential Studios, which is another film production company. S. R. Prabhu is a relative of the veteran actor Sivakumar and cousin of actors Suriya and Karthi.
Antonythasan Jesuthasan, also known by the pseudonym Shobasakthi, is a Sri Lankan Tamil author and actor.
Dream Warrior Pictures is an Indian film production company based in Chennai. It was founded in 2010 by brothers S R Prakashbabu and S R Prabhu, who were partners in Studio Green during 2010–2013. They are also relatives of the veteran actor Sivakumar and cousins for actors Suriya and Karthi. They are prominent producers and distributors in India.
Tamil sexual minorities are Tamil people who do not conform to heterosexual gender norms. They may identify as LGBTQIA. It has been estimated that India has a population of 2.5 million homosexuals, though not all of them are Tamil, and not all Tamils live in India.
Very Severe Cyclonic Storm Ockhi was a strong tropical cyclone that devastated parts of Sri Lanka and India in 2017, and was the most intense tropical cyclone in the Arabian Sea since Cyclone Megh in 2015. The ninth depression, and the third and strongest named storm of the 2017 North Indian Ocean cyclone season, Ockhi originated from an area of low pressure that formed over the southwest Bay of Bengal on November 28. The storm organized into a Depression off southeast coast of Sri Lanka on November 29, causing damage to property and life in Sri Lanka while passing by. Due to high atmospheric moisture and warmer oceanic surface temperature between Sri Lanka and Kanyakumari in mainland India, Ockhi intensified into a cyclonic storm on November 30.
Contributions to popular culture involving direct reference to the Sri Lankan Tamil community in Indian cinema are listed below. All communities that speak Tamil and originally came from Sri Lanka are included. Tamils of Sri Lanka today are a trans-national minority and are found across the globe. While most films on the topic are made in Tamil cinema, there has also been Malayalam and Hindi content on the area.
Maadathy, also known internationally as Maadathy: An Unfairy Tale, is a 2019 Indian-Tamil language folklore drama film written, directed and produced by Leena Manimekalai under the banner of Karuvachy films and co-produced by Piiyush Singh, Bhavana Goparaju, and Abinandhan Ramanujam. The film stars Ajmina Kassim, Patrick Raj, Semmalar Annam and Arul Kumar in the lead roles.
