Rasipuram Krishnaswami Iyer Narayanaswami, was an Indian writer known for his works set in the fictional South Indian town of Malgudi. He was a leading author of early Indian literature in English along with Mulk Raj Anand and Raja Rao.
Damal Krishnaswamy Pattammal was an Indian Carnatic musician and a playback singer for film songs in Tamil. She along with her contemporaries M. S. Subbulakshmi and M. L. Vasanthakumari were popularly referred to as the Female trinity of Carnatic Music. This trio initiated the entry of women into mainstream Carnatic Music. She has been appreciated all over the world by Carnatic music lovers.
Kailasam Balachander was an Indian filmmaker and playwright who worked mainly in the Tamil film industry. He was well known for his distinct film-making style, and the Indian film industry knew him as a master of unconventional themes and hard-hitting contemporary subject matter. Balachander's films are well known for their portrayal of women as bold personalities and central characters. Popularly referred to as Iyakkunar Sigaram, his films are usually centred on unusual or complicated interpersonal relationships and social themes. He started his film career in 1964 as a screenwriter and graduated to a director with Neerkumizhi (1965).
Madath Thekkepaattu Vasudevan Nair, popularly known as MT, is an Indian author, screenplay writer and film director. He is a prolific and versatile writer in modern Malayalam literature, and is one of the masters of post-Independence Indian literature. He was born in Kudallur, a small village in the present day Pattambi Taluk, Palakkad district (Palghat), which was under the Malabar District in the Madras Presidency of the British Raj. He shot into fame at the age of 20 when, as a chemistry undergraduate, he won the prize for the best short story in Malayalam at World Short Story Competition conducted by The New York Herald Tribune. His debut novel Naalukettu, wrote at the age of 23, won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1958. His other novels include Manju (Mist), Kaalam (Time), Asuravithu and Randamoozham. The deep emotional experiences of his early days have gone into the making of MT's novels. Most of his works are oriented towards the basic Malayalam family structure and culture and many of them were path-breaking in the history of Malayalam literature. His three seminal novels on life in the matriarchal family in Kerala are Naalukettu, Asuravithu, and Kaalam. Randamoozham, which retells the story of the Mahabharatha from the point of view of Bhimasena, is widely credited as his masterpiece.
Moondram Pirai is a 1982 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written, directed and filmed by Balu Mahendra. The film features Kamal Haasan and Sridevi in the lead roles, while Silk Smitha, Poornam Vishwanathan and Y. G. Mahendra play supporting roles. The music for the film was composed by Ilaiyaraaja, with lyrics written by Kannadasan, Vairamuthu and Gangai Amaran. It also featured the last song written by Kannadasan to be recorded before his death in 1981.
Genelia Deshmukh is an Indian film actress and model. She has appeared in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil films. After gaining wide attention in a Parker Pen commercial with Amitabh Bachchan, Genelia began her acting career with the box-office hit Tujhe Meri Kasam in 2003. She was recognized for her role in Boys the same year, and later established herself in Telugu cinema by acting in several Telugu films during 2003–2012.
Venkatesh Prabhu, better known by his stage name Dhanush, is an Indian film actor, producer, director, writer, lyricist, screenwriter and playback singer who usually works in Tamil cinema.
Ilaiyaraaja is an Indian film composer, singer, songwriter, instrumentalist, orchestrator, conductor-arranger and lyricist who works in the Indian Film Industry, predominantly in Tamil. Widely regarded as one of the greatest Indian music composers, he is credited for introducing western musical sensibilities in the Indian musical mainstream. Reputed to be the world's most prolific composer, he has composed over 7000 songs, provided film scores for more than 1000 movies and performed in more than 20,000 concerts. Being the first Asian to compose a full symphony with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, Ilaiyaraaja is known to have written the entire symphony in less than a month. He is also a gold medalist in classical guitar from Trinity College of Music, London, Distance Learning Channel. In a poll conducted by CNN-IBN celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema in 2013, Ilaiyaraaja was voted as the all-time greatest film-music director of India. US-based world cinema portal "Taste of Cinema" placed Ilaiyaraaja at the 9th position in its list of 25 greatest film composers in the history of cinema and he is the only Indian composer in that list.
Sundar. C is a Tamilian film director, producer and actor. He has directed over 30 films in Tamil and acted in over 20 movies as the protagonist. Initially, he worked as an assistant director to Manivannan and became a director with the family drama Murai Maman (1995). His notable films include Ullathai Allitha (1996), Arunachalam (1997), Unnai Thedi (1999), Anbe Sivam (2003), Winner (2003), Giri (2004), Kalakalappu (2012), Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru (2013), Aranmanai (2014) and Kalakalappu 2 (2018).
Kamala das, popularly known by her one-time pen name Madhavikutty and married name Kamala Das, was an Indian English poet as well as a leading Malayalam author from Kerala, India. Her popularity in Kerala is based chiefly on her short stories and autobiography, while her oeuvre in English, written under the name Kamala Das, is noted for the poems and explicit autobiography. She was also a widely read columnist and wrote on diverse topics including women's issues, child care, politics among others. She was born in a Hindu Nair (Nalapat) family having royal ancestry. She converted to conservative Islam on December 11, 1999, at the age of 65 and assumed the name Kamala Surayya.
Anbe Vaa is a 1966 Indian Tamil-language romantic comedy film written and directed by A. C. Tirulokchandar. The film features M. G. Ramachandran and B. Saroja Devi in the lead roles, while S. A. Ashokan, Nagesh, Manorama, T. R. Ramachandran, and P. D. Sambandam play supporting roles. Partly based on the 1961 American film Come September, Anbe Vaa was produced by AVM Productions. The soundtrack and background music were composed by M. S. Viswanathan while the lyrics for the songs were written by Vaali.
Andha Naal is a 1954 Indian Tamil-language mystery-thriller film, produced by A. V. Meiyappan and directed by Sundaram Balachander. It is the first film noir in Tamil cinema, and the first Tamil film to be made without songs, dance, or stunt sequences. Set in the milieu of World War II, the story is about the killing of a radio engineer Rajan. The suspects are Rajan's wife Usha, the neighbour Chinnaiya Pillai, Rajan's brother Pattabi, Rajan's sister-in-law Hema (Menaka), and Rajan's mistress Ambujam (Suryakala). Each one's account of the incident points to a new suspect.
Immanuel Vasanth Dinakaran, better known as D. Imman, is an Indian film composer and singer, predominantly working in the Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam film industry. His first film as music director was Thamizhan in 2002. Since then he has composed music for 100 films.
Ram Sampath is an Indian composer, music producer and musician, who started his career composing advertising jingles for Mumbai-based advertising industry, subsequently he started composing for pop albums like Tanha Dil (2000) by Shaan, before composing for films like Khakee, Delhi Belly (2011), Talaash (2012), Raees etc.
Miss Malini is a 1947 Indian Tamil-language satirical film written and directed by Kothamangalam Subbu and produced by K. Ramnoth, based on a story by R. K. Narayan. Subbu also starred in the film alongside Pushpavalli and M. S. Sundari Bai. Javar Seetharaman and Gemini Ganesan made their acting debuts in the film appearing in minor supporting roles.
Bhaaga Pirivinai is a Tamil language film starring Sivaji Ganesan, M. R. Radha and B. Saroja Devi in the lead roles. The film was directed by A. Bhimsingh, produced by G. N. Velumani under Saravana Films and had musical score by Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy. Bhaaga Pirivinai celebrated 100 days in many centers of its release, ran more than 25 weeks and became one of the blockbusters of Ganesan in the year 1959.
Kalyana Parisu is a 1959 Indian Tamil-language romantic drama film written and directed by C. V. Sridhar. The film stars Gemini Ganesan and B. Saroja Devi in the lead roles while K. A. Thangavelu, C. R. Vijayakumari, M. Saroja, S. D. Subbulakshmi, Akkineni Nageswara Rao and M. N. Nambiar play supporting roles. A triangular love story, the film is about two close sisters whose lives turn upside down when they both fall in love with the same man. Out of respect, the younger sister decides to sacrifice her love, unknown to the elder sister.
Vijaya Gurunatha "Vijay" Sethupathi, is an Indian film actor, producer, lyricist, and dialogue writer who works in Tamil films. Following a stint as an accountant, Sethupathi began considering an acting career. He started his film career working as a background actor, playing minor supporting roles for over five years, before playing his first lead role in Seenu Ramasamy's Thenmerku Paruvakaatru (2010). He went on to play the villain role in Sundarapandian (2012), and got his breakout roles with the films Pizza (2012) and Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom (2012). He has starred in more than 25 films. Over the Years, Vijay Sethupathi has transformed into a successful and popular "Indie-film star" in Tamil cinema.
Raj Madiraju is an Indian film director, screenwriter, actor and producer. In a career spanning about 20 years, he predominantly worked in Telugu cinema. In 2011-12, he wrote and directed Rushi, for which he won the Nandi Award for the best story from the state government of Andhra Pradesh.
