The Tamil people, also known as Tamilar, or simply Tamils, are a Dravidian ethno-linguistic group who trace their ancestry mainly to India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu, the union territory of Puducherry, and to Sri Lanka. People who speak Tamil and are born in Tamil clans are considered Tamils. Tamils constitute 5.9% of the population in India, 15% in Sri Lanka, 7% in Malaysia, and 5% in Singapore.
Muthuvel Karunanidhi was an Indian writer and politician who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for almost two decades over five terms between 1969 and 2011. He was popularly referred to as Kalaignar (Artist) and Mutthamizh Arignar for his contributions to Tamil literature. He had the longest tenure as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu with 6,863 days in office. He was also a long-standing leader of the Dravidian movement and ten-time president of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam political party. Karunanidhi has the record of never losing an election to the Tamil Nadu Assembly, having won 13 times since his first victory in 1957. Before entering politics, he worked in the Tamil film industry as a screenwriter. He also made contributions to Tamil literature, having written stories, plays, novels, and a multiple-volume memoir. Karunanidhi died on 7 August 2018 at Kauvery Hospital in Chennai after a series of prolonged, age-related illnesses.
Radio Ceylon is a radio station based in Sri Lanka and the first radio station in Asia. Broadcasting was started on an experimental basis by the colonial Telegraph Department in 1923, just three years after the inauguration of broadcasting in Europe.
South Asian cinema refers to the cinema of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The broader terms Asian cinema, Eastern cinema and Oriental cinema in common usage often encompass South Asia as well as East Asia and South East Asia.
Sri Lankan cinema encompasses the Sri Lankan film industry. It is a fledgling industry that has struggled to find a footing since its inauguration in 1947 with Kadawunu Poronduwa produced by S. M. Nayagam of Chitra Kala Movietone. Sri Lankan films are usually made in Sinhala and Tamil languages, the dominant languages of the country. Cinema of Sri Lanka is also referred to as Follywood as many famous Sri Lankan actors had surnames starting with an "F."
Sarasaviya Awards is an award bestowed to distinguished individuals involved with the Sinhala cinema, each year by the Sarasaviya weekly newspaper in collaboration with the Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited, Sri Lanka in recognition of the contributions made by them to the Sri Lankan film industry. The Sarasaviya ceremony is one of the oldest film events in Sri Lanka. The awards were first introduced in 1964. The Sarasaviya Awards have been often referred to as the Sinhala Cinema industry's equivalent to The Oscars.
Tamil cinema is a part of Indian cinema that produces motion pictures for Tamil audiences in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is nicknamed Kollywood, 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.
Tamil cinema in Sri Lanka is not as developed as Sinhala cinema or its Indian counterpart, the Tamil cinema of Kodambakkam, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. This is especially due to the high production rates of the influential commercial Tamil films from Tamil Nadu, India and the long run ethnic civil war in Sri Lanka. Tamils contributed significantly to Sinhala cinema as well as Indian Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood. Only a few Tamil language films were produced in the Northern Province of Sri Lanka. Earlier Tamil movies produced were all most destroyed or unrecovered due to civil war.
Sri Lankans in India mainly refer to Tamil people of Sri Lankan origin in India and non resident Sri Lankans. They are partly who migrated to India and their descendants and mostly refugees from Sri Lanka because of the recently concluded Sri Lankan Civil War. There is also a small population of Sinhalese people in India, numbering about 3,500 and mostly located in Delhi and Chennai. 57 Sri Lankans have become Indian citizens through naturalization since 2017. According to records with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, as on January 1,2021, there were 58,843 Sri Lankan refugees staying in 108 refugee camps in Tamil Nadu and 54 in Odisha.
Cinema of South India, refers to the cinema of the four major film industries in South India; primarily engaged in making feature films in the four major languages of the region, namely — Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam. They are often colloquially referred to as Tollywood, Kollywood, Sandalwood and Mollywood.
Arul Soosai Anthony Samy (1915–1998) was an Indian director and screenwriter who worked in Tamil films.
Komaali Kings is a 2018 Sri Lankan Tamil language black comedy thriller film written and directed by King Ratnam in his directorial debut and co-produced by Ganesh Deivanayagam, Bawadharani Rajasingham and R. Selvaskandan for Picture This Motions. The film, starring Raja Ganeshan, Kamala Sri Mohan, Darshan Dharmaraj, Gajan Kanesshan, Niranjani Shanmugaraja, Sathiyapriya Ratnasaamy along with King Ratnam in the lead roles, opened to positive reviews among the audience after the first day. The film also received praise from the critics for its satire and comedy storyline.
King Ratnam is a Sri Lankan actor and film director. He is regarded as a talented filmmaker in the nation as he directed numerous advertisements, short films and documentary films. He played a key role in the production of a Sri Lankan made Tamil language feature-length film after 40 years in the Sri Lankan Tamil cinema history as the director of the film titled, Komaali Kings. His attempt to rekindle and re-establish nostalgic memories of the hay days of Sri Lankan Tamil cinema is set to be one of the turning points in Sri Lanka's resilience from the lost glory in the Tamil cinema industry.
Sundaram Mathura-Nayagam was a pioneer of Sinhala cinema, producing the first ever Sinhala talkie, Kadawunu Poronduwa.
M.S. Parthasarathy or M.S.P. Sarathi was an Indian film editor, director, and producer. He was closely associated with H.M. Reddy and worked numerous movies with him as an editor. He directed Telugu movie Errakota Veerudu (1973) with NT Rama Rao in the lead role. He edited Bhakta Kanakadasa (1960), with Dr. Rajkumar in the lead role which marked the official 100th film in Sandalwood (Kannada) film industry. He also edited Vaddante Dabbu with NT Rama Rao in the lead role.
Berty Seneviratne, popularly known by stage name Shanthi Kumar was an actor, filmmaker and choreographer in Sri Lankan cinema. Considered one of the three pioneer film directors in Sinhala cinema, he made the first talkie film of Sri Lankan film history. He has gone down in history as a dancer who amazed India and was honored by an Indian governor.
Kumarasinghe Rajapakse, popularly known as Kingsley Rajapakse was a film director and actor in Sri Lankan cinema.
Kanagasabai Gunaratnam, popularly known as K. Gunaratnam was a prolific film producer in Sri Lankan cinema. Started his film producing career during post-independent Ceylon, Gunaratnam is the pioneer to establish two Sinhala film studios: 'Cinemas Limited' and 'Vijaya Studios', where he produced more than 20 blockbuster and commercial movies.
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.
