Manivannan - Cine artist

                       
            

                    Actor Manivannan's native place is Sooloor in Coimbatore district,  Tamilnadu. His father R.Subramaniam is a rice merchant as well as a textile trader. Manivannan's mother is Maragatham. He has one elder sister by name Parimalam and two younger sisters.

                    Manivannan's wife's name is Sengamalam. This couple has a daughter by name Jothi and a son called Ragu.

                            When Manivannan was studying P.U.C. in Kovai Govt. Arts College, he developed close friendship with Sathyaraj, who was his college-mate. Their friendship still continues. During his college days he used to conduct stage dramas. On seeing the then-released film "Kizhakkae Pogum Rail", Manivannan wrote a long letter that contained his critical views, that ran several pages, on and about the picture and sent it to the film's director Bharathiraja.

                            Bharathiraja, who read the criticism, was very much impressed by it! As a result, he made instant arrangements to make Manivannan his (Bharathiraja's) assistant director.

                            Manivannan, who joined Bahrathiraja's team, started his cinefield journey in the year 1979, ie. right from the film, "Kallukkul Eeram". Next, he wrote story and dialogue for "Nizhalgal", "Tick Tick Tick" and "Alaigal Oayvathillai" and dialogue for "Kaathal Ovium".

            Manivannan worked as Bharathiraja's assistant in such films as "Puthya Vaarppugal",  "Koththa Jeevithaalu" (Telugu), "Kizhakkae Pogum Rail" (Telugu), "Red Rose" (Hindi), "Lovers" (Hindi), "Kizhakkae Pogum Rail"(Hindi).

                        He has written story and dialogue for others' films like "Lottery Ticket" acted by Prabu, "Aagaaya Gangai" acted by Karthik, "Naesam" acted by Ajithkumar and so on. Manivannan had also been acting in small, small roles in films directed by his guru Bhrathiraja. In "Kodi Parakkuthu", directed by Bharathiraja, Manivannan acted in an important role. Bharathiraja himself had given dubbing voice for Manivannan in this film!

                         After the film "Amaithip Padai", directed by Manivannan, in which film he had co-acted with Sathyaraj, Manivanna's prospectsful scope for acting reached greater heights. It was during this period that Manivannan was acting in as many as 30 films a year and this trend continued for a year or so.

                                           Manivannan has  directed Tamil, Telugu and Hindi films. also! Sathyaraj has acted in more than 25 films under Manivannan's direction. There are a number of persons, who had been formerly working as assistant directors under him, who have now become popular film directors. For example Vikraman, R.K.Selvamani, Sunder C., Seemaan, K.Selvabharathi, Radhabharathi, C.V.Sasikumar, E.Ramadoss, Jeeva Balan and so on. Roles portraying villainy, different character types and comedy abound in Manivannan's acting career. He says that in the sphere of character role acting his ideal artistes are T.S.Balaiya and S.V.Ranga Rao. In comedy acting he likes Charlee Chaplin. As far as villain role performance is concerned, he is a great admirer of M.R.Radha. Among the present generation artistes, for playing villain roles Sathyaraj is his favourite. Among the comedians of the present day, he likes Kaundamani! Delli Ganesh is Manivannan's favourite, character role artiste in modern times!

  ( Courtesy: Dinakaran, Tamil News paper )     http://www.dinakaran.com/