On May 16, 1959, Veerapandiya Kattabomman, the first Tamil movie to win international recognition, was released in theatres. Sivaji Ganesan, the film’s male lead, was honoured with the Best Actor Award at the Asia-Africa Continent Award at the Afro-Asian Film Festival in 1960 for his performance in the much-loved Tamil movie.
Sivaji played the lead role of an 18th-century chieftain, fighting against the East India Company, in the film. For his performance, he won a lot of awards and accolades.
A fun fact about the movie is that the movie was released in London as well, despite the Britishers playing the villains in the movie. The film went on to win the silver jubilee in India and also got a special mention at the National Film Awards.
The film became a reality in its third attempt in 1959. A decade before the film hit the theatres, Selvam Pictures attempted to bring the story of Kattabomman to the big screen but it was abandoned at an early stage. The year 1953 saw the Gemini Pictures try to bring alive the film and even advertised that they would reward anyone who could bring rare information about Kattabomman.
According to records, initially, Sivaji refused to play the role when SS Vasan offered it to him. This was because Sivaji was denied the opportunity in Vasan’s other film Chandralekha. Sivaji, soon after, was seen in Vasan-produced films like Iron Curtain and Motor Sundaram Pillai.
The Afro-Asian Film Festival in 1960 was held in Egypt’s capital Cairo, where Veerapandiya Kattabomman won three awards — Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Composer. It is still remembered as the first international recognition of Tamil Cinema.
After returning from Cairo, Sivaji was given a warm welcome by fellow celebrities, including MGR. The movie was screened once in the early 1980s and for the second time in 2015 across Tamil Nadu.
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