127-617: [REDACTED] Look up sa:चन्द्रलेखा in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. Chandralekha may refer to: Films [ edit ] Chandralekha (1948 film) , an Indian Tamil film directed and produced by S. S. Vasan starring M. K. Radha Chandralekha (1995 film) , an Indian Tamil film directed by Nambirajan starring Vijay Chandralekha (1997 film) , an Indian Malayalam film directed by Priyadarshan starring Mohanlal Chandralekha (1998 film) , an eponymous Indian Telugu remake of
254-468: A lexical root to which one or more affixes are attached. Most Tamil affixes are suffixes . Tamil suffixes can be derivational suffixes, which either change the part of speech of the word or its meaning, or inflectional suffixes, which mark categories such as person , number , mood , tense , etc. There is no absolute limit on the length and extent of agglutination , which can lead to long words with many suffixes, which would require several words or
381-480: A "master at publicity." The Hindi version's success gave South Indian producers the opportunity to market their Hindi films in North India. Chandralekha 's publicity campaign had such an impact that Bombay producers passed a resolution that a limit should be imposed on advertisements for any film in periodicals. Vasan's Apoorva Sagodharargal (1949), also a success, is considered an unofficial sequel of
508-484: A , as with other Indic scripts . This inherent vowel is removed by adding a tittle called a puḷḷi , to the consonantal sign. For example, ன is ṉa (with the inherent a ) and ன் is ṉ (without a vowel). Many Indic scripts have a similar sign, generically called virama , but the Tamil script is somewhat different in that it nearly always uses a visible puḷḷi to indicate a 'dead consonant' (a consonant without
635-759: A 2001 survey, there were 1,863 newspapers published in Tamil, of which 353 were dailies. Tamil is the primary language of the majority of the people residing in Tamil Nadu , Puducherry , (in India) and in the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . The language is spoken among small minority groups in other states of India which include Karnataka , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh , Kerala , Maharashtra , Gujarat , Delhi , Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India and in certain regions of Sri Lanka such as Colombo and
762-420: A German lady training nearly a hundred dancers on one studio floor, a shapely Sinhalese lady teaching another group of dancers on real marble steps adjoining a palace, a studio worker making weapons, another making period furniture using expensive rosewood, set props, headgear, and costumes, Ranjan undergoing fencing practice with our fight composer 'Stunt Somu', our music directors composing and rehearsing songs in
889-412: A November 2015 interview with Sangeetha Devi Dundoo of The Hindu , actor Kamal Haasan said: "Visual appeal has always gone hand-in-hand with content, since the days of Chandralekha and [ Mayabazar ], not just after Baahubali ." Tamil language Sri Lanka Singapore Malaysia Canada and United States Tamil ( தமிழ் , Tamiḻ , pronounced [t̪amiɻ] )
1016-615: A building ... there were so many activities going on simultaneously round the clock. – Kothamangalam Subbu on the film's production at Gemini Studios Chandralekha began filming in 1943. Raghavachari directed more than half the film, but after differences of opinion with Vasan over the shooting of scenes at the Governor's Estate (now Raj Bhavan, Guindy ) he left the project. Vasan took over, for his directorial debut. The film did not originally include circus scenes. Vasan decided to add them halfway through production, and
1143-437: A cave and seal its entrance with a boulder. She rescues him with the aid of elephants from a passing circus troupe. Veerasimhan and Chandralekha join the circus to hide from Sasankan's men. When Sasankan returns to the palace, he imprisons his parents, declares himself king and sends a spy to find Chandralekha. The spy sees Chandralekha performing in the circus, and tries to capture her. Veerasimhan saves her; they escape and join
1270-595: A chapter of George W. M. Reynolds ' novel, Robert Macaire: or, The French bandit in England . Original director T. G. Raghavachari left the film more than halfway through because of disagreements with Vasan, who took over in his directorial debut. Originally made in Tamil and later in Hindi , Chandralekha spent five years in production (1943–1948). It underwent a number of scripting, filming and cast changes, and
1397-455: A classic only after 25 years, "a fact that the audiences realised in just two minutes." Film producer and writer G. Dhananjayan told The Times of India , "When you talk of black-and-white films, you cannot resist mentioning the 1948 epic Chandralekha ... That film's grandeur, be it in the sets, costumes, songs, dances and the fight sequences, still remains a benchmark even this day of colour and 3D films." In April 2012, Rediff included
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#17328023467161524-457: A dancer. Veppathur Kittoo played Sasankan's spy and was an assistant director. Studio staff members, their families and passers-by were recruited as extras to play spectators in the circus scenes, and Vasan introduced Chandralekha in a voice-over during her circus performance. During the making (of Chandralekha ), our studio looked like a small kingdom ... horses, elephants, lions, tigers in one corner, palaces here and there, over there
1651-488: A drum dance at the royal wedding. Huge drums are arranged in rows in front of the palace. Chandralekha joins the dancers, who dance on the drums. Sasankan is impressed with Chandralekha's performance but, unknown to him, Veerasimhan's soldiers are hiding inside the drums. As the dance ends, they rush out and attack Sasankan's men. Veerasimhan confronts Sasankan, and their lengthy sword fight ends with Sasankan's defeat and imprisonment. Veerasimhan releases his parents and becomes
1778-519: A family of around 26 languages native to the Indian subcontinent . It is also classified as being part of a Tamil language family that, alongside Tamil proper, includes the languages of about 35 ethno-linguistic groups such as the Irula and Yerukula languages (see SIL Ethnologue ). The closest major relative of Tamil is Malayalam ; the two began diverging around the 9th century CE. Although many of
1905-466: A gang of thieves; they embark on a crime spree. Chandralekha's father is injured in the ensuing chaos, and dies shortly afterwards. The orphaned Chandralekha joins a band of travelling musicians, whose caravan is raided by Sasankan's gang. Sasankan orders Chandralekha to dance for him, which she does only after being flogged, but she soon escapes. He later ambushes Veerasimhan and takes him prisoner. Chandralekha watches Sasankan's men imprison Veerasimhan in
2032-537: A group of gypsies. When Veerasimhan goes to find help, Sasankan's men capture Chandralekha and bring her to the palace. When Sasankan tries to woo Chandralekha, she pretends to faint every time he approaches her. One of her circus friends comes to Sasankan disguised as a gypsy healer and claims that she can cure Chandralekha of her "illness". Behind locked doors, the two women talk. Sasankan is pleased to find Chandralekha miraculously cured and apparently ready to accept him as her husband; in return, he agrees to her request for
2159-471: A mockery of it." According to Balachander, "Just like Sivaji today, people talked about Chandralekha in the past. Produced at a cost of ₹ 30 lakhs ([ ₹ 3 million], a huge sum at that time), it has grand sets. I have seen it 12 times." In December 2008, Muthiah said: "Given how spectacular it was—and the appreciation lavished on it from 1948 till well into the 1950s, which is when I caught up with it—I'm sure that if re-released, it would do better at
2286-607: A number of apparent Tamil loanwords in Biblical Hebrew dating to before 500 BCE, the oldest attestation of the language. Old Tamil is the period of the Tamil language spanning the 3rd century BCE to the 8th century CE. The earliest records in Old Tamil are short inscriptions from 300 BCE to 700 CE. These inscriptions are written in a variant of the Brahmi script called Tamil-Brahmi . The earliest long text in Old Tamil
2413-671: A number of skeletons were found buried in earthenware urns dating from at least 696 BCE in Adichanallur . Some of these urns contained writing in Tamil Brahmi script, and some contained skeletons of Tamil origin. Between 2017 and 2018, 5,820 artifacts have been found in Keezhadi . These were sent to Beta Analytic in Miami , Florida , for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) dating. One sample containing Tamil-Brahmi inscriptions
2540-518: A number of sound changes, in particular, a tendency to lower high vowels in initial and medial positions, and the disappearance of vowels between plosives and between a plosive and rhotic. Contact with European languages affected written and spoken Tamil. Changes in written Tamil include the use of European-style punctuation and the use of consonant clusters that were not permitted in Middle Tamil. The syntax of written Tamil has also changed, with
2667-410: A postage stamp with Vasan and the drum dance was issued to commemorate the producer's centenary and the 35th anniversary of his death. In July 2007, S. R. Ashok Kumar of The Hindu asked eight Tamil film directors to list their all-time favourite Tamil films; two— Mahendran and K. Balachander —named Chandralekha . Mahendran said, "If anybody tries to remake this black-and-white film, they will make
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#17328023467162794-484: A publicity brochure for distribution to exhibitors and the press. It contained a synopsis of the film, a pictorial account of key plot points, and text for use by local theatres. The booklet also had layouts for women's pages, a pictorial account of suggested marketing activities (such as "How to drape an Indian sari: Theatre demonstrations have a big draw") and information about the film's costumes. The costumes were hand-woven silk and gold; one gold-embroidered riding jacket
2921-430: A screenplay. They saw Mangamma Sabatham and Bala Nagamma as "heroine-oriented stories", and suggested a similar story. The group told the story of Chandralekha, a tough woman who "outwits a vicious bandit, delivers the final insult by slashing off his nose and, as a finishing touch, fills the bloodied gaping hole with hot, red chilli powder". Vasan disliked the story's gruesomeness and vulgarity; he rejected it, but kept
3048-647: A small number speak the language. In Reunion where the Tamil language was forbidden to be learnt and used in public space by France it is now being relearnt by students and adults. Tamil is also spoken by migrants from Sri Lanka and India in Canada , the United States , the United Arab Emirates , the United Kingdom , South Africa , and Australia . Tamil is the official language of
3175-610: A subject of study in schools in the French overseas department of Réunion . In addition, with the creation in October 2004 of a legal status for classical languages by the Government of India and following a political campaign supported by several Tamil associations, Tamil became the first legally recognised Classical language of India. The recognition was announced by the contemporaneous President of India , Abdul Kalam , who
3302-573: A techno electronic song from Thiruda Thiruda , composed by A. R. Rahman Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Chandralekha . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chandralekha&oldid=1170568375 " Categories : Disambiguation pages Disambiguation pages with surname-holder lists Hidden categories: Short description
3429-463: A variety of dialects that are all collectively known as Brahmin Tamil . These dialects tend to have softer consonants (with consonant deletion also common). These dialects also tend to have many Sanskrit loanwords. Tamil in Sri Lanka incorporates loan words from Portuguese , Dutch , and English. In addition to its dialects, Tamil exhibits different forms: a classical literary style modelled on
3556-400: A village dancer, Chandralekha. Development began during the early 1940s when, after two successive box-office hits, Vasan announced that his next film would be entitled Chandralekha . However, when he launched an advertising campaign for the film he only had the name of the heroine from a storyline he had rejected. Veppathur Kittoo (one of Vasan's storyboard artists) developed a story based on
3683-438: A vowel). In other Indic scripts, it is generally preferred to use a ligature or a half form to write a syllable or a cluster containing a dead consonant, although writing it with a visible virama is also possible. The Tamil script does not differentiate voiced and unvoiced plosives . Instead, plosives are articulated with voice depending on their position in a word, in accordance with the rules of Tamil phonology . In addition to
3810-584: Is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia . It is one of the two longest-surviving classical languages in India , along with Sanskrit , attested since c. 300 BCE. The language belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian language family and shares close ties with Malayalam and Kannada . Despite external influences, Tamil has retained a sense of linguistic purism, especially in formal and literary contexts. Tamil
3937-457: Is based on the dialect of Jaffna . After Tamil Brahmi fell out of use, Tamil was written using a script called vaṭṭeḻuttu amongst others such as Grantha and Pallava . The current Tamil script consists of 12 vowels , 18 consonants and one special character, the āytam . The vowels and consonants combine to form 216 compound characters, giving a total of 247 characters (12 + 18 + 1 + (12 × 18)). All consonants have an inherent vowel
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4064-401: Is deemed unlikely by Southworth due to the contemporary use of the compound 'centamiḻ', which means refined speech in the earliest literature. The Tamil Lexicon of University of Madras defines the word "Tamil" as "sweetness". S. V. Subramanian suggests the meaning "sweet sound", from tam – "sweet" and il – "sound". Tamil belongs to the southern branch of the Dravidian languages ,
4191-476: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Chandralekha (1948 film) Chandralekha (also spelt Chandraleka ) is a 1948 Indian historical adventure film produced and directed by S. S. Vasan of Gemini Studios . Starring T. R. Rajakumari , M. K. Radha and Ranjan , the film follows two brothers (Veerasimhan and Sasankan) who fight over ruling their father's kingdom and marrying
4318-563: Is extensively described in the oldest known grammar book for Tamil, the Tolkāppiyam . Modern Tamil writing is largely based on the 13th-century grammar Naṉṉūl which restated and clarified the rules of the Tolkāppiyam , with some modifications. Traditional Tamil grammar consists of five parts, namely eḻuttu , col , poruḷ , yāppu , aṇi . Of these, the last two are mostly applied in poetry. Tamil words consist of
4445-511: Is found in Tholkappiyam , which is dated as early as late 2nd century BCE. The Hathigumpha inscription , inscribed around a similar time period (150 BCE), by Kharavela , the Jain king of Kalinga , also refers to a Tamira Samghatta ( Tamil confederacy ) The Samavayanga Sutra dated to the 3rd century BCE contains a reference to a Tamil script named 'Damili'. Southworth suggests that
4572-405: Is generally taken to have been completed by the 8th century, was characterised by a number of phonological and grammatical changes. In phonological terms, the most important shifts were the virtual disappearance of the aytam (ஃ), an old phoneme, the coalescence of the alveolar and dental nasals, and the transformation of the alveolar plosive into a rhotic . In grammar, the most important change
4699-409: Is generally used in formal writing and speech. For instance, it is the language of textbooks, of much of Tamil literature and of public speaking and debate. In recent times, however, koṭuntamiḻ has been making inroads into areas that have traditionally been considered the province of centamiḻ . Most contemporary cinema, theatre and popular entertainment on television and radio, for example,
4826-410: Is in koṭuntamiḻ , and many politicians use it to bring themselves closer to their audience. The increasing use of koṭuntamiḻ in modern times has led to the emergence of unofficial 'standard' spoken dialects. In India, the 'standard' koṭuntamiḻ , rather than on any one dialect, but has been significantly influenced by the dialects of Thanjavur and Madurai . In Sri Lanka, the standard
4953-771: Is not always consistently applied. ISO 15919 is an international standard for the transliteration of Tamil and other Indic scripts into Latin characters. It uses diacritics to map the much larger set of Brahmic consonants and vowels to Latin script , and thus the alphabets of various languages, including English. Apart from the usual numerals, Tamil has numerals for 10, 100 and 1000. Symbols for day, month, year, debit, credit, as above, rupee, and numeral are present as well. Tamil also uses several historical fractional signs. /f/ , /z/ , /ʂ/ and /ɕ/ are only found in loanwords and may be considered marginal phonemes, though they are traditionally not seen as fully phonemic. Tamil has two diphthongs : /aɪ̯/ ஐ and /aʊ̯/ ஔ ,
5080-592: Is predominantly spoken in Tamil Nadu , India, and the Northern and Eastern provinces of Sri Lanka . It has significant speaking populations in Malaysia , Singapore , and among diaspora communities . Tamil has been recognized as a classical language by the Indian government and holds official status in Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Singapore. The earliest extant Tamil literary works and their commentaries celebrate
5207-409: Is the Tolkāppiyam , an early work on Tamil grammar and poetics, whose oldest layers could be as old as the late 2nd century BCE. Many literary works in Old Tamil have also survived. These include a corpus of 2,381 poems collectively known as Sangam literature . These poems are usually dated to between the 1st century BCE and 5th century CE. The evolution of Old Tamil into Middle Tamil , which
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5334-793: Is used as one of the languages of education in Malaysia , along with English, Malay and Mandarin. A large community of Pakistani Tamils speakers exists in Karachi , Pakistan , which includes Tamil-speaking Hindus as well as Christians and Muslims – including some Tamil-speaking Muslim refugees from Sri Lanka. There are about 100 Tamil Hindu families in Madrasi Para colony in Karachi. They speak impeccable Tamil along with Urdu, Punjabi and Sindhi. Many in Réunion , Guyana , Fiji , Suriname , and Trinidad and Tobago have Tamil origins, but only
5461-581: The Mahabharata are impregnated with the miraculous." Toeplitz wrote that the story was a "mere pretext to hold together the different episodes, each of which builds up like a circus turn: the tension mounts to a culminating point, whereupon the next episode immediately takes over." According to Roy Armes' 1987 book, Third World Film Making and the West , Uday Shankar 's 1948 Kalpana (also filmed at Gemini Studios) inspired Vasan to make Chandralekha . In
5588-465: The Pandiyan Kings for the organization of long-termed Tamil Sangams , which researched, developed and made amendments in Tamil language. Even though the name of the language which was developed by these Tamil Sangams is mentioned as Tamil, the period when the name "Tamil" came to be applied to the language is unclear, as is the precise etymology of the name. The earliest attested use of the name
5715-599: The University of Madras , was one of the earliest dictionaries published in Indian languages. A strong strain of linguistic purism emerged in the early 20th century, culminating in the Pure Tamil Movement which called for removal of all Sanskritic elements from Tamil. It received some support from Dravidian parties . This led to the replacement of a significant number of Sanskrit loanwords by Tamil equivalents, though many others remain. According to
5842-491: The 11th century, retain many features of the Vaishnava paribasai , a special form of Tamil developed in the 9th and 10th centuries that reflect Vaishnavite religious and spiritual values. Several castes have their own sociolects which most members of that caste traditionally used regardless of where they come from. It is often possible to identify a person's caste by their speech. For example, Tamil Brahmins tend to speak
5969-483: The 2003 Encyclopaedia of Hindi Cinema , the film is described as a " Ruritanian period extravaganza". The climactic sword fight between Veerasimhan and Sasankan has been compared to the fight in the 1894 novel, The Prisoner of Zenda . In 1976, American film historian William K. Everson compared the comedians in Chandralekha to Laurel and Hardy . Although Randor Guy considers the film's drum-dance scene
6096-484: The French Bandit in England . In the first chapter, he read: A dark night in rural England and a mail coach convoy drawn by horses trots its way down a deserted leafy highway when suddenly, Robert Macaire , the fierce bandit and his henchmen emerge from the surrounding darkness and rob the convoy. Hiding under a seat is a young woman fleeing from a harsh, unhappy home. She is a dancer and when she refuses to dance
6223-411: The French Bandit in England . Sasankan is based on Macaire and, according to film historian B. D. Garga, Chandralekha is "probably" based on a female dancer in the novel whom Macaire flogs when she refuses to dance; the film includes the scene from the novel. Garga noted that Chandralekha was also influenced by other Western literary and cinematic works, including the novel Blood and Sand (1908) and
6350-1096: The Hindi version's nett earnings as ₹ 7 million, and said that it was the second-highest-grossing Hindi film of 1948 (after Shaheed ). As of February 2009, the website gave Chandralekha 's adjusted nett gross as ₹ 37,98,00,000. According to the 1998 book Indian cinema: A Visual Voyage , by India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting , Chandralekha grossed ₹ 20 million (equivalent to ₹ 2.3 billion or US$ 27 million in 2023). Film historian B. D. Garga said in his 2005 book, Art Of Cinema , "The two versions—Tamil and Hindi—grossed millions." Sharmishtha Gooptu states in her 2010 book, Bengali Cinema: An Other Nation , that Chandralekha grossed ₹ 10 million (about $ 2,100,000 in 1948) in India. A 2011 article by Namrata Joshi in Outlook says Chandralekha grossed ₹15.5 million with an audience of 30 million, "60% from rural India." Overseas in Japan,
6477-434: The Hindi version, while Parthasarathy and Vaidyanathan composed this version's background music. The Tamil version was over 18,000 feet (5,500 m) long, but the Hindi version was edited down to 14,495 feet (4,418 m). Although Rajakumari, Radha and Ranjan reprised their roles in the Hindi version, Radha and Ranjan's characters were renamed. Radha's character was Veer Singh in the Hindi version, and Ranjan's character
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#17328023467166604-617: The Hindi version. With the film's success, Vasan became known as one of the best directors in Indian cinema. Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell , authors of Film History – An Introduction , called it "the biggest box-office hit of the decade." Guy later called Vasan the "Cecil B. DeMille of Tamil cinema", and called Chandralekha his " magnum opus ." According to S. Muthiah, Vasan "pioneered making South Indian films in English." He inspired producer A. V. Meiyappan , who became
6731-481: The Indian state of Haryana , purportedly as a rebuff to Punjab , though there was no attested Tamil-speaking population in the state, and was later replaced by Punjabi , in 2010. In Malaysia, 543 primary education government schools are available fully in Tamil as the medium of instruction . The establishment of Tamil-medium schools has been in process in Myanmar to provide education completely in Tamil language by
6858-474: The Indian state of Tamil Nadu and one of the 22 languages under schedule 8 of the constitution of India . It is one of the official languages of the union territories of Puducherry and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Tamil is also one of the official languages of Singapore . Tamil is one of the official and national languages of Sri Lanka, along with Sinhala . It was once given nominal official status in
6985-484: The Malayalam film. The film was directed by Krishna Vamsi starring Nagarjuna Chandralekha (2014 film) , an Indian Kannada film directed by Om Prakash Rao starring Chiranjeevi Sarja People [ edit ] Chandralekha (dancer) , dancer and choreographer from India Chandralekha Perera , Sri Lankan singer V. S. Chandralekha , Indian politician Songs [ edit ] "Chandralekha" (song) ,
7112-684: The Red Heat ) in April 1954, where it was distributed by Nippon Cinema Corporation (NCC). It was the first Tamil film dubbed in Japanese, and the second Indian film released in Japan; the first was the 1952 Hindi film Aan , which was released in Tokyo in January 1954. NCC later collapsed, and no information about Chandralekha 's Japanese release survives. During the 1950s (when foreign currency
7239-590: The Tamil language, Kannada still preserves a lot from its roots. As part of the southern family of Indian languages and situated relatively close to the northern parts of India, Kannada also shares some Sanskrit words, similar to Malayalam. Many of the formerly used words in Tamil have been preserved with little change in Kannada. This shows a relative parallel to Tamil, even as Tamil has undergone some changes in modern ways of speaking. According to Hindu legend, Tamil or in personification form Tamil Thāi (Mother Tamil)
7366-696: The Tamils who settled there 200 years ago. Tamil language is available as a course in some local school boards and major universities in Canada and the month of January has been declared "Tamil Heritage Month" by the Parliament of Canada . Tamil enjoys a special status of protection under Article 6(b), Chapter 1 of the Constitution of South Africa and is taught as a subject in schools in KwaZulu-Natal province. Recently, it has been rolled out as
7493-470: The actor a few days off. The screen test was successful, and Ranjan was cast. T. R. Rajakumari was chosen to play Chandralekha, replacing Vasan's first choice, K. L. V. Vasantha . Film historian Randor Guy believed Vasan chose Rajakumari over Vasantha because she was leaving Gemini for Modern Theatres . In April 1947 N. S. Krishnan, who had been convicted in the Lakshmikanthan murder case ,
7620-490: The actor down, calling him "totally unsuited for films" and telling him to choose another profession; the incident created a permanent rift between Vasan and Ganeshamurthy. The role of the bodyguard was eventually given to N. Seetharaman, who later became known as Javar Seetharaman . Kothamangalam Subbu's wife, Sundari Bai, played a circus performer who helps Chandralekha escape from Sasankan. T. A. Jayalakshmi, in one of her earliest film roles, appeared briefly in one scene as
7747-442: The ancient language ( sankattamiḻ ), a modern literary and formal style ( centamiḻ ), and a modern colloquial form ( koṭuntamiḻ ). These styles shade into each other, forming a stylistic continuum. For example, it is possible to write centamiḻ with a vocabulary drawn from caṅkattamiḻ , or to use forms associated with one of the other variants while speaking koṭuntamiḻ . In modern times, centamiḻ
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#17328023467167874-404: The bandit whips her into submission. Vasan was impressed when Kittoo told him a story based on the chapter. He decided to continue with the film, and named the heroine Chandralekha. Although the story was developed by Kittoo, it was credited to the entire Gemini story department. T. G. Raghavachari was hired as director. The script had two major roles: princes in a kingdom, the elder of whom
8001-504: The box office than most Tamil films today." In a 2011 interview with Indo-Asian News Service (IANS), Vyjayanthimala said that although people consider that she "paved the way" for other South Indian actresses in Hindi cinema, "the person who really opened the doors was S. S. Vasan ... When [ Chandralekha was] released, it took the North by storm because by then they haven't seen that kind of lavish sets, costumes and splendour. So Vasan
8128-428: The cinematographer's work: In those days, we had no zoom lenses and yet Ramnoth did it. One night, while Chandralekha is performing on the flying trapeze , she notices the villain's henchman in the front row. She is on her perch high up and he is seated in a ringside chair. Shock hits her and to convey the shock the camera zooms fast from her to the man. Today, with a fast zoom shot it can be done very easily, but there
8255-689: The culture associated with the Neolithic complexes of South India, but it has also been related to the Harappan civilization . Scholars categorise the attested history of the language into three periods: Old Tamil (300 BCE–700 CE), Middle Tamil (700–1600) and Modern Tamil (1600–present). About of the approximately 100,000 inscriptions found by the Archaeological Survey of India in India are in Tamil Nadu. Of them, most are in Tamil, with only about 5 percent in other languages. In 2004,
8382-952: The dialect of Madurai , and iṅkaṭe in some northern dialects. Even now, in the Coimbatore area, it is common to hear " akkaṭṭa " meaning "that place". Although Tamil dialects do not differ significantly in their vocabulary, there are a few exceptions. The dialects spoken in Sri Lanka retain many words and grammatical forms that are not in everyday use in India, and use many other words slightly differently. Tamil dialects include Central Tamil dialect , Kongu Tamil , Madras Bashai , Madurai Tamil , Nellai Tamil , Kumari Tamil in India ; Batticaloa Tamil dialect , Jaffna Tamil dialect , Negombo Tamil dialect in Sri Lanka; and Malaysian Tamil in Malaysia. Sankethi dialect in Karnataka has been heavily influenced by Kannada . The dialect of
8509-399: The differences between Tamil and Malayalam demonstrate a pre-historic divergence of the western dialect, the process of separation into a distinct language, Malayalam, was not completed until sometime in the 13th or 14th century. Additionally Kannada is also relatively close to the Tamil language and shares the format of the formal ancient Tamil language. While there are some variations from
8636-647: The district of Palakkad in Kerala has many Malayalam loanwords, has been influenced by Malayalam's syntax, and has a distinctive Malayalam accent. Similarly, Tamil spoken in Kanyakumari District has more unique words and phonetic style than Tamil spoken at other parts of Tamil Nadu. The words and phonetics are so different that a person from Kanyakumari district is easily identifiable by their spoken Tamil. Hebbar and Mandyam dialects, spoken by groups of Tamil Vaishnavites who migrated to Karnataka in
8763-497: The film earned ¥2,319,000 ( $ 6,442 ) in ten days following its release in April 1954. It came close to the Japanese opening record of Aan , which had earned ¥2,386,032 in ten days when it released there earlier in January 1954. Chandralekha received generally-positive reviews from Indian critics. On 9 April 1948, an article from The Hindu said: "The Indian Screen has, indeed, in this Province or any other given us little that can bear comparison with Gemini's Chandraleka for
8890-470: The film on its "A to Z of Tamil Cinema" list and said that Chandralekha "boasted an ensemble cast, great production values and a story that ensured it became a blockbuster all over India, the first of its kind." Chandralekha has been screened at many film festivals, and was shown in December 2012 at the 10th Chennai International Film Festival (a tribute to 100 years of Indian cinema). Chandralekha
9017-469: The film's release, and it inspired South Indian producers to market their Hindi films in North India . Veerasimhan and Sasankan are the sons of a king. When Veerasimhan rides through a village, he meets a local dancer named Chandralekha and they fall in love. At the palace, the king decides to abdicate his throne in favour of Veerasimhan. This enrages Sasankan, Veerasimhan's younger brother, who forms
9144-466: The film, was added during final production. Sundari Bai spent over a month rehearsing the song. M. D. Parthasarathy was the sole singer of "Aathoram Kodikkalam" and co-singer of "Naattiya Kuthirai". J. Cooling Rajaiah played accordion and piano in the film's gypsy song. The circus chorus was adapted from " The Donkey Serenade " in Robert Z. Leonard 's 1937 film, The Firefly . Vasan offered most of
9271-421: The film. Chandralekha enhanced Rajakumari's and Ranjan's careers; both became popular throughout India after the film's release. Its climactic sword-fight scene was well received, and is considered the longest sword fight in Indian cinematic history. The drum-dance scene is considered the film's highlight, and later producers tried unsuccessfully to emulate it. Producer-director T. Rajendar said that he
9398-485: The film. Adjusted for inflation, Chandralekha would have cost $ 28 million in 2010. According to historian S. Muthiah , with the free-floating exchange rate in effect at the time it was the first film with a budget of over a million dollars made outside the United States. Although a period film , Chandralekha is not based on historical fact; its plot is based on the first chapter of Robert Macaire, or
9525-438: The film; Naidu played a horseman, and Lakshmi was a dancer in the climactic drum-dance scene. Struggling stage actor V. C. Ganeshamurthy (later known as Sivaji Ganesan ), who had contacted Kittoo several times for a role in Chandralekha , was interested in a minor role as Veerasimhan's bodyguard and grew his hair long for the part. Kittoo eventually brought Ganeshamurthy to Vasan, who had seen him perform onstage. Vasan turned
9652-530: The films The Mark of Zorro (1920), Douglas Fairbanks in Robin Hood (1922), The Thief of Baghdad (1924) and Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (1925). In December 1964, film historian Jerzy Toeplitz called the film an "extension and development" of the mythological genre: "The characters are mortals but behave like heavenly beings, and their movements and gestures, like those of the gods and heroes of
9779-402: The first of its kind in Indian cinema, the 1947 film Naam Iruvar includes a scene when the lead actress' younger sister dances on drums to the Tamil poet Subramania Bharati 's "Kottu Murase"; French film historian Yves Thoraval wrote that it "prefigured the dance that Chandralekha made famous the very next year." According to American film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum , the film "belongs to
9906-456: The heroine's name. Without waiting for a full story, Vasan announced that his next project would be entitled Chandralekha and publicised it heavily. Despite hard work by Gemini's writers, the story was not ready three months later. Vasan grew impatient, and told the writers that he would shelve Chandralekha in favour of Avvaiyyar (1953). After he gave them one more week, Kittoo discovered George W. M. Reynolds ' novel, Robert Macaire, or
10033-699: The hill country . Tamil or dialects of it were used widely in the state of Kerala as the major language of administration, literature and common usage until the 12th century CE. Tamil was also used widely in inscriptions found in southern Andhra Pradesh districts of Chittoor and Nellore until the 12th century CE. Tamil was used for inscriptions from the 10th through 14th centuries in southern Karnataka districts such as Kolar , Mysore , Mandya and Bengaluru . There are currently sizeable Tamil-speaking populations descended from colonial-era migrants in Malaysia , Singapore , Philippines , Mauritius , South Africa , Indonesia, Thailand, Burma , and Vietnam . Tamil
10160-432: The introduction of new aspectual auxiliaries and more complex sentence structures, and with the emergence of a more rigid word order that resembles the syntactic argument structure of English. In 1578, Portuguese Christian missionaries published a Tamil prayer book in old Tamil script named Thambiran Vanakkam , thus making Tamil the first Indian language to be printed and published. The Tamil Lexicon , published by
10287-399: The kind of film, in fact, that would be best appreciated now after digital restoration." Randor Guy appreciated Rajakumari's performance in an October 2010 review, calling Chandralekha "her career-best" and saying that she "carried the movie on her shoulders." Guy also noted Radha was his "usual impressive self", saying that the film would be "remembered for: the excellent onscreen narration,
10414-557: The king's office featured a wall clock and the king himself was writing with a quill . In its January 1949 issue Gundoosi magazine praised Chandralekha 's Hindi version as an improvement on the Tamil version, noting that it had better dialogue and pacing. V. A. K. Ranga Rao called it "the most complete entertainer ever made." In their 1988 book, One Hundred Indian Feature Films: An Annotated Filmography , Anil Srivastava and Shampa Banerjee praised Chandralekha 's grandeur, battle scenes and drum dance, which in their opinion
10541-461: The latter of which is restricted to a few lexical items. Tamil employs agglutinative grammar, where suffixes are used to mark noun class , number , and case , verb tense and other grammatical categories. Tamil's standard metalinguistic terminology and scholarly vocabulary is itself Tamil, as opposed to the Sanskrit that is standard for most Indo-Aryan languages . Much of Tamil grammar
10668-465: The magnificent sets and the immortal drum dance sequence." Reviewing the English version of Chandralekha , The New York Times called Rajakumari a "buxom beauty." When the film was screened in New York City in 1976, William K. Everson said: "It's a colorful, naive and zestful film in which the overall ingenuousness quite disarms criticism of plot absurdity or such production shortcomings as
10795-408: The most-successful Indian musical films of the 1940s, and it "created an atmosphere for a number of music directors influenced by Western music" in Tamil cinema. The first advertisement for Chandralekha appeared on the back cover of the songbook for the film, Dasi Aparanji (1944). In the advertisement, Vasantha was the heroine before she was replaced by Rajakumari. With Chandralekha , Gemini
10922-406: The movie." The Hindi version of Chandralekha was Vasan's first film in the language. For this version, Vasan re-shot several scenes and used a slightly different cast. Agha Jani Kashmiri and Pandit Indra wrote the dialogue for the Hindi version, while Indra and Bharat Vyas were the lyricists. Rajeswara Rao, who composed the soundtrack for both versions, was assisted by Bal Krishna Kalla on
11049-621: The music. It was done with incredibly few instruments. We used a piano, ten double-bass violins, and drums from Africa, Egypt, and Persia which we have acquired from an African War troupe." Rao's salary was ₹ 1,500. The music was influenced by Carnatic and Hindustani music, Latin American and Portuguese folk music and Strauss waltzes. According to M. K. Raghavendra, Chandralekha has "snatches from [Richard] Wagner and [Nikolai] Rimsky-Korsakov ( Scherezade ) being used at dramatic moments." "Naattiya Kuthirai", not originally part of
11176-423: The name comes from tam-miḻ > tam-iḻ "self-speak", or "our own speech". Kamil Zvelebil suggests an etymology of tam-iḻ , with tam meaning "self" or "one's self", and " -iḻ " having the connotation of "unfolding sound". Alternatively, he suggests a derivation of tamiḻ < tam-iḻ < * tav-iḻ < * tak-iḻ , meaning in origin "the proper process (of speaking)". However, this
11303-419: The new king, with Chandralekha as his queen. Cast according to the song book: After the box office success of Bala Nagamma (1942) and Mangamma Sabatham (1943), producer S. S. Vasan of Gemini Studios wanted his next film to be made on a grand scale, with no budgetary constraints. He asked the story department—K. J. Mahadevan, Kothamangalam Subbu , Sangu, Naina and Veppathur Kittoo—to write
11430-537: The old aspect and time markers. The Nannūl remains the standard normative grammar for modern literary Tamil, which therefore continues to be based on Middle Tamil of the 13th century rather than on Modern Tamil. Colloquial spoken Tamil, in contrast, shows a number of changes. The negative conjugation of verbs, for example, has fallen out of use in Modern Tamil – instead, negation is expressed either morphologically or syntactically. Modern spoken Tamil also shows
11557-468: The plot and action" of the film: "This made-in-Madras costume drama makes for a pretty action-packed 186 minutes." In June 2009, K. S. Sivakumaran of Daily News Sri Lanka called Chandralekha "the first colossal [Tamil] film I saw." Malaysian author D. Devika Bai, writing for the New Straits Times in October 2013, praised its technical aspects: "At almost 68, I have not tired of watching
11684-425: The quality of our Tamil pictures so far can now raise their heads and hail proudly that a great picture can be produced in our land also." In contrast, Kumudam gave the film a lukewarm review: "Though the story is ordinary, the shocking events inserted into the narrative are something new to the Tamil cinema." The magazine criticised the film's songs and length, also noting the inconsistency in its time period where
11811-403: The same childhood continuum" as Fritz Lang 's 1959 films The Tiger of Eschnapur and The Indian Tomb , both of which were set in India. In his 2009 book, 50 Indian Film Classics , film critic M. K. Raghavendra wrote that Chandralekha was constructed in a manner which "enables its narrative to incorporate elements drawn from virtually any kind of genre." According to Guy, the setting of
11938-807: The scene cost ₹ 500,000 (about US$ 105,000 in 1948); in his 2015 book, Madras Studios: Narrative, Genre, and Ideology in Tamil Cinema , Swarnavel Eswaran Pillai estimated that the scene cost ₹ 200,000—the entire budget of a typical Tamil film of the period. The scene included the Kathakali and Bharatanatyam classical dances and the Sri Lankan Kandyan dance . A. Vincent , who later became an established cinematographer and director in Malayalam cinema , assisted Ghosh in this film. During post-production , Vasan asked Ramnoth his opinion of
12065-408: The scene when hundreds of Veerasimhan's warriors storm the palace to rescue Chandralekha from Sasankan. Although the scene's photography, shots and action had been unanimously praised by others, Ramnoth was quiet before saying that the suspense might be ruined if the scene was shown uncut. This sparked a discussion; Vasan advised the film editor Chandru to edit in accordance with Ramnoth's direction, and
12192-485: The screenplay was changed. For the scene where Veerasimhan is freed from a cave by elephants, "hundreds" of circus elephants were used. Kittoo travelled throughout South India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka ), seeing over 50 circuses before he chose the Kamala Circus Company and Parasuram Lion Circus; Vasan employed Kamala for a month. The circus scenes were shot by K. Ramnoth . Kittoo reminisced about
12319-451: The sheer magnificence of its backgrounds." In a review published on 10 April, a critic from The Indian Express article termed the film to be "essentially for the young of all ages and even the harassed house-wife will share the pleasure of children treated unexpectedly to a pride of lions, tigers, ponies and elephants showing their paces along with clowns and acrobats." A Dinamani article that day stated, "People who were depressed with
12446-402: The song "Naattiya Kuthirai" with Sundari Bai (including her dance and costume) were inspired by the 1943 musical film Coney Island . Film scholar Uma Vangal wrote that the film reflects Vasan's "vision of a truly democratic nation, based on equal rights for men and women" by portraying "a world where men and women work together to establish a rightful rule". Chandralekha 's soundtrack
12573-407: The songs on the Hindi soundtrack to Uma Devi, who later became popularly known as Tun Tun . She initially hesitated, feeling that "[they] were beyond her capabilities", but was supported by Rajeswara Rao, who "worked hard on her". "Sanjh Ki Bela", from the Hindi soundtrack, is loosely based on "Sanjh Ki Bela Panchhi Akela" from Jwar Bhata (1944). Chandralekha 's music helped make it one of
12700-470: The standard characters, six characters taken from the Grantha script , which was used in the Tamil region to write Sanskrit, are sometimes used to represent sounds not native to Tamil, that is, words adopted from Sanskrit, Prakrit , and other languages. The traditional system prescribed by classical grammars for writing loan-words, which involves respelling them in accordance with Tamil phonology, remains, but
12827-462: The too-obvious studio "exteriors" ... Last but far from least, Busby Berkeley would surely have been delighted to see his influence extending to the climactic drum dance." Jonathan Rosenbaum said in August 1981, "The prospect of a three-hour Indian film in [Tamil] with no subtitles is a little off-putting, I would say—wouldn't you?" However, Rosenbaum had "surprisingly little trouble following
12954-526: The word for "here"— iṅku in Centamil (the classic variety)—has evolved into iṅkū in the Kongu dialect of Coimbatore , inga in the dialects of Thanjavur and Palakkad , and iṅkai in some dialects of Sri Lanka . Old Tamil's iṅkaṇ (where kaṇ means place) is the source of iṅkane in the dialect of Tirunelveli , Old Tamil iṅkiṭṭu is the source of iṅkuṭṭu in
13081-529: Was "perhaps one of the most spectacular sequences in Indian cinema." In his 2009 book, 50 Indian Film Classics , M. K. Raghavendra wrote: "Indian films are rarely constructed in a way that makes undistracted viewing essential to their enjoyment and Chandralekha is arranged as a series of distractions". Raja Sen praised the film's set pieces , drum-dance sequence and the "longest swordfight ever captured on film" in May 2010 on Rediff , calling Chandralekha "just
13208-534: Was a Tamilian himself, in a joint sitting of both houses of the Indian Parliament on 6 June 2004. The socio-linguistic situation of Tamil is characterised by diglossia : there are two separate registers varying by socioeconomic status , a high register and a low one. Tamil dialects are primarily differentiated from each other by the fact that they have undergone different phonological changes and sound shifts in evolving from Old Tamil. For example,
13335-600: Was claimed to be dated to around 580 BCE. John Guy states that Tamil was the lingua franca for early maritime traders from India. Tamil language inscriptions written in Brahmi script have been discovered in Sri Lanka and on trade goods in Thailand and Egypt. In November 2007, an excavation at Quseir-al-Qadim revealed Egyptian pottery dating back to first century BCE with ancient Tamil Brahmi inscriptions. There are
13462-425: Was composed by S. Rajeswara Rao , with lyrics by Papanasam Sivan and Kothamangalam Subbu. R. Vaidyanathan and B. Das Gupta collaborated with M. D. Parthasarathy on the background music. Rajeswara Rao recalled in a 1993 interview for The Hindu that it took him over a year to compose the film's music, with much of his time devoted to the drum-dance scene: "As the dancers performed, we used to rehearse and compose
13589-406: Was considered "the most expensive piece of outfitting ever used in a motion picture." Chandralekha was released on 9 April 1948 simultaneously in over 40 theatres throughout South India. A typical 1940s Tamil film was released in about ten towns, but Chandralekha was released simultaneously in 120 towns. The film was released in Japan as Shakunetsu-no kettō ( 灼熱の決闘 , Fight Under
13716-540: Was created by Lord Shiva . Murugan , revered as the Tamil God, along with sage Agastya , brought it to the people. Tamil, like other Dravidian languages, ultimately descends from the Proto-Dravidian language , which was most likely spoken around the third millennium BCE, possibly in the region around the lower Godavari river basin. The material evidence suggests that the speakers of Proto-Dravidian were of
13843-478: Was filmed, his performance was considered "too soft" and he was removed; however, he remained on the project as a scriptwriter and assistant director. When Raghavachari suggested Ranjan as Sasankan, Vasan was reluctant; although the producer initially considered the actor too effeminate to play a "steel-hard villain", Vasan eventually relented. Ranjan had committed to B. N. Rao's Saalivaahanan (1945), but Kittoo persuaded him to test for Chandralekha and Rao gave
13970-509: Was impressed with the result. C. E. Biggs was the film's audio engineer . Chandralekha was in production for five years (1943–1948), with changes to its story, cast and filming which generated substantial time and cost overruns . The film ultimately cost ₹ 3 million (about $ 600,000 in 1948), and was the most-expensive Indian film at the time. Vasan mortgaged all his property, received financial assistance from The Hindu editor Kasturi Srinivasan and sold his jewellery to complete
14097-461: Was inspired by the scene for a song scene budgeted at ₹ 10 million (equivalent to ₹ 43 million or US$ 510,000 in 2023) in his 1999 film, Monisha En Monalisa . Film historian Firoze Rangoonwalla ranked Chandralekha 's Hindi version eighth on his list of the top twenty films of Indian cinema. It was a major influence on Kamalakara Kameswara Rao 's 1953 Telugu film, Chandraharam , featuring N. T. Rama Rao . On 26 August 2004,
14224-489: Was no such lens forty years ago. Ramnoth did it using the crane. He planned it well and rehearsed the shot for long. He took the shot 20 times and selected the best "take". After Raghavachari's departure, the drum-dance scene he directed remained in the film. The scene involved 400 dancers and six months of daily rehearsals. It was designed by chief art director A. K. Sekhar, choreographed by Jayashankar and filmed with four cameras by Kamal Ghosh . Randor Guy estimated that
14351-543: Was released from prison on appeal; Vasan recruited him and T. A. Mathuram to play the circus artists who help Veerasimhan rescue Chandralekha from Sasankan, with Mathuram's character named Sumathi. The script was rewritten, with scenes added to showcase the comic duo. P. A. Subbiah Pillai who played Venkatachalam in Gemini's Mangamma Sabatham , was credited as Subbiah Pillai and played Chandralekha's father. Madurai Sriramulu Naidu and S. N. Lakshmi made their acting debuts in
14478-441: Was released on 9 April 1948. Although the film received generally positive reviews, it did not recoup its production costs. Vasan directed a Hindi version with some changes, including re-shot scenes, a slightly altered cast, and Hindi dialogues from Agha Jani Kashmiri and Pandit Indra. The Hindi version was released on 24 December of that year, becoming a box-office success. South Indian cinema became prominent throughout India with
14605-481: Was renamed Shashank. Of the other cast members, N. S. Krishnan, T. A. Mathuram, T. E. Krishnamachari, Pottai Krishnamoorthy and N. Seetharaman appeared only in the Tamil version, and Yashodra Katju and H. K. Chopra appeared only in the Hindi version. Nearly the entire cast were credited in the Tamil version, but only six—Rajakumari (credited as Rajkumari), Radha, Ranjan, Sundari Bai (credited as Sundri Bai), Katju and Narayana Rao (credited as Narayan Rao)—were credited in
14732-449: Was scarce in India), barter was a common means of exchange with overseas business partners; Reitaku University 's Tamaki Matsuoka believes that this was the case with Chandralekha . An NCC pamphlet about the film called Vasan the " Cecil B. DeMille of the Indian film industry". A Danish version of the film, Indiens hersker ( India's Ruler ), was released on 26 April 1954. An abridged English-language version of Chandralekha , Chandra ,
14859-718: Was screened in April 2013 at the Centenary Film Festival, organised by India's Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the National Film Archive . It was one of eight Indian films screened at the 28th Italian Il Cinema Ritrovato in 2014 as part of "The Golden 50s: India's Endangered Classics", the festival's first Indian-cinema retrospective. In his Times of India review of Baahubali: The Beginning (2015), M. Suganth wrote that director S. S. Rajamouli had "take[n] his cues [for its visuals] from varied sources" (including Chandralekha ). In
14986-665: Was screened in the United States and Europe during the 1950s. Despite the film's positive reviews and good box-office performance, it was unable to recover its large production costs; Vasan remade it in Hindi in an attempt to do so. The Hindi version, distributed by The Screens (a company in Bombay, now Mumbai ), was released on 24 December 1948. With over 600 prints it was a commercial success, setting box-office records. Vasan called Chandralekha "a pageant for our peasants", intended for "the war-weary public that had been forced to watch insipid war propaganda pictures for years." It
15113-513: Was selected by the Indian government for screening at the fourth International Film Festival in Prague in 1949. The film's success made Madras a production centre for Hindi films. Five years after Chandralekha 's success, Gemini paid its employees a bonus, one of the first studios in the world to do so. Although exact figures for the film's box-office earnings are not available, film-trade websites provide estimates. Box Office India cited
15240-504: Was the lingua franca for early maritime traders, with inscriptions found in places like Sri Lanka , Thailand , and Egypt . The language has a well-documented history with literary works like Sangam literature , consisting of over 2,000 poems. Tamil script evolved from Tamil Brahmi, and later, the vatteluttu script was used until the current script was standardized. The language has a distinct grammatical structure, with agglutinative morphology that allows for complex word formations. Tamil
15367-403: Was the most-expensive film made in India at the time. Vasan mortgaged all his property and sold his jewellery to complete the film, whose cinematographers were Kamal Ghosh and K. Ramnoth . The music, largely inspired by Indian and Western classical music, was composed by S. Rajeswara Rao and M. D. Parthasarathy with lyrics by Papanasam Sivan and Kothamangalam Subbu . Chandralekha
15494-451: Was the emergence of the present tense. The present tense evolved out of the verb kil ( கில் ), meaning "to be possible" or "to befall". In Old Tamil, this verb was used as an aspect marker to indicate that an action was micro-durative, non-sustained or non-lasting, usually in combination with a time marker such as ṉ ( ன் ). In Middle Tamil, this usage evolved into a present tense marker – kiṉṟa ( கின்ற ) – which combined
15621-406: Was the film's " raison d'etre ". In 2003, S. Muthiah called it "an epic extravaganza worthy of Cecil B. de. Mille" and "larger-than-life." In their 2008 book, Global Bollywood: Travels of Hindi Song and Dance , Sangita Gopal and Sujata Moorti wrote that Chandralekha translated "the aesthetic of Hollywood Orientalism for an indigenous mass audience", while also opining the film's drum-dance scene
15748-403: Was the first Tamil studio to attempt to distribute a film throughout India. According to film scholar P. K. Nair , it was the first Indian film with a full-page newspaper advertisement. In a 2010 Mumbai Mirror article, Vishwas Kulkarni wrote that ₹ 574,500 was spent on the film's newspaper publicity and ₹ 642,300 on posters, banners and billboards. Chandralekha 's publicity campaign
15875-443: Was the hero and the younger the villain. M. K. Radha was offered the part of Sasankan, the younger prince. Since he was then known for heroic roles, Radha was unwilling to play a villain and instead agreed to play the older prince, Veerasimhan. His wife Gnanambal persuaded Vasan to cast Radha in the role. K. J. Mahadevan (a member of Gemini's story department) was chosen by Vasan to play Sasankan. Although some footage of Mahadevan
16002-497: Was the most expensive for an Indian film at the time; the publicity budget for a typical Indian film a decade earlier was about ₹ 25,000, and publicity for a "top Indian film" cost no more than ₹ 100,000 during the 1950s. According to Guy, the film's publicity campaign "made the nation sit up and take notice". A. K. Shekhar designed the publicity material, which included posters, booklets and full-page newspaper advertisements. Gemini Studios, inspired by American cinema, also produced
16129-469: Was the person who opened the door for Hindi films in the South." Chandralekha was K. Ramnoth's last film for Gemini Studios. Although he is often credited with shooting the drum-dance sequence, Ramnoth left the studio in August 1947, before the scene was conceived. Director Singeetam Srinivasa Rao told film critic Baradwaj Rangan that he disliked Chandralekha when he first saw it and recognised it as
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