Yaaga Saalai
| Manivannan | |
|---|---|
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| Born |
Manivannan Rajagopal 31 July 1953 Sulur, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Died | 15 June 2013 (aged 59) Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Occupation | Film actor, director, writer |
| Years active | 1978–2013 |
| Spouse(s) | Sengamalam |
| Children | Jyothi, Raghuvannan |
Manivannan Rajagopal (31 July 1953 – 15 June 2013), popularly known mononymously as Manivannan, was an Indian film actor and director. In a career spanning three decades, Manivannan went from being a story and dialogue writer for veteran director Bharathiraja from 1980–82 to a successful director who thrived in experimenting with different genres, before becoming an actor. With over 400 films to his name, Manivannan was one of the most experienced actors in the field and has directed exact 50 films. Manivannan was mainly a supporting actor in films and often played the comedian or the villain's role.
During his lifetime, he supported various political parties, including the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and the Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. He later became affiliated with the Naam Tamilar Katchi and had long supported its ideology of Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism.
Manivannan attended the Sulur Government Boy's High School and later enrolled at Kovai Government Arts College. While completing his pre-university course in Kovai, he became acquainted with Sathyaraj and became friends. According to Sathyaraj, he provided poor guidance to Manivannan and made him pursue a degree in history in advanced English, which made him struggle with topics such as Shakespeare, forcing him to drop out later. While still at college, Manivannan was bitten by the stage-bug and consequently he staged a few performances. Inspired by the impact the film Kizhake Pogum Rail (1978) made on him, he wrote a fan mail to the film-maker Bharathiraja and the letter ran to more than a hundred pages. Bharathiraja took him under his fold as an apprentice. Manivannan joined Bharathiraja's camp around 1979, when the director was acting in and was directing by P S Nivas, Kallukkul Eeram.
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