T. R. Ramanna

Thanjavur Ranganayaki Ramanna, well known as T.R.Rammana, was a famed producer and director of Tamil cinema. He has directed around 30 movies and most of them were proved to be a huge success. T.R.Ramanna was born in Thanjavur, Madras Presidency, British India. His family was popular for their prowess in Carnatic music and his elder sister, T. R. Rajakumari, was a well acclaimed Carnatic singer and dancer as well as Tamil actress. T.R.Ramanna started his career as a sound engineer and was working with Director K.R. Subramaniyam in the department of film production.

During this time he met B. S.Saroja, an actress of the film which was being directed by K.R.Subramaniyam. B.S.Saroja played a significant role in nourishing the career of T.R.Ramanna. It was her instinct that Ramanna has inbuilt capability of film direction and she encouraged him to move forward into the field of film direction and production.

T.R.Ramanna was married to B.S Saroja with the consent of both the families in the year 1949 at Ranganathar Temple, Mahabalipuram. The couple was blessed with three children, son Ganesh and daughters Kalarani and Shanthi. They also have six grand children. T.R.Ramanna expired leaving the whole Tamil industry in deep agony on 22 May 1997. T.R.Ramanna along with B.S.Saroja started three production companies named R. R. Pictures, Ganesh Pictures and Vinayaga Pictures. The first film that was directed by him was Vazha Pirandavan in the year 1953. After that, he directed and produced almost 30 films in Tamil, one Hindi film, Yuvraj, in the year 1979, one Telugu film, Manchi Chedu, in the year 1963 and some Kannada films.

T.R.Ramanna is solely responsible for setting a new trend from the movie Periya Edathu Pen in which he insisted M.G.Ramachandran (popularly known as MGR) to wear western clothes (Pant and Shirt) for a dance. MGR was very much reluctant to that but he agreed to Ramanna's persistence and danced. The dance proved to be a smashing hit and then every producer demanded to have a similar dance in their film. MGR who was hesitating to attempt such dancing style in the beginning complimented T.R.Ramanna for starting a trend. All the expenses and income accounts for a film production and direction were managed by B.S.Saroja. Apart from his first film, Vazha Pirandavan, other films like Panakkara Kudumbam, Kulebagavali, Pasam, thangachchurangam, Naan, Moondrezuthu, Puthumaipithan,Sorgam, Parakkum Pavai, Nadodi, vazhappiranthaval, Periya idaththu Pen and Ennaipol oruvan are some of his benchmark films. He was a very innovative person and also had a great interest in writing novels. He has indeed made his mark in Tamil film history and his presence will always be missed by the whole industry.