Birthday special: Fun facts about some of Mani Ratnam’s most fabulous films

This week, acclaimed Indian filmmaker Mani Ratnam turns a year older and celebrates his 63rd birthday on June 2.

The writer, director and producer has delivered a massive number of successful films during a game-changing career that has blazed a trail for others. He has also launched new talent and set a high standard for Indian filmmakers.

To mark his birth anniversary, Eastern Eye presents 20 fun facts about some of his most fabulous films.

• The directorial debut of Ratnam, Pallavi Anupallavi (1983) was a low-budget Kannada language film that marked the lead debut of future Bollywood superstar Anil Kapoor.
• Mouna Ragam (1986) ran in cinemas for 175 days and won India’s National Film Award for Best Tamil Film. Ratnam received the Filmfare Award for Best Director first time for the movie.
• Multi-award winning gangster drama Nayakan (1987) was India’s official entry for the Oscars’ Best Foreign Language Film category and was listed by Time magazine in 2005 as one of the 100 All-Time Best Films.
• Agni Natchathiram (1988) ran for 200 days and marked the debut of acclaimed actress Nirosha.
• Geethanjali (1989), a Telugu romantic film, won multiple awards and was dubbed in Tamil as Idhayathai Thirudathe. It was later dubbed in Malayalam and remade in Hindi as Yaad Rakhegi Duniya (1992).
• National Award winning film Anjali (1990) was chosen as India’s official entry for the Oscars’ Best Foreign Language Film category. It also marked the 500th film for ace composer Ilaiyaraaja, who delivered the background score and soundtrack.
• Arvind Swamy marked his acting debut with Thalapathi (1991) and became a huge star after teaming up with Ratnam again for Roja (1992) and Bombay (1995).
• Roja marked the debut of India’s most successful ever musician, AR Rahman, who won a National Award for his soundtrack. Rahman would compose the music for every Ratnam film that followed.
• Hit Tamil film Bombay was dubbed in Hindi, Telugu and Malayalam. The film was ranked among the top 20 Indian films in the British Film Institute’s rankings. Its many honours included a National Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration.
• Iruvar (1997) marked the screen debut of Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
• Dil Se (1998) became the first Indian film to officially enter the Top 10 in the United Kingdom box office charts and marked the debut of Preity Zinta.
• Tamil language hit Alaipayuthey (2000) was remade in Hindi as Saathiya (2002), which was globally successful.
• Kannathil Muthamittal (2002) premiered at the 2002 Toronto International Film festival and won six National Awards. It was dubbed in Telugu and Malayalam with the same title.
• Yuva (2004) was shot simultaneously in Hindi and Tamil with different casts. Abhishek Bachchan won his first major acting award for the movie.
• Hindi language film Guru (2007) was premiered at the 2007 Cannes film festival. Superstar actor Suriya provided Abhishek Bachchan’s character’s voice for the Tamil dubbed version.
• Inspired by the Ramayana, Hindi film Raavan (2010) was shot simultaneously in Tamil as Raavanan. Vikram starred in both versions, but as different characters.
• Kadal (2013) marked the debut of Gautham Karthik, son of noted actor Karthik and Thulasi Nair, daughter of popular actress Radha.
• Hit film O Kadhal Kanmani (2015) was released as a dubbed Telugu version as OK Bangaram and remade in Bollywood as OK Jaanu (2017).
• Kaatru Veliyidai (2017) won the National Award for AR Rahman for Best Music Direction.
• Mani Ratnam has won honours including six National Awards and 10 Filmfare Awards.