Veerapandiya Kattabomman, the first Tamil film to gain international recognition, was released in theaters on May 16, 1959. The film’s male lead Sivaji Ganesan was awarded the Best Actor in the Asia-Africa Continental Award at the 1960 Afro-Asian Film Festival for his performance in the much-loved Tamil film.
In the film, Shivaji played the lead role of an 18th century warlord fighting against the East India Company. For his performance, he received a lot of awards and accolades.
A fun fact about the film is that the film was also released in London despite the British playing the role of the villain in the film. The film won the Silver Jubilee in India and also received 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 theatres, Selvam Pictures attempted to bring Kattabomman’s story to the big screen, but it was abandoned at an early stage. In the year 1953, Gemini Pictures tried to bring the film to life and even advertised that they would reward anyone who could bring up the rare information about Kattabomman.
As per records, when SS Vasan offered him the role, initially, Shivaji refused to play the role. This was because Shivaji was not given a chance in Vasan’s second film, Chandralekha. Soon after, Sivaji was seen in films produced by Vasan such as Iron Curtain and Motor Sundaram Pillai.
In 1960 the Afro-Asian Film Festival was held in Cairo, the capital of Egypt, where Veerapandiya Kattabomman won three awards – Best Picture, Best Actor and Best Musician. It is still remembered today as the first international recognition of Tamil cinema.
After his return from Cairo, Shivaji was warmly received by fellow personalities including MGR. The film was screened once across Tamil Nadu in the early 1980s and again in 2015.
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