On the occasion of the film industry celebrations of 1,000 films of ‘Isai Gnani’ Ilaiyaraaja, Thiru Arul Productions has announced the completion of their biggest ever documentary production on legendary writer, director and producer Panchu Arunachalam. Titled A Creator with Midas Touch, the documentary will throw light on the vast repertoire of Panchu Arunachalam, best known as the man who introduced Ilaiyaraaja to film industry with his film Annakkili in 1976.
The documentary has been directed by G. Dhananjayan of Blue Ocean Film & Television Academy (BOFTA) with cinematography by Sudharsan Srinivasan, editing by J.S. Vignesh and audiography and music by Shamanth. The documentary is produced by Lalitha Jeyananth and S. Uma Maheshwari of Thiru Arul Productions.
Panchu Arunachalam or Panchu as he is called is a legendary screenplay writer, lyric writer and producer, who made actors Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan as mass heroes through his intelligent writing, in addition to introducing Ilaiyaraaja and many others to films.
Panchu has an enviable record in Tamil cinema. He has written original story for 45 films, screenplay and dialogue for 90 films, written over 300 film songs in 150 films, produced 45 films, directed 4 films and distributed over 400 films in a career spanning 47 years, which began in the year 1958 as an assistant to legendary lyric writer ‘Kaviyarasu’ Kannadasan. Out of the 90 films he wrote, 70 were successful and in that 50 films ran for over 100 days is his significant achievement in Tamil cinema. He re-started writing screenplay and lyrics in 2016 after a gap of few years and Tamil cinema will witness more creations from him soon.
“This documentary on Panchu pays tribute to his creativity, versatility, and command over various fields of filmmaking, whose contribution to Indian cinema was not recognized nationally and sufficiently so far. In this documentary, Panchu is remembered by many living legends from film industry as the screenplay writer, who has given the largest number of hit films with different variety of subjects and a creator who made a big difference to their film career. This 135 minutes documentary captures the life of Panchu from childhood to present status,” reads a statement.
Like his film career, this documentary also has an enviable ensemble of over 35 top artistes, filmmakers and producers sharing their working with Panchu in many films over the years. The making of this documentary was significantly enhanced with the active participation of Super Star Rajinikanth, Bharathirajaa, Mahendran, Ilaiyaraaja, Sivakumar, AVM. Saravanan, V.C. Guhanathan, SP. Muthuraman, R. Selvaraj, K. Bhagyaraj, G.N. Rangarajan, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, B. Lenin, Gangai Amaran, Abirami Ramanathan, K.R., Kalaignanam, ‘Mukta’ V. Srinivasan, R. Sundarrajan, Sundar C., A. Venkatesh, Annadurai Kannadasan, C.V. Rajendran, ‘Chitra’ Lakshmanan, Suresh Krissna, Sathyaraj, Prabhu, Khushbu Sundar, Radhika Sarathukumar, Cinematographer Babu and many others.
The documentary with full interviews of these top personalities will be screened as a television series, in a popular TV channel soon. This documentary will also get a theatrical release with a shorter version of 135 minutes. It’s already censored and will be screened at a grand event for the film industry and media in April/May 2016. This will also be released as a DVD/Blu-Ray after the television telecast. The censor board has appreciated the documentary and stated that, it is engaging, entertaining and enlightening us on his life and is a fitting tribute to the legend.