C. Honnappa Bhagavathar

Honnappa Bhagavathar was a multifaceted personality, along with being a popular actor he was also a skilled Carnatic musician, theatre artist and producer. Born in January 1915, Bhagavathar established himself as one of the major stars of Tamil and Kannada cinema during the 1940s and 50s. Bhagavathar incidentally came into Tamil cinema in 1937 in Ellis R Dungan’s superhit Ambikapathy which had Thyagaraja Bhagavathar in the leading role, and which, along with Chintamani made in the same year, brought Thyagaraja Bhagavathar stardom. Some of his important hits include films like Sri Murugan (Tamil, 1946), Valmiki (Tamil, 1946), Bhakta Kumbara (Kannada, 1948) and Gunasagari (Kannada, 1953). This interview was conducted by Randor Guy on November 11th, 1990 at Bhagavathar’s residence in Chamarajpet, Bangalore while he was 75. Madabhushi Rangadorai, fondly known as Randor Guy is a well-known author, columnist and film historian, and also a lawyer by profession. He has written books like “Memories of Madras: Its Movies, Musicians & Men of Letters”, “A History of Tamil Cinema”, “Starlight, Starbright: The Early Tamil Cinema”. Guy has also written fiction novels like “Chaya” and “Kasi”. Language: Tamil, Duration: 2 Hr and 52 Min Note: We would encourage you to use this information for Educational and Research purposes and would appreciate if NFAI is credited for the same.