A glowing tribute to Panchu Arunachalam

Thiru Arul Productions, the producers of documentary film on legendary writer, director and producer Panchu Arunachalam titled 'A Creator with Midas Touch',(it was Panchu who introduced Ilaiyaraaja to film industry with his film Annakkili in 1976), has announced the screening of their film at the Chennai International Film Festival (CIFF) on 8 January 2017 at Inox theatre.

This the 2nd screening of the film , after it was screened at Indian Panorama of International Film Festival of India at Goa on 27th November 2016 and received overwhelming response.

The documentary was 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 was 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 and commercial 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 15 years but passed away on August 9, 2016.

Panchu’s biggest contribution to Indian cinema was introducing music maestro Ilaiyaraaja in the film Annakkili in 1976. As stated by Bharathirajaa in the documentary, Panchu also was the first creator to take the Tamil films outside the studio and shoot in real locations with Annakkili.

Panchu developed right stories for Rajinikanth through 23 films and given him multiple hits to make him a Super Star. He also developed good commercial scripts over the years for Kamal Haasan through 13 films and made him a mass commercial hero.

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.