Why MGR Interchanged Release Dates Of His Two Films

MG Ramachandran, fondly known as Puratchi Thalaivar, was one of the finest actors in the South film industry. He took Tamil cinema to great heights with his stellar body of work. Almost all his films proved to be major crowd-pullers and have run in cinemas for 100-plus days. Some of his hit films include Naan Aanaiyittal, Sathi Leelavathi and Anbe Vaa. His call sheet was lined up with so many projects at one time, that he had to make sure that two of his films don’t clash at the box office. Similarly, he carefully avoided the clash of his films Naan Aanaiyittal and Anbe Vaa.

Naan Aanaiyittal was released on 4 February 1966. It was initially scheduled to release on 14 January 1966 during Pongal but was pushed back to allow the release of another film, Anbe Vaa. This adjustment also brought in huge profits for him. Keep reading this space to know more about it.

As stated by the movie mogul AVM Saravanan in his 2005 memoir, MGR was offered a sum of Rs 3,00,000 to star in their 1966 production, Anbe Vaa. It was an adaptation of the 1961 Hollywood movie Come September, starring Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida. Then the Kalangarai Vilakkam actor had a busy schedule in 1965. He was committed to releasing Naan Aanaiyittal in January 1966 on the occasion of Pongal. But it was a black and white production of his then manager RM Veerappan, under Satya Movies banner.

MGR decided to make better use of this opportunity and negotiated a deal with AVM company by postponing the release of Naan Aanaiyittal. He decided to use that slot for the release of Anbe Vaa, which was a colour production. For this marginal adjustment, the Nadodi actor demanded an additional payment of Rs 25,000. According to Saravanan, his company was left with no choice and had to end up paying a total of Rs 3,25, 000, to a slight discontent of AVM founder AV Meiyappa Chettiar.

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