Tamil film star Ramaswamy Ganesan, better known as Gemini Ganesan, was born on 17 November 1920 to a Brahmin family in the then Thanjavur district of Madras state.<\/p>\n
The \u201cKing of Romance\u201d, as he was called for his good-looking charm and on and off screen romances, died on 22 March 2005. One of his daughters is the Bollywood star Rekha.<\/p>\n
Gemini Ganesan\u2019s childhood name was Ganapathi Subramania Sarma. His parents were Ramaswamy and Gangamma. After his father\u2019s death (when Ramaswamy was 10 years old), he was raised by his grandmother Bagirathi, mother Gangamma and aunt Muthulakshmi, partly in Madras city (now Chennai). He studied at the Ramakrishna Mission Home for a few years and then in a high school in Pudhukkottai, his native place. Subsequently he studied at Maharajah\u2019s College and Madras Christian College, graduating in Chemistry.<\/p>\n
In 1940 he married Alamelu (informally called \u2018Bobji\u2019). After his dream of becoming a doctor could not be realised, he took up the job of a teacher at his alma mater, Madras Christian College. In 1947 he joined Madras\u2019s famous Gemini Studios as a production executive.<\/p>\n
He made his film debut the same year with a minor role in the Gemini production \u2018Miss Malini\u2019. He starred opposite Pushpavalli, whom he later married. Rekha was a child from this union. \u2018Miss Malini\u2019 was followed by minor roles in films such as \u2018Chakradhari\u2019 (in which he played the role of Lord Krishna). However, it was after a negative role in the 1953 film \u2018Thai Ullam\u2019 that be began to be noticed. Major success came in the form of \u2018Manampol Mangalyam\u2019, a double role in which he starred opposite the actress Savitri (they later married).<\/p>\n
As R.C. Rajamani wrote in The Tribune<\/em> in April 2005, \u201cWith that film (\u2018Manampol Mangalyam\u2019), Gemini Ganesan had really arrived. The prefix Gemini came to be attached to his name from this film. It was also to distinguish him from\u2026Sivaji Ganesan, who was already making waves with fiery social films like \u2018Parasakati\u2019, scripted in vitriol by M. Karunanidhi, the DMK supremo. MGR, too, was already a star of some stature at that time. While Sivaji Ganesan and MGR played the serious, idealistic, but wronged Indian youth in films as per the mood of the 1950s, Gemini Ganesan came as a whiff of spring in simple, uncomplicated roles in films like \u2018Missiamma\u2019 that was later made in Hindi as \u2018Miss Mary\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n In the initial phase of his career Gemini Ganesan acted in films like \u2018Maya Bazaar\u2019 (1957), \u2018Kalathur Kannamma\u2019 (1959), \u2018Veerapandiya Kattabomman\u2019 (1959), \u2018Pennin Perumai\u2019 (1960), and \u2018Kappalotiya Thamizhan\u2019 (1961).<\/p>\n Later he acted in films like \u2018Kaviya Thalaivi\u2019, \u2018Naan Avanillai\u2019 and \u2018Avvai Shanmugi\u2019. He also acted in a few films of other south Indian languages such as the Telugu film \u2018Rudraveena\u2019. He acted in television as well.<\/p>\n \u201cWell into the mid-50s, [Gemini Ganesan] was still playing the romantic hero. In fact, arguably the most memorable film of his career, \u2018Naan Avanillai\u2019 happened when he was 54,\u201d Suveen Sinha wrote in Business Standard<\/em> in January 2011. \u201cIn it he played nine roles as a philanderer who changed his identity to lure pretty women. He invariably got the women; all of them succumbed to him. And the romances did not end when the director called \u2018cut\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n About his multiple relationships, he told the journalist Shobha Warrier in an interview in 1995: \u201cThese adventures and misadventures gave me a feeling that I should take care of my family hundred times more than what I had, which I would have, had I not strayed. I took care of my wife (Bobji); I took good care of my children. All of them have come up brilliantly in life. So my conscience is now clear. I am satisfied. I have made amends. That was the only mistake I have done. Gemini Ganesan is not a Rama, he is aKrishna.\u201d<\/p>\n Gemini Ganesh died on 22 March 2005 after a long illness. He was 84.<\/p>\n In an article on the star, the film historian and critic S. Theodore Baskaran wrote in The Hindu<\/em> in March 2005: \u201cWith his signature costume of kurta and pyjama, he projected a romantic hero as he broke the hearts of women\u2026.His was a time when melodrama ruled the Indian screen. The plots of his films were often sentimental, like in \u2018Kalathur Kannamma\u2019 (1960). The eroticism he depicted in the love scenes was beautifully understated\u2026.A typical Gemini hero was zestful, warm and gracious and not given to violence.\u201d<\/p>\n Also on this day:<\/p>\n 1894 \u2014Surya Sen, Indian freedom fighter, was born<\/p>\n 1957 \u2014 Sanjay Kirloskar, chairman and managing director of Kirloskar Brothers Ltd, was born<\/p>\n 2007 \u2014 U.G. Krishnamurti, Indian thinker and philosopher, passed away<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tamil film star Ramaswamy Ganesan, better known as Gemini Ganesan, was born on 17 November 1920 to a Brahmin family in the then Thanjavur district of Madras state. The \u201cKing of Romance\u201d, as he was called for his good-looking charm and on and off screen romances, died on 22 March 2005. One of his daughters is the Bollywood star Rekha…. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-history"],"yoast_head":"\n