On February 24, 1948, Jayalalithaa, better known as Amma, was born. She was the first Indian politician to serve as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu six times. She was a revolutionist and a leader or Puratchi Thalaivi as her cadre referred to her. However, before entering politics, Jayalalithaa had a brief but spectacular career as an actor.
According to sources, Jayalalitha and Superstar Rajinikanth had a strained relationship. However, there is an intriguing truth about their films. One of Rajinikanth’s films was an adaptation of Jayalalitha’s popular film Kanavan.
Released on August 15, 1968, Kanavan featured Jayalalitha alongside MGR. MGR and Jayalalitha’s Jodi was the favourite back in the day. The plot revolved around Vellaiya and Rani. Rani is a rich girl, whose father has a mill.
The protagonist of the film, Vellaiya, is a worker in the factory and a unionist. After the demise of her father, she struggles to inherit her father’s riches. She then marries Vallaiya to gain control of his father’s inheritance and the reunion leader. However, she later falls in love with him. The movie was directed by P. Neelakantan.
Rajinikanth, on the other hand, starred in a movie titled Mannan helmed by P. Vasu, which was released in 1992. The movie shared a similar plot as Jayalalitha’s Kanavan.
The plot narrates the story of Krishnan and Shanti. Shanti, Krishnan’s supervisor, is an authoritarian, forceful lady whom he frequently challenges. Irked and resentful, she manipulates his paralyzed mother and marries him to get control over him.
Jayalalitha’s movie also inspired many remakes before Mannan. Dasari Narayana Rao, who had already heard the story, bought the story rights of the film and made it under the name Sita Ramulu in Telugu. The film was released in 1980.
It was remade by Dasari Narayana in Hindi as well. The Hindi remake was released under the name Haisiyat, which starred Jitendra and Jaya Prada as Ram and Sita respectively.
The Hindi remake was released in 1984. The film was a success in all three languages. Two years after the release of the Hindi film, Anuraga Alaritu was released in Kannada with a similar storyline. The film was adapted from a novel of the same name by Radha Devi.
