Now, a documentary on legendary Kollywood writer, producer Panchu Arunachalam

Panchu Arunachalam or Panchu as he is called, is a legendary screenplay writer, lyric writer and producer, who made actors Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan mass heroes through his intelligent writing.  

Panchu, who also introduced Ilaiyaraaja to the film industry with his film Annakkili in 1976, has an enviable record in Tamil cinema. He has written original stories 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 50 films ran for over 100 days. After a gap of a few years, he has re-started writing screenplays and lyrics this year and Tamil cinema will witness more creations from him soon.

Thiru Arul Productions has now made a documentary called A Creator with Midas Touch. The documentary is directed by G Dhananjayan of Blue Ocean Film & Television Academy (BOFTA) with cinematography by Sudharsan Srinivasan, editing by JS Vignesh and audiography and music by Shamanth. The documentary is produced by Lalitha Jeyananth and S. Uma Maheshwari of Thiru Arul Productions. 

Rajinikanth with the director and crew of the documentary

This documentary on Panchu pays tribute to his creativity, versatility, and command over various fields of filmmaking as his contribution to Indian cinema has not been recognised nationally and sufficiently so far. In this documentary, Panchu is remembered by many living legends from the film industry as the screenplay writer, who has given the largest number of hit films with a variety of subjects and a creator who made a big difference to their film career. This 135-minute documentary captures the life of Panchu from childhood to what he is today.

Many eminent people in the Tamil film industry have spoken about Panchu in this documentary including Super Star Rajinikanth, Bharathirajaa, Mahendran, Ilaiyaraaja, Sivakumar, AVM. Saravanan, V.C. Guhanathan, SP. Muthuraman, R. Selvaraj, K. Bhagyaraj, G.N. Rangarajan, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, B. Lenin, Gangai Amaran, Abirami Ramanathan, K.R., Kalaignanam, ‘Mukta’ V. Srinivasan, R. Sundarrajan, Sundar C., A. Venkatesh, Annadurai Kannadasan, C.V. Rajendran, ‘Chitra’ Lakshmanan, Suresh Krissna, Sathyaraj, Prabhu, Khushbu Sundar and Radhika Sarathukumar.

The documentary will be screened as a television series and will also have a theatrical release (a shorter version of 135 minutes). It will be screened at a grand event for the film industry and media in April/May 2016.