Actor and director K. Bhagyaraj is celebrating his 73rd birthday today (January 7). At the same time, he has completed 50 years in the film industry. To celebrate these two occasions, K. Bhagyaraj met with journalists this morning, cut a cake in their presence to celebrate his birthday, and also took photographs with them.
Furthermore, the public relations officers who organized the event, Diamond Babu, Singaravel, and Riyaz K. Ahmed, honored K. Bhagyaraj by presenting him with a shawl. Speaking at the event, K. Bhagyaraj said, “Greetings to all the journalists and media friends. I extend my New Year wishes to everyone. I can’t even believe that I’ve completed 50 years in cinema. My friends, my mother, and everyone had faith in me and said that I would definitely succeed in cinema. I got my first opportunity to work in the film ’16 Vayathinile’. Recently, Kamal Haasan also said that everyone who worked on that film got great opportunities in the following years, and that this has never happened with any other film crew.
During my days of searching for opportunities, I would proudly tell many people that my name was Kovai Raja, instead of my real name. It was in the film ’16 Vayathinile’ that I used the name Bhagyaraj. This is the name my mother gave me. After seeing it on the title card, my director asked who this person was. Only then did everyone say that it was our Rajan. Since I didn’t want to lose the blessing of my mother’s name, I kept it as K. Bhagyaraj.
Even when I was an assistant director, my journalist friends have written about me. During the film ‘Kizhakke Pogum Rail’, my director said that after him, Rajan would be the next director. I came up step by step as an assistant director, dialogue writer, screenplay writer, and then an actor. During the filming of ‘Kizhakke Pogum Rail’, we needed to bring a donkey. I brought it. Those pictures were used as posters. Seeing that, my family members teased me, asking if I went to cinema to herd donkeys. At that time, my mother said that my director would one day make a film with me as the hero. And that actually happened. But my mother passed away before that film was released. That was very sad for me.
After acting as the hero in my first film, I played the villain in my second film, ‘Kanni Paruvathile’. Then I debuted as a director. Thank you all for that. Before coming to cinema, I only had the experience of watching films. Otherwise, I didn’t know anything about cinema. I learned a lot by watching the films of the directors here. Then…” I developed a great interest in books. When I was a child, after school, my mother would give me money to buy honey candy. I would go to the nearby shop, buy the candy, and eat it. One day, when I came home from school, my mother wasn’t there. Immediately, I opened the box, took the money, and bought and ate the honey candy. But that evening, I realized that what I had given wasn’t money, but a gold ring. The shopkeeper could have kept the ring, but he returned it to my mother. This incident taught me the importance of honesty at a young age.
My teachers continue to be a great support to me. Seeing the good deeds done by the revolutionary leader MGR for the people, his character traits were deeply imprinted in my mind. Shivaji Ganesan, too, would give due respect to the director, no matter how new he was. All these things stayed in my mind. I was amazed by Kamal Haasan’s acting at a young age. I saw Rajinikanth in the film ’16 Vayathinile’. He looks the same today as he did back then. The journalists have been very supportive of me. They ensured that each film reached the people in a positive way. 50 years in cinema still feels like a surprise to me. Discussions are underway for directing a web series and a film. I am ready to undertake many new ventures this year. I express my heartfelt gratitude to everyone,” he said.
