Aroordas, Shanmuganathan honoured with Kalaignar awards; CM to present

CHENNAI: The State government on Thursday announced that veteran screenplay writer Aroordas will be given 'Kalaignar Ninaivu Kalaithurai Vithagar award' and senior journalist I Shanmuganathan from Daily Thanthi was honoured with 'Kalaignar Ezhudhukol Virudhu' on the occasion of 99th birth anniversary of former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi.

Both the awards will be presented by Chief Minister MK Stalin during a function on Friday. Aroordas will be given Rs 10 lakh for his award and Shanmuganathan will be given Rs 5 lakh for his award. Aroordas, from Tiruvarur, has been involved in writing screenplay for 70 years in which he has written screenplays for more than 1,000 movies.

Aroordas had a writing style of his own in which he had not given importance to the movie hero but only to the character. "Considering the importance of the role, Aroordas wrote dialogues which added value to the movies,” said the State government in a press communique.

Similarly, Shanmuganathan had worked as a journalist for more than 70 years in the Daily Thanthi group.

Hailing from the Tiruchirappalli district, Shanmuganathan joined Daily Thanthi as a sub-editor and rose to the position of editor in Daily Thanthi. He was also the architect behind 'Varalatru Suvadugal', a historical work of the Daily Thanthi group and is still associated with Daily Thanthi.

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