P. U. Chinnappa Biography 
P. U. Chinnappawas a popular singer and actor associated with Tamil cinema in the 1930s. His full name is PudukkottaiUlaganathanPillaiChinnappa. Pudukkottaiof Tamil Nadu was his native place and this tag got added to his name.UthamaPuthiran, Aryamala, Kannagi, Manonmani, KuberaKuchela and Jagathalaprathapanare among his lead roles. Noted south Indian actress-director M. V. Rajamma made her Tamil acting debut through the classic hit - UthamaPuthiran in 1940.Chinnappa is widely regarded as one of the earliest stars of Tamil talkies. He was a prominent actor in the eras of 1930s and 1940s, whose popularity was just behind M. K. ThyagarajaBhagavathar, the top actor of 1940s. Unfortunately he died at a very young age of 35 in 1951, when he was fully active in films. Sudharsan and Vanasundari were his last releases.
He was one of the top celebrities in Tamil cinema between the late 1930s and early 1950s. He was ranked second behind M. K. ThyagarajaBhagavathar in popularity. Apart from his skills in acting, he also excelled in playback singing. The surprise hit - ‘KuberaKuchela' (1943) was popular for its music too. The movie had 17 songs. ‘NamakkiniBhyamadheu’ of his hit film - ‘Jagathalaprathapan' (1943) was a popular song. Chinnappa was seen playing all the accompanying instruments such as the violin, mridangam, ghatam and konnakol in this song. ‘Aryamala,' ‘Jagathalaprathapan,' ‘Kannagi,' ‘KuberaKuchela,' ‘Harishchandra,' ‘Mahamaya,' ‘Manonmani,' ‘Sudharsan', ‘Mangayarkarasi,' ‘Krishna Bhakti,' ‘Kannaki’ etc were his major hits at box office.
He was born in 1916 in Pudukottai in a lower middle class family. His father was a stage actor. Thus he too drawn towards theatre and studied till 4th standard only. Started his career as a child artist at a younger age, he was also interested in wrestling and Silambam. To financially help his family, he went to a rope production company with a monthly salary of rupees 5. Seeing his acting talents his father encouraged him a lot. At an age of 8, Chinnappa joined in MeenalokshaniVidvabala Sabha, and later worked in Madurai Original Boys, where he started off with small roles during free time.
Once SachidananthaPillai happened to hear Chinnappa singing and impressed by his singing talents offered him the first role for stage play as singing hero. The play PathugaPattabishekam became very popular where he played the male lead. Among the female leads, M.G.Ramachandran was also present. After earning good revenue for Madurai Original boys, he went to Rangoon and played several stage plays aside M.G.Ramachandran and M. G. Chakrapani. In 1936 he made his film debut through Chandrakantha, an adaption of a stage play with the same title, and there was no turning back after that.
Published: N/A
Updated: March 26, 2016
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