U. R. Jeevarathinam

U. R. Jeevarathinam Biography

U. R. Jeevarathinam was an actress, singer and producer of Tamil and Telugu cinema. She was active in the industry from second half of 1930’s to late 1950’s and hence regarded as one of the singing actresses in the first generation of talkies. She was married T. S. Venkataswami who was the manager of Central Studios. She has produced two Tamil movies - Pona Machan Thirumbi Vanthan (1954) and Vaazhvile Oru Naal (1956), for which she worked as a playback singer as well. After these two movies, she retired from film industry.

She was born in 1927 in Unjalur, Erode of Madras Presidency to Subramaniam and Kunjammaal. She was interested in music at a younger age and was a good singer since childhood. K. S. Angamuthu, a very popular comedian helped her to join Krishna Drama Company at the tender age of 9. She learnt carnatic music from Kailasa Bhagavathar and Kunnakkudi Venkatrama Iyer. When Salem Modern Theatres was founded, she joined as an artiste. She debut big screen at the age of 10 as a child artist with the movie -Sathi Ahalya.  Bhaktha Gowri, released in 1941 was her first movie as an adult actress. She played lead role in this movie. As she was a good singer, it helped her a lot to stay in the film industry. 'Theruvil varaandee' song of the movie was also a super hit in those days. Poompavai, Abhimanyu, Bhojan and Devakanya are her noted movies as an actress.

She married T. S. Venkataswami who was the manager of Central Studios. After that she stayed away from acting. The couple started a film production company Mercury Films. The first movie Pona Machan Thirumbi Vanthaan (1954) with Sriram and Kuchalakumari in the lead roles was a commercial hit.

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Updated: January 17, 2014