O Panneerselvam to inaugurate Sivaji Ganesan memorial
The memorial of the thespian will be inaugurated at a gala function by Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on October 1.
Chennai: The stage is all set for the inaugural of the memorial (manimandapam) for legendary Tamil film actor Sivaji Ganesan raised at a cost of Rs 2.80 crore at Adyar here, on the eve of Gandhi Jayanthi.
The memorial of the thespian will be inaugurated at a gala function by Deputy Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam on October 1, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami has announced. Interestingly, the day coincides with the late star’s birth anniversary.
None to match Sivaji’s acting skills, says CM
Fisheries minister D. Jayakumar will preside over the function along with the information and publicity minister. The 28,300 square feet memorial has been built by the public works department and it will also house his bronze statue, earlier installed on Kamarajar Salai. The statue on Kamarajar Salai abutting the Marina beach was removed following a court directive.
Though he wanted to inaugurate the memorial in honour of Sivaji Ganesan, he would be out of town to attend other meetings, Mr Palaniswami said.
In 2015, late Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa announced in the Assembly that a memorial would be built honouring Sivaji Ganesan, who dominated the Tamil film world since the 1950s. A winner of Dada Saheb Phalke award, Ganesan acted in over 300 films most of which were big hits. He died on July 21, 2001. "There cannot be any second opinion that there is no one to match his acting skills, which are praised the world over," Mr Palaniswami added.
The announcement comes a day after actor Prabhu, Ganesan's son wrote to minister for information and broadcasting Kadambur Raju stating that he was unhappy with the arrangements made for the inaugural. In his letter, Prabhu had said that he was disappointed with the Chief Minister and the Deputy Chief Minister not attending the inaugural. "Through his movies, he has done so much for Tamil culture and the Tamil language so please sir, we feel that this kind of a small function for our father is kind of disrespecting him," the letter had said.