Ramarajan was a ticket usher in a theatre at Melur. The person who instilled love for cinema in him was MGR, whose films he watched as he grew up. The film that made Ramaraj into an actor was ‘Namma Ooru Nalla Ooru.’
The film starring Ramarajan and Rekha, celebrated a silver jubilee. It had a simple story, moderate comedy and natural acting. This simple formula gave Ramarajan a big following in the villages. Another person responsible for the success of his films was Ilayaraja. After actor Mohan’s films, Ilayaraja’s music was at its scintillating best in Ramarajan’s films.
Bhagayaraj who was hailed as the artistic heir to MGR, slowly started losing his grip on the masses and that was the time Ramarajan’s continued hits and devotion to MGR helped him gain a firm foothold in the industry and in the hearts of the masses. Like ‘Makkal Thilakam’ MGR, he was given the title of ‘Makkal Nayakan.’
‘Karagattakaran’ was a milestone in Ramarajan’s reel life. It raked up the profits by running to packed houses wherever it was released and in some places, this feat has still not been repeated.
After the success of this film, Ramarajan started to fancy himself as a junior MGR.
Wherever he went for shooting, he was even greeted as the future Chief Minister. In the meantime, he fell in love with actress Nalini and married her.
Ramarajan’s political aspirations gave hard feelings to the ADMK higher-ups. Ramarajan’s formula movies started to lose popularity among the masses. The very formula that catapulted him to success was also the cause of his downfall.
Continued flops, disastrous home productions put Ramarajan into the dumps and his marital life suffered too. Nalini got a divorce from him and went to live separately with their children. Many films stopped at the pooja stage itself and Ramarajan’s golden career came crashing down.
