These twins will be separated by chance. One grows up to be good and powerful while the other grows up to be evil and greedy. Shivaji brought these dual qualities to life through his performance. Zoom technology was used for the first time in this film.
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During his time as a producer and screenwriter, CV Sreedhar produced Amardeepam along with his friends. Directed by Prakash Rao, Sridhar wrote the screenplay and dialogues of the film, and Sivaji played the lead role. The story of Amardeepam was adapted from the 1942 US film Random Harvest.
Amardeep was released in 1956 and was a hit and was remade in Hindi as Amardeep. Following this, Sridhar approached Shivaji, deciding to film the story of Purana Valli. Sivaji refused to act in Sridhar’s film saying that he had taken an advance from another producer to act in the same Valli story. Thus Valli gave up filming the story and decided to write a story adapted from the English film The Man in the Iron Mask.
However, a film adaptation of the same film was released in Tamil in 1940 called Utthama Puthiran. Since it has been more than 15 years since its release, they decided to remake Uttama Putra itself. This time Shivaji also agreed.
Sridhar first approached K. Ramnath to direct Uttama Putran. Prakash Rao, who had directed Amardeepam, was also signed to get Ramnath to step away from MGR’s take on the same story with the same name and was signed as director.
On the same day as the announcement of Shivaji’s Uttama Putran, the announcement of MGR’s Uttama Putran was the hot news of the day. But MGR’s Uttam Putra stopped with the announcement.
Shivaji played a double role for the first time in Uttama Putran. These twins will be separated by chance. One grows up to be good and powerful while the other grows up to be evil and greedy. Shivaji brought these dual qualities to life through his performance. Zoom technology was used for the first time in this film.
When the shooting took place in Brindavan, Mysore, the cinematographer of the film, A.Vincent, shot the zoom scene for the first time in India using a camera belonging to a French tourist who was amused. His first Tamil film was Amardeepam. Next he did the cinematography for Uttama Buddha. It was Vincent who later did the cinematography for important films directed by Sridhar.
Shivaji, Padmini, MK Radha, MN Nambiar. Great performances by Ragini and Kannamba, Sridhar’s serious screenplay and dialogues, Prakash Rao’s direction, Vincent’s artistic cinematography, G.Ramanathan’s mesmerizing music, songs and grand stages combined to make Uttamaputra a hit.
The film ran for over 100 days and collected profits. Like Amardeepam, Uttama Putran was released in Tamil Nadu by Sivaji’s Sivaji Films. 1958 February 7th Uttama Putran which includes various achievements was released on this day. Today marks 65 years since the release of Uttama Putran.
