Chennai: ‘Ceylon’ Manohar aka AE Manoharan passed away in Chennai late Monday due to age-related ailments. The 73-year-old actor-singer, famous for his Tamil pop ‘Surangani’ made in mid-70s, had been living at Kandanchavadi near the Tidel Park on OMR.
Starting his career in dramas and locally produced films in Jaffna in the 50s and early 60s, Manoharan launched into a singing career in Colombo in 1970 when he sang for the Great Friends Enterprises. He was the hero in the first Tamil movie made in Jaffna called ‘Pasa Nila’. Since then, he had acted in over 250 films in Tamil, Sinhalese and a couple of other languages.
It was during his tenure as a producer for dramas in the commercial section of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation in 1972 that Manoharan began specializing in pop music and released many numbers in Tamil, Sinhalese and English. It was during this time that his ‘Surangani’ hit the charts and won him the title ‘Pop Chakravarthi’ at a music festival in Jaffna.
Manoharan’s film as hero, ‘Vaadai Kaatru’, made in 1977 had won the President’s Award for the best story in Sri Lanka. This was followed by several films in Kollywood with top stars like Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, besides Dharmendra and Mammootty. He was also part of TV series like Thirumathi Selvam, Athipookkal and Anjali. Manoharan has also performed in numerous music shows all over the world.
