Two established movie stars, first John Garfield (1913-1952) and then Burt Lancaster (1913-1994) had to turn down the role. In his autobiography, Marlon Brando noted that his big break on stage in 1947, for a Tennessee Williams play, A Streetcar Named Desire, came when he was the third choice as the lead male cast. The motif of a new face seizing an opportunity of a lifetime when the chosen star rejects the role in stage or cinema is a recurrent theme.
One day in 1962, both Brando and Ganesan met for lunch and exchanged pleasantries in Hollywood. In late career, both had their critics Brando was lampooned for his ‘method acting’ and Sivaji was critiqued for his ‘overacting’. Both blossomed as talent that has been unseen and unheard of Brando in the hands of Elia Kazan, and Sivaji in delivering the scripts of Anna and Karunanidhi. Both were school dropouts while Brando left school during his high school years, Sivaji Ganesan never even completed his primary schooling. Both set the definitions for what acting is, both on the stage and in movies in their cultural milieu. Marlon Brando (1924-2004) in the USA and Sivaji Ganesan (1928-2001) in South India were talented contemporaries. Compiled and edited by T.S.Narayana Swamy (in Tamil), English translation by Sabita Radhakrishna Sivaji Prabhu Charities Trust, Chennai, 2007, 250 pp. Sivaji Ganesan: Autobiography of An Actor. Annadurai (Anna) – a role that was rejected by M.G. 26th Year on the Web Association of Tamils of Sri Lanka in the USAīook Review: Autobiography of Actor-Politician Sivaji GanesanĪkin to Brando’s story, we have Sivaji Ganesan, hailed as the Marlon Brando of Indian stage and screen, who seized an opportunity of his life time in 1946, at the age of 18, when he was offered the role of Maratha king Sivaji, for a play authored by C.N.