Music maestro Ilayaraja , probably struggling for a suitable name in sheer desperation called his classic album –“ How to name it ?”
I wonder how to name a name ? It is not a nickname and yet it is not the person’s given name…. It is not a surname or a middle name or even a first name. It is a combination of all of these. You take a person’s name ( or part thereof) and add another name , a kind of nickname in front of it and lo behold you get a totally different name. Villupuram Chinnaiah Mandrayar Ganesha Murthy becomes Sivaji Ganesan. This new avatar becomes legend in the world of Tamil films. It is this new name that I choose to call “Nom du film” or simply put – A film name. This phenomenon is fairly unique to the Tamil Film Industry , at least more prevalent. We can find similar names in the world of American sports – Tiger Woods , Magic Johnson to name a few. The old Chicago gangster world too had its fair share – Scarface Capone , Bugsy Malone and so on.
These added “Names” can be divided into various categories based on
