CHENNAI: Kovai thambi, the film producer best remembered for his production house Motherland Pictures and for mega blockbuster movies of the 1980’s like 'Payanangal Mudivadillai' and 'Udaya Geetham', will soon make a comeback to politics after a hiatus of nearly two decades.
Kovai Thambi was the Coimbatore District Secretary of the AIADMK between 1977 and 1986. He was also the Perur constituency MLA from 1980 to 1984. After MG Ramachandran’s death in 1988 he quit the party. He belongs to the backward Udayar community and is the State executive president of the Tamil Nadu Bargava Kula Sangam., an umbrella body for the Udayar, Moopanar and Nainar communities.
“I want to do something meaningful for the people of my community who have been betrayed by politicians,” Kovai Thambi told Express. Asked if he nursed political ambitions, he said he had seen ‘all the glory’ both in cinema and politics and that his only idea was to serve the people of his community.
“Important community leaders like SRM University Chancellor T R Pachamuthu felt that setting up a political party would be a significant step in the development of the Bargava people,” the film producer said, adding that he was asked to take up the leadership position. “I said OK as I had always been wanting to do something for them,” he added.
“The plan of the Sangam is to first float a social forum for area specific development before launching a political party,” Kovai Thambi said. Young Bargava people would run the forum and would commit themselves for the development of the local community. The forum functionaries would then be trained on administration and political theories besides being equipped in soft skills. Such trained personnel would be absorbed when the Sangam floats its own political party.