''Kana Kaanum Kaalangal'' () is a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode has been ...

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

that aired on weekdays on

Star Vijay Star Vijay is an Indian Tamil language general entertainment pay television channel owned by Disney Star (formerly Star India), a subsidiary of Asianet Star Communications. The channel's headquarters is in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Star Vijay change ...

. It was the first soap in

television that focused on school life. Due to the success of the show, a sequel called ''Kana Kaanum Kaalangal Kallooriyin Kadhai'' was made. Later another sequel to the serial called ''Kana Kaanum Kalangal Kalloori Saalai'' was also made. Both the sequels focused on college life. It was re-aired on

Star Vijay Super Star Vijay Super, (formerly Vijay Super), is an Indian Tamil-Language Movie channel, operated by Disney Star. Star Vijay Super offers movies in Kollywood, Hollywood, Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly ...

from 16 January 2017, Monday through Friday at 8:00PM.

Plot

This is a story about school life which was aired Mondays to Thursdays at 8 PM on Star Vijay channel. Being set in the school days, this series is all about 12 students, separated into 2 groups. The plot revolves around the rivalry between these 2 groups and the consequences of the same. Everyday happenings of the student life are portrayed in this series to very minute details like healthy competition, fights, jealousy and friendship.

Cast

School season

;Season 1 *

Hemalatha Hemalatha, often credited as Hema, is an Indian actress and dancer. She is acclaimed for her roles as Raghavi in the popular soap opera ''Kana Kaanum Kaalangal'' on STAR Vijay and as Deepa in the superhit Tamil drama serial on Sun TV ''Thend ...

as Raghavi * Monisha Ravishankar as Sanghavi * S. Sheva as Bala (Thala) * Mohamed Irfan as Vineeth *

Yuthan Balaji K. Yuthan Balaji is an Indian actor who has appeared in Tamil language films. He made his debut in the 2009 film, '' Pattalam'' produced by N. Linguswamy, before featuring as the lead actor in ''Kaadhal Solla Vandhen'' (2010) and ''Nagarvalam ...

as Joseph Gabriel "Joe" * Lingeswaran as Pandi * Hariharan "Hari" as Krishnamoorthy "Krish" * Vasudeva Krish Madhusudhan "Madhu" as Pachaiyappan "Pachai" * Stalin Shanmugavel as Rishi * Iyappan as Unni Menon "Unni" * Kothai as Deepa * Sheron as Ragini * Preethi (Pavithra) as Saraswathi "Sis" *

Sri Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific. The word is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as Marathi, Malay (including Indonesian and Malaysian), Javanese, ...

as Sri Ram "Sri" * Kiran Konda as Madan * Dinesh Prabhakaran "Dinesh" as Rakesh "Rocky" * Vignesh Kumar "Vicky Krish" as Vignesh "Vicky" * Sarath as Lingeswaran "Lingu" * Ravikumar as Aadhi * Ramesh Appunu as Thomas "Tom" * Krishna Priya "Priya Atlee" as Priya *

Bhanu Chander Bhanu Chander (Madduri Venkatasatya Subramanyeswara Bhanuchander Prasad; born 2 July 1952) is an Indian actor, director and producer known for his works predominantly in Telugu and Tamil cinema. He is the son of veteran music composer Master Ven ...

as Rajendran, Sanghavi's father and Raghavi's adopted father *

Rekha Bhanurekha Ganesan (born 10 October 1954), better known by her stage name Rekha, is an Indian actress who appears predominantly in Hindi films. Acknowledged as one of the finest actresses in Indian cinema, she has starred in more than 180 fil ...

as Lakshmi, Sanghavi's mother and Raghavi's adopted mother * Raghavendran Ravi as Pulikesi (Puli Gates/Sullan) * Sriram Chandrasekar (Gadam Kishan) as Ramakrishnan "Kichcha"/(Kishan) * Poornima as Karthika "Karthi" * Haritha as Mintu * Vaishnavi as Mano * Chander as a school student * Sabarna as a school student * Ilavarasan as Raghavi's biological father *

Meera Krishnan Meera Krishnan (born 1968) is an Indian actress, who has appeared in Tamil-language films and television serials. She started her career as an announcer on the public broadcaster Doordarshan and later became a newsreader for Sun TV before act ...

as Raghavi's biological mother * Naren (Aadukalam Naren) as Chidambaram, correspondent * Anbazhagan "Anbu" as PT Peeli Sivam * Jeeva as Jeeva, teacher * Kalpana Sri as Madhavi, principal * Raviraj as Gabriel Arokyaraj, Joseph's father *

Senthi Kumari Senthi Kumari is an Indian actress known for her role in the film ''Pasanga'' and the third season of Saravanan Meenatchi and Vanathai Pola as Chellathayi. She played the mother of one of Nayanthara's characters in ''Airaa ''Airaa'' () is ...

as teacher * Kavyavarshini as Bharathi *

Saakshi Siva Saakshi Siva is an Indian television and film actor who acts in Tamil and Telugu language films. He is best known for his role in the serial ''Anandham''. He is currently acting in serials like Maunaragam, No.1 Kodalu, and Akka Mogudu. Per ...

as Vineeth's father *

Peeli Sivam P.L. Sivanappan known by his stage name credited as Peeli Sivam (5 July 1938 – 25 September 2017) was an Indian actor who featured around 400 Tamil-language films and plays from 1958–2017. He has featured in several films such as ''Muhamma ...

as Moorthy * Brindha Das as Vineeth's mother * Ramana Ramakrishnan as Bala's father * Nesan as Deepa's uncle * Jhayasundari as Deepa' mother * Sachin as Bala's brother *

Kuyili Kuyili is a fictional character introduced by K Jeevabharathi in his book "Velu Nachiyar". She was portrayed as an army commander of queen Velu Nachiyar who participated in campaigns against the East India Company in the 18th century. She is ...

as Jeeva's mother * Shailaja as Krishnamoorthy's mother * Engineer Srinivasan as Rajendran's father * Kousalya Senthamarai as Rajammal, Rajendran's mother * S. Ramakrishnan as Bala's father * Rathnaraj as Kathiresan, police Inspector *

Chelladurai Chelladurai (1941 - 7 February 2015) was an Indian comedian who worked in Tamil-language films. He acted in over 350 films. Career Chelladurai made his film debut with ''Thooral Ninnu Pochchu'' (1982). He is known for his comic sequences w ...

as Pandi's father * Shobana as Pandi's mother * Theni Murugan as Murugan, Pachaiyappan's father * Sumathi Sri as Pachaiyappan's mother *

Pasi Sathya Pasi Sathya is an Indian actress who has worked predominantly in Tamil cinema and television. She has worked in popular movies like ''Veedu'', '' Magalir Mattum'', ''Pudhupettai''. She made her debut in the National award-winning Tamil film, '' ...

as Pandi's aunt * Minnal Deepa as PT Peeli Sivam's wife * Suchithra as Kalavathi, Raghavi's sister * Ganesh Babu as teacher * Jayakanthan as Shanmuganathan, teacher * Karnaa Radha as teacher * Vincent as Vincent, teacher * Birla Bose as police inspector * Vinoth as Ilam Parithi * Master Udayaraj as mechanic *

Sivakarthikeyan Sivakarthikeyan (born 17 February 1985), also referred to as SK, is an Indian actor, singer, film producer, lyricist, and television presenter, who works predominantly in Tamil films. He has also won a Tamil Nadu State Film Award, four Edison A ...

as himself (special appearance) * Cheran as himself (special appearance) *

Deepak Dinkar Deepak Dinkar is an Indian anchor and actor, who has primarily appeared in Tamil television. He is most known for his role as Tamil in the prime time Sun TV serial ''Thendral''. He is known for acting in many serials, notably '' Anni'', ''Rekk ...

as himself (special appearance) * Venkat as Himself (special appearance) * Divyadharshini "DD" as herself (special appearance) * Nisha Venkat as herself (special appearance) * Sruthi as herself (special appearance) *

Nancy Jennifer Nancy Jennifer, previously credited as Baby Jennifer, is an Indian actress who has appeared in Tamil language films. After making her debut as a child artiste, Jennifer has also featured in supporting and lead roles. Career Nancy Jennifer bega ...

as herself (special appearance) *

Swaminathan Lollu Sabha Swaminathan (born 31 January 1959) an Indian actor and comedian on working in the Tamil film and media industry. He appeared in prominent roles in Vijay TV's satiric series ''Lollu Sabha'' before becoming a full fledged actor in Tam ...

as Gaja/Aalaiyamani (Temple bell) (special appearance) * Gowthami Vembunathan as herself (special appearance) * Athul Prasanth (special appearance) * Savio (special appearance) ;Season 2 *

Sri Ram Rai Bahadur Sri Ram CIE was an Indian advocate and Government pledger from Lucknow. He was elected to the Council of India on 3 October 1904 as a non-official member representing the United Provinces. Gopal Krishna Gokhale Gopal Krishna Go ...

"Sri" as Sri Ram "Sri" * Vignesh Kumar "Vicky Krish" as Vignesh "Vicky" * Kiran Konda as Madan * Dinesh Prabhakaran "Dinesh" as Rakesh "Rocky" * Ravikumar as Aadhi * Ramesh Appunu as Thomas "Tom" * Krishna Priya "Priya Atlee" as Priya * Hema as Hema *

Michael Thangadurai Michael Thangadurai (born 23 August 1983) is an Indian actor and dancer. He made his acting debut in the youth based soap opera ''Kana Kaanum Kaalangal'' in Star Vijay. He was the winner of the reality dance show ''Jodi Number One'' in Season 4 ...

as Michael Varadharaj * Raghavendran Ravi as Pulikesi "Puli"(Puli Gates/Sullan) * Jhony as Jhony * Prabhu as Prabhu * Udhay as Udhay * Sriram Chandrasekar (Gadam Kishan) as Ramakrishnan "Kichcha"/(Kishan) * Monica *

as Raghavi * Ligeswaran (Black Pandi) as Pandi (Black Pandi) * Vasudeva Krish Madhusudhan "Madhu" as Pachaiyappan "Pachai" * Stalin Shanmugavel as Rishi * Iyappan as Unni Menon "Unni" * Bhavya Rajan as Bhavya * Venkat Renganathan as a student * Azhagappan as a student *

Bala Saravanan Bala Saravanan (born 2 November 1987) is an Indian actor and comedian who has appeared in Tamil language films. Career Bala made his debut as an actor in Vijay TV's school drama serial "''Kallikattu Pallikoodam"'' and came to notice in the Vija ...

as a student * Anandhi Ajay as a student * Sri Vidya Nagarajan as a student * Anbazhagan "Anbu" as PT Peeli Sivam * R. Raveendran "R. Ravi"/(Jeeva Ravi) as Sri Ram, Vignesh and Bhavya's father * Y. V. Subaramaniam as Correspondent * Deepa Nethran as Vicky and Bhavya's mother and Sri Ram's step mother * Usha Elizabeth as Sri Ram's mother and Vignesh and Bhavya's step mother * Kamal Haasan (Kamal Bharathi) as Kamal Haasan, English teacher * Raviraj as Gabriel Arokyaraj, principal * Rathnaraj as police inspector *

as Pandi's father * Theni Murugan as Murugan, Pachaiyappan's father * Pattukkottai Sivanarayana Moorthy as Pulikesi's grandfather * Varalakshmi as Pulikesi's grandmother *

Suryakanth Suryakanth (born 7 July 1960) is a Tamil film actor known for his works predominantly in Tamil films. He has acted more than 300 films so far, and has made his mark as a villain, comedian, in many characters. Suriyakanth has acted in many fi ...

as Pechiyammal's father and Pandi's uncle * Vinoth (Larawin) as Larawin, dance master * Vincent as Vincent, teacher * Birla Bose as a police inspector *

as himself (special appearance) *

Shreekumar Shreekumar Ganesh is a Tamil television actor. He is best known for playing various roles in Super Hit Serials ''Anandham'' (2003–2009), '' Ahalya'' (2004–2006), ''Malargal'' (2005–2007), ''Bhandham'' (2006–2009), '' Idhayam'' (2009–20 ...

"Shree" as himself (special appearance) * Dev Anand as himself (special appearance) *

Tinku Tinku, a Bolivian Aymara tradition, began as a form of ritualistic combat. In the Quechua language, it means “meeting-encounter". During this ritual, men and women from different communities will meet and begin the festivities by dancing. The w ...

as himself (special appearance) * Divyadharshini "DD" as herself (special appearance) *

as Gaja/Aalaiyamani (Temple bell) (special appearance) * Roopesh as himself (special appearance)

College season

;Season 1 *

Karthik Raj Karthik Raj is an Indian actor who works in Tamil film and television industry. Career Karthik started his acting career with the TV show, ''Kana Kaanum Kaalangal Kalooriyin Kadhai (2011-2012)'', where he essayed the role of Karthikeyan. '' ...

as Karthikeyan "Karthi" * Prem Kumar "Prem" (Vetri) as Vetri * Sai Pramodita as Jeyalaxmi "Jeya" * Swetha Krishnan as Swetha * Swetha Subramanian as Jyothika "Jyo" *

as Bala *

Ramesh Thilak Ramesh Thilak is an Indian radio jockey and actor who has appeared in Tamil films. He made his breakthrough with Nalan Kumarasamy's ''Soodhu Kavvum'' (2013) portraying a kidnapper, before playing a similar role of a thief in Alphonse Putharen's ...

as Azhagesan alias Al Gates * Chathrien Rajan as Chathri "Kathadi" * Franklin as Appu *

Vishnu Vijay Vishnu Vijay is an Indian music composer and a prolific flautist who works predominantly in Malayalam cinema. His film music career began with the 2016 Malayalam film ''Guppy''. His other works include ''Ambili'' (2019) and ''Thallumaala'' (202 ...

(Vishnu) as Ashokan "Ashok" * Haripriya as Haripriya * Ganesh Prabhu as Saravanan "Saravnana" * Nisha Krishnan as Divya * Jacqueline Prakash as Nila * Rajani Ravikumar as Rajini * Harini as Harini * Laddu Vidya as Vidya (Laddu) * Sandhya as Sandhya * Monalisa as Monalisa * Mithra as Mithra * Kushboo as Thamizharasi * Sakthi as Sakthi * Lingeswaran (Black Pandi) as Thangappandi * Dinesh as Rakesh "Rocky" * Raghavendran as Jakkubhai "Jakku" * Sriram Chandrasekar (Gadam Kishan) * Karthick Vasudevan "Vasu" as Vasu * Madhan Pandian "Madhan" as Madhan * Bala Krishnan "Bala" as Inba *

Sindhu Shyam Sindhu Shyam is an Indian film and television actress, and a Bharathanatyam dancer. She made her acting debut through the Malayalam film Bhoothakkannadi directed by A. K. Lohithadas. Her role as Thilagavathi in Deivamagal increased her fame and ...

as correspondent *

Suzane George Suzane George is a Tamil actress, acting both in movies and TV serials. She is also known as "Mynaa Suzane.” Career Television Her first break in television was with Jaya TV as a VJ: she hosted the show ''Thagaval Dot Com'' in Kalai Malar ...

as a lecturer *

S. Rajasekar S. Rajasekar (19 August 1957 – 8 September 2019) was an Indian cinematographer, film director, and actor. He was one half of the director duo Robert–Rajasekar. Career Rajasekar's first break happened with ''Kudisai'', followed by '' ...

as Rajasekar * Raviraj as a lecturer * R. Raveendran "R. Ravi" (Jeeva Ravi) as Manohar, secretary * Thirumurugan Duraisamy as Thiru (Sullan) *

Halwa Vasu Vasu, popularly known as Halwa Vasu, (died 17 August 2017) was a comedian in the Tamil film industry in India. He worked in around 900 films. Career Vasu who hailed from Madurai district, came to Chennai to work in cinemas after his graduati ...

as MLA, Thangapandi's father *

Vadivel Balaji Vadivel Balaji (17 February 1975 – 10 September 2020) was an Indian television comedian, mimicry artist and actor. He received the nickname Vadivel after gaining fame among audience for imitating popular Tamil comedian Vadivelu's voice in te ...

Robo Shankar Robo Shankar is an Indian standup comedian who has appears in character roles in Tamil films. He made his breakthrough with STAR Vijay's ''Kalakkapovathu Yaaru'', performing standup comedy. He is a now cast as regular on several shows on Star V ...

* T. Sivakumar (Pasanga Sivakumar) as Saravanan's father * Usha Elizabeth as Elizabeth * Dhanasekaran (Mullai) * Monkey Ravi *

Ananth Vaidyanathan Ananth Vaidyanathan (born 1 November 1957) is an Indian singing trainer, who is popular for his appearances on reality singing television shows. He is often regarded as India's leading voice expert. He has also worked on few films as an actor a ...

as himself (special appearance) * Divya Vijaygopal as herself (special appearance) *

Sathish Krishnan Sathish Krishnan is an Indian actor, dancer and choreographer, who has worked in Tamil films. Career After winning the first season of the reality dance show, Maanada Mayilada, Sathish was first seen portraying Vinay Rai's friend in Jeeva's ...

as himself (special appearance in the title song) ;Season 2 * Prem Kumar "Prem" (Vetri) as Vetri * Kavirajan (Kavin Raj/Kavin) as Siva *

Rio Raj Rio Raj is an Indian actor and video jockey, who has appeared in Tamil language films and television. Often working on shows by network Star Vijay, Raj became known for his role on the soap opera ''Saravanan Meenatchi'', before moving to work i ...

as Palani *

Raju Jeyamohan Raju Jeyamohan (born 2 July 1991) is an Indian actor, television host and model in the Indian film industry, who has worked predominantly in Tamil television shows and films. Raju made his debut in the movie Natpuna Ennanu Theriyuma in the year 20 ...

as Jeevanantham "Jeeva" * Asritha Sreedas as Sandhya * Vaishali Radhakrishnan (Swetha) as Vaishali * Sai Gayatri Bhuvanesh as Manjula * Rishika Suman as Stella * Abinaya as Thenu *

Sanchana Natarajan Sanchana Natarajan is an Indian model and actress who has appeared in Tamil and Telugu films. Having appeared in small roles in films including ''Irudhi Suttru'' (2016) and '' 2.0'' (2018), Sanchana rose to fame with her role in Balaji Mohan's ...

as Sanjana * RJ Shivakanth as Kathir * Britto Mano as Britto * Pavel Mani as Mani * Sridhar as Raghunath, college correspondent/Shiva and Vetri's father * Deepa Nethran as Lakshmi, lecturer/Shiva's mother and Vetri's stepmother * Lakshmi as Vetri's mother and Shiva's stepmother * Pooja as Pooja, lecturer * T. V. V. Ramanujam as Kathir's father * Shobana as Kathir's mother * Boys Rajan as Menon principal *

as Vasu *

as Palani's father * Shiva Aravind as Shiva

Soundtrack

The title song was composed by the music director

Vijay Antony Vijay Antony (born 24 July 1975) is an Indian music composer, playback singer, actor, film editor, lyricist, audio engineer, and filmmaker working predominantly in Tamil cinema. He made his debut as music composer in 2005. He is the first India ...

and the background score was composed by C. .K. Ganesh with lyrics written by Thenmozhi Das. The title song video was directed by Shiran Mather.

Awards and nominations

Production

Casting

conducted a talent search and students between 14 and 22 years were shortlisted and selected for the serial except

and Ligeswaran, who had prior acting experience. All others were students who were acting for the first time to make the serial as close to reality as possible. Following the success of season 1 of the series, season 2 was started with fresh new faces and were promoted to 12th standard. When the producer and director announced the interview for the selection of the cast for second season, it was said that nearly 2000 applicants applied and they had a very tough time in short listing the participants in the selection.

Reception

Kana Kaanum Kaalangal went on to top the TRP ratings among the other Tamil serials during its telecast. In 2007, the series had recorded its highest rating of 7.7 TVR in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

which helped to increase

's average channel share by 16.4 per cent in Chennai and the series was in the leading position among the other Tamil serials which were telecasted during the same time slot, achieving an average channel share by 16.2 per cent in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. In June 2007, the series had completed its 100th episode. In order to celebrate the milestone that the series had achieved, a live chat was organized on indya.com through which the fans got an opportunity to interact with the team members of the series. On 10 June 2007, Star Vijay had also organized a fan meet for the series "Kana Kaanum Kaalangal Carnival" at St. George's School, Chennai. The carnival had witnessed more than thousands of fans who had gathered to meet the lead actors and actresses of the series.

Legacy

Kana Kaanum Kaalangal was a trendsetter series in Tamil television in many ways since almost all the artists of the series were fresh faces for whom the series was their 1st acting assignment or they had earlier appeared as child artists/uncredited extras in serials or movies. The artists for the lead characters were selected by a talent hunt conducted by

with a judge panel consisting of

Praveen Gandhi Praveen Gandhi is an Indian film director, and actor known for his works in Tamil cinema. Career Praveen Gandhi was first given the opportunity to become a film maker by producer K. T. Kunjumon with '' Ratchagan'' (1997), who noted that in the ...

Vasu Vikram Vasu Vikram is an Indian actor and stage director who has worked on Tamil-language films and in television dramas. Career Vasu Vikram is the son of actor M. R. R. Vasu, and the grandson of M. R. Radha. Several other members of his family are al ...

and Prabhu Radhakrishnan, moreover, an acting workshop was also conducted by

Kalairani Kalairani Indian actress who has worked in many Tamil films and as a performer with the Koothu-P-Pattarai theatre group. Filmography Serials * ''Panchavan Kaadu'' (2014) (Tamil) * ''Unarchigal'' (2014) (Tamil) * ''Nandini Nandini is a f ...

for the artists who were selected to play the lead characters. This series marked the debut of many artists as well as technicians for whom the series became a major breakthrough following its grand success. Most of the artists from the series continued to work in lead/supporting roles in serials/cinema and became successful in various other domains of media and arts as well. After 15 years of the series commencement, the grand reunion of the artists from the series from various seasons was aired as a special show on 18 July 2021 on Star Vijay.

References

External links

* {{STAR Vijay TV shows Star Vijay original programming Tamil-language school television series Tamil-language teen television series Tamil-language romance television series 2000s Tamil-language television series 2006 Tamil-language television series debuts Tamil-language television shows 2008 Tamil-language television series endings Indian teen drama television series