''Netru, Indru, Naalai'' () was a series of

musical theatre Musical theatre is a form of theatre, theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, ...

performances that were held in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

, India, by Indian film director

Mani Ratnam Gopalaratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and a few Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. H ...

. Choreography for the show was provided by Kala and Brinda. There were unconfirmed reports of close to 12,000 people attending the show.

Overview

Conceptualized first in 2000, the original show was supposed to be a one-off event in order to help The Banyan raise funds for its building corpus fund. It featured Revathi Menon and

Aamir Khan Mohammed Aamir Hussain Khan (; born 14 March 1965) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, and television personality who works in Bollywood, Hindi films. Referred to as "Mr. Perfectionist" in the media, he is known for his work in a variety of film g ...

and was held at the

Indian Airlines Indian Airlines was a state-owned airline in India that later became a division of Air India Limited before ultimately ceasing operations. It was based in Delhi and focused primarily on domestic routes, along with several international servic ...

stadium in Chennai. The next show was held at

Indian Institute of Technology Madras The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras or IIT-M) is a public technical university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is one of the eight public Institutes of Eminence of India. As an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), ...

in December 2002. It had an approximate audience of about 10,000 spectators. The format was similar to the first show, with songs and dances through the ages. The television rights were given to

STAR Vijay Star Vijay is an Indian Tamil language general entertainment pay television channel owned by JioStar, a joint venture between Viacom18 and Disney India. The channel telecasts programmes such as serials, reality shows & Tamil films. History T ...

. In February 2006, the third installment ''Netru, Indru, Naalai'', a

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...

musical Musical is the adjective of music. Musical may also refer to: * Musical theatre, a performance art that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance * Musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), charac ...

style tribute to the Tamil filmdom premiered at the Jeppiar Engineering College, in

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. 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 Indi ...

. Directed by

, the three-hour song, dance, and drama extravaganza brought to life definitive celluloid moments from

Tamil cinema Tamil cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Tamil language, the main spoken language in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is nicknamed Kollywood, a portmanteau of the names Kodambakkam, a Ch ...

, across its different eras (Netru (yesterday), Indru (today), and Naalai (tomorrow)), to the stage. The show featured 100 dancers, as well as actors and actresses from across the country. Acclaimed film and theatre composer

A. R. Rahman Allah Rakha Rahman (; born A. S. Dileep Kumar; 6 January 1967), also known by the initialism ARR, is an Indian music composer, record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and philanthropist known for his works in Indian cinem ...

had composed a special song for the show, and other notable technicians involved in the production include art director

Sabu Cyril Sabu Cyril (born 27 January 1962) is an Indian film production designer who is considered to be one of the most celebrated art directors in the country. Having worked in 72 feature films and 500 ad films, he has won 4 National Film Award for B ...

, and award-winning director/cinematographer

Rajiv Menon Rajiv Menon (born 20 April 1963) is an Indian filmmaker who has worked as a director and cinematographer in several Indian regional film industries. After making his breakthrough as a film cinematographer with Mani Ratnam's Tamil drama ''Bombay' ...

. The stage musical marked the first

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

production directed by Mani Ratnam.

Personalities

Film personalities, mainly from

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

and

Malayalam cinema Malayalam cinema, also referred to as Mollywood, is a segment of Cinema of India, Indian cinema dedicated to producing films in the Malayalam, Malayalam language, primarily spoken in Kerala and the Lakshadweep islands. It encompasses both th ...

, who took part in one or more of the shows include: *

Kamal Haasan Parthasarathy Srinivasan (born 7 November 1954), known professionally as Kamal Haasan, is an Indian actor, filmmaker and politician who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. Considered as one of the most accomplished actors of Indian Cinema, Haas ...

* Vijay * R. Madhavan * Vikram *

Mohanlal Mohanlal Viswanathan (; born 21 May 1960), known mononymously as Mohanlal, is an Indian actor and filmmaker who predominantly works in Malayalam cinema, Malayalam cinema besides also having sporadically appeared in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hin ...

Asin Thottumkal Asin Thottumkal (born 26 October 1985), known mononyomusly as Asin, is an Indian former actress who appeared predominantly in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu language, Telugu films. Asin is a recipient of List of awards and nominations ...

Abhishek Bachchan Abhishek Bachchan (; born 5 February 1976) is an Indian actor and film producer known for his work in Hindi films. Part of the Bachchan family, he is the son of actors Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan. From 2012 to 2016, Bachchan appeared in ...

Prakash Raj Prakash Raj (born Prakash Rai; 26 March 1965) is an Indian actor, film director, producer, television presenter, and politician. Known for his works in Telugu language, Telugu, Tamil language, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, English language, Engl ...

* Bharath *

Shriya Saran Shriya Saran Bhatnagar ( born 11 September 1982) is an Indian actress who primarily works in Telugu language, Telugu, Tamil language, Tamil and Hindi films. Although Saran aspired to become a dancer, she became an actress and made her film deb ...

Sindhu Tolani Sindhu Tolani is an Indian actress working in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Hindi language films. Early life Tolani was born in Mumbai, India. She has been a '' Fair & Lovely'' cream model in North. Film career Sindhu Tolani made her acting deb ...

Kiran Rathod Kiran Rathod (born 11 January 1981) is an Indian content creator and actress. She is well known for her appearance in Tamil films. Rathod has established herself in Kollywood. She also appears in Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. She is ...

* Pooja *

Sadha Sadaf Mohammed Sayed, known professionally as Sadha, is an Indian actress known for her work in Telugu, Tamil, and Kannada cinema, as well as Telugu television. She made her film debut with the Telugu film ''Jayam'' (2002), directed by Teja ...

* Malavika *

Rohini Rohini may refer to: People * Rohini (given name), including a list of persons and characters with the name * Rohini (actress) (born 1969), Indian actress, screenwriter, and director * Rohini (Buddha's disciple), female disciple * Rohini (goddes ...

* Vivek *

Genelia D'Souza Genelia Deshmukh (née D'Souza; born 5 August 1987), also credited professionally as Genelia, is an Indian actress who predominantly appears in Telugu cinema, Telugu, Hindi, and Tamil language, Tamil films. Described in the media as one of the ...

Sridevi Sridevi Kapoor (née Shree Amma Yanger Ayyapan; 13 August 1963 – 24 February 2018), known mononymously as Sridevi, was an Indian actress who worked in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada language films. She is regarded as one of ...

Vineeth Vineeth Radhakrishnan (born 23 August 1969) is an Indian actor, Bharatanatyam dancer, voice artist and choreographer who primarily works in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu language films. He has also appeared in a few Hindi and Kannada films. He h ...

Abbas Abbas may refer to: People * Abbas (name), list of people with the name, including: **Abbas ibn Ali (645–680), popularly known as ''Hazrat-e-Abbas'', the son of Ali ibn Abi Talib (the first imam in Shia Islam) **Abbas ibn Abd al-Muttalib (567 ...

Shaam Syria, ( or ''Shaam'') also known as Greater Syria or Syria-Palestine, is a historical region located east of the Mediterranean Sea in West Asia, broadly synonymous with the Levant. The region boundaries have changed throughout history. Howe ...

Vivek Oberoi Vivek Anand Oberoi (born 3 September 1976) is an Indian actor and businessman. The son of actor Suresh Oberoi, he began acting in 2002 with starring roles in the Hindi crime film ''Company'' and romantic drama '' Saathiya''. His performances ...

Silambarasan Silambarasan Thesingu Rajendar (born 3 February 1984), popularly known as Simbu or by his initials as STR, is an Indian actor, producer, and playback singer who primarily works in Tamil cinema. He is the eldest son of director T. Rajendar. ...

* Laila * Revathi Menon *

Simran Simran (Gurmukhi: ਸਿਮਰਨ, pronunciation: ; ; from Sanskrit: , ''smaraṇa'', 'to remember, reminisce, recollect'), in spirituality, is a Hindi and Punjabi word referring to the continuous remembrance of the finest aspect of the self, ...

* Srikanth *

Shobana Shobana Chandrakumar Pillai (born 21 March 1970); known mononymously as Shobana, is an Indian actress and Bharatanatyam dancer, who works predominantly in Malayalam films, in addition to Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, English and Kannada films. She is ...

Arya ''Aryan'' (), or ''Arya'' (borrowed from Sanskrit ''ārya''),Oxford English Dictionary Online 2024, s.v. ''Aryan'' (adj. & n.); ''Arya'' (n.)''.'' is a term originating from the ethno-cultural self-designation of the Indo-Iranians. It stood i ...

Bhanupriya Bhanupriya (born Manga Bhanu; 15 January 1967) is an Indian actress and dancer. In a four decade old career, she has appeared in 155 feature films, predominantly in Telugu cinema, Telugu and Tamil cinema, Tamil, and a few in Malayalam cinema, M ...

* Sandhya *

Reema Sen Reema Sen (born 29 October 1981) is a former Indian actress and model who primarily appeared in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi films. Early life and education Reema Sen was born in Kolkata on 29 October 1981. She completed high school from St. ...

Shilpa Shetty Shilpa Shetty Kundra (born Ashwini Shetty, 8 June 1975) is an Indian actress who works primarily in Hindi, Kannada and Telugu films. She made her screen debut in the thriller '' Baazigar'' (1993) which gained her first nomination for the Film ...

* Harini *

Sujatha Mohan Sujatha Mohan is a renowned Indian playback singer known for her contributions to a wide range of Indian film industries, particularly in Malayalam, Tamil, and Telugu cinema. Over her decades-long career, she has also recorded songs in other ...

References

External links

Netru Indru Naalai
2006 musicals Indian musicals {{musical-theat-stub