Vietnam Veetu Sundaram

"Vietnam Veetu" Sundaram was not born with this first and middle name, but he went by it after the successes of his stage play and its movie adaptation, both titled Vietnam Veedu (Vietnam House). The title and his name have been spelled variously as Veedu and Veetu. Sundaram was born in 1943 in the city then named Trichinopoly. From a very young age, he worked in factories to help support his poor family. In 1955 his family moved to Madras, now named Chennai, where he soon found work as a service boy in Y.G. Parthasarathy's United Amateur Artistes. From there grew his interest in drama and film, which eventually led to his work as a playwright with Vietnam Veedu, and as a scriptwriter with his adaptation of his own play. The story of the play Vietnam Veedu, according to Venkatesh Chakravarthy, Regional Director of LV Prasad Film & TV Academy in Chennai, was inspired by the Arthur Miller play Death of a Salesman, and the US-Vietnam war as a metaphor. The film won Sundaram the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for best dialogue writer. It was the first of many collaborations with actor Shivaji Ganesan, including Gnana Oli (1972), and Gauravam (1973). Sundaram wrote the story for the Hindi language film Devata (1978), which made him famous throughout India, and started a trend in film and TV known as "social mythology". Prolific as a writer for film and television, Sundaram also did work as a director and actor. "Vietnam Veetu" Sundaram passed away at age 76 on August 6, 2016.