Honour the living instead of the dead: Lyricist Vairamuthu

Chennai, Aug 5 (IANS) The Tamil film industry is set to celebrate the centenary year of Indian cinema very soon, and renowned lyricist Vairamuthu feels living legends should be honoured on the occasion.

"The living legends need to be honoured more than the dead. It's good that we pay respect to the dead, but in the process we are completely ignoring those stalwarts who are alive and deserve to be celebrated," Vairamuthu told IANS

"I'm sure the dead won't mind if we don't pay tribute to them, but the living do most of the time. Why haven't we honoured filmmakers such as K. Balachander and Mani Ratnam as much as they deserve. A.R. Rahman, who is a Tamilian, has won an Oscar, but we haven't given him the due respect either," he said.

The National Award winning lyricist, Vairamuthu, is known for penning songs "Madai Thiranthu", "Chinna Chinna Aasai" and "Mudhal Murai Killipparthaein".

Known for merging Tamil literature in his lyrics, Vairamuthu is also a recipient of Padma Shri award.