death_date death_place children othername birth_date yearsactive birthname image article_title name
1 november 1959 madras , madras state , india m. k. t. raveendran m. k. t. 7 march 1910 1934 -- 1959 mayavaram krishnamurthy thyagaraja bhagavathar m.k.thyagaraja bhagavathar.jpg m. k. thyagaraja bhagavathar
 m. k. thyagaraja bhagavathar
m. k. thyagaraja bhagavathar

mayavaram krishnamurthy thyagaraja bhagavathar -lrb- -rrb- -lrb- 7 march 1910 -- 1 november 1959 -rrb- , also called m.k.t. , was a tamil film actor , producer and carnatic music singer .
he is considered to be one of the most successful tamil film actors ever .
bhagavathar was born in the town of mayiladuthurai in then tanjore district of the madras presidency , british india .
he started his career as a classical singer and stage artist in the late 1920s .
in 1934 , he made his début in films with the movie `` pavalakkodi '' which turned out to be a hit .
from 1934 to 1959 , bhagavathar acted in 14 films of whom 7 were box-office hits .
bhagavathar 's 1944 film `` haridas '' ran for three consecutive years at broadway theatre , madras and created the record for the longest continuous run at a single theatre .
bhagavathar was arrested in 1944 as one of the main suspects in the lakshmikanthan murder case and spent three years in prison before being released in 1947after a privy council verdict came in his favour .
bhagavathar 's career declined after his arrest and though he did continue to act in tamil films after his release from prison , none of them did well .
bhagavathar died of diabetes at the age of 49 on 1 november 1959 .
bhagavathar was acclaimed for his powerful , melodious voice and the ease with which he could sing high pitch notes .
critics and film historians acknowledge bhagavathar as the `` first superstar of tamil cinema '' .
bhagavathar was a philanthropist and contributed for important social and religious causes .
he was awarded a `` diwan bahadur '' title by the governor of madras for his contribution to the british war efforts during the second world war but he turned it down .
