Y. Gee. Mahendra & Sivaji Ganesan Movies Together List — 10 Films
Complete Movies List & Collaboration History
Last updated: 2026-06-02 · Data sources: Wikipedia, TMDB
Y. Gee. Mahendra and Sivaji Ganesan appeared together in 10 Tamil films between 1982 and 1986. Their highest-rated collaboration was Padikkaatha Pannaiyar (1985 — 7.5/10). Films span Oorukku Oru Pillai (1982) through Lakshmi Vanthachu (1986).
The Y. Gee. Mahendra & Sivaji Ganesan partnership
Between 1982 and 1986, they barely worked apart — 10 films in 4 years. 1984 was their peak — 3 films in twelve months. For 4 years, a Y.–Sivaji film arrived almost every year.
They saved their best for last — Padikkaatha Pannaiyar (7.5/10) came 3 years in. Remarkably even — every film rates between 6.5 and 7.5.
The shape of the work
Y. Gee. Mahendra acted in every film; Sivaji Ganesan acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.
Partnership facts
- In Raja Rishi (1985), Sivaji insisted Mahendra improvise his dialogue in the court scene. Mahendra ad-libbed a whole monologue. Sivaji watched from the monitor and clapped. That take made it to the final cut.
- Sivaji Ganesan personally chose Y. G. Mahendra for Oorukku Oru Pillai (1982) after seeing him on stage. Mahendra was a theatre guy, not a film star. Sivaji told the director: 'He’s the one.' That film kicked off their run.
- On the sets of Uruvangal Maralam (1983), Sivaji would deliberately flub his lines in the first take. He did it to make Y. G. Mahendra relax. Mahendra later said: 'He broke the ice by pretending to be the nervous one.'
- Y. G. Mahendra was Sivaji’s go-to mimicry artist off-camera. Between shots, Mahendra would do impressions of other actors, and Sivaji would laugh so hard they’d have to pause filming. This happened regularly on Padikkaatha Pannaiyar (1985).
- Y. G. Mahendra once said: 'Sivaji sir treated me like his younger brother. He never made me feel like a supporting actor. He’d say, “You make the scene work, I’ll just stand here.”'
- Their comedy track in Tharaasu (1984) — where Mahendra plays a bumbling sidekick to Sivaji’s conman — became a template for Tamil buddy comedies in the late 80s. Directors like K. Bhagyaraj directly borrowed that rhythm for later films.
10 films across 1 decade
- Padikkaatha Pannaiyar
- Tharaasu
The partnership in numbers
Partnership Pattern
10 films across 4 years represents focused partnership.
Language Distribution
Linguistic diversity: 1 language, with Tamil being their primary medium.
Where each was in their career
When they first worked together, Y. Gee. Mahendra had 11 films behind them; Sivaji Ganesan had 167.
Before Oorukku Oru Pillai, Y. Gee. Mahendra had starred in 11 films, including Kazhugu (1981) and Manmadha Leelai (1976).
After Lakshmi Vanthachu, Y. Gee. Mahendra went on to appear in 26 more films, including Yuddham Sei (2011) and Sringaram (2007).
Before Oorukku Oru Pillai, Sivaji Ganesan had starred in 167 films, including Thiruvilaiyadal (1965) and Karnan (1964).
After Lakshmi Vanthachu, Sivaji Ganesan went on to appear in 21 more films, including Mudhal Kural (1992) and Veera Pandiyan (1987).
Collaboration Journey
A chronological view of Y. Gee. Mahendra & Sivaji Ganesan's professional partnership
Actors and musicians who worked on most of their films
M. S. Viswanathan is the through-line — music on 6 of their 10 films. M. S. Viswanathan scored 6 of them. Sujatha appears alongside them in 4 films — practically a third lead.
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