M. N. Nambiar & M. G. Ramachandran Movies Together List — 38 Films
Complete Movies List & Collaboration History
Last updated: 2026-06-04 · Data sources: Wikipedia, TMDB
M. N. Nambiar and M. G. Ramachandran appeared together in 38 Tamil films between 1960 and 1990. Their highest-rated collaboration was Ulagam Sutrum Valiban (1973 — 7.8/10). Films span Baghdad Thirudan (1960) through Avasara Police 100 (1990).
The M. N. Nambiar & M. G. Ramachandran partnership
After 12 years apart, they came back together for Avasara Police 100 (1990). They didn't share a set between 1978 and 1990. 1966 was their peak — 6 films in twelve months.
Their work runs across 3 decades of Tamil cinema. For 30 years, a M.–M. film arrived almost every year.
The shape of the work
The 1960s account for 66% of everything they made together. The 1960s belonged to Enga Veettu Pillai; the 1990s to Avasara Police 100. M. N. Nambiar acted in every film; M. G. Ramachandran acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.
Partnership facts
- MGR personally requested Nambiar for the villain role in Baghdad Thirudan (1960) after seeing him in a stage play. Nambiar was hesitant to play a negative role opposite MGR, but MGR convinced him it would be a career-defining move.
- On set, MGR would deliberately slow down his dialogue delivery during fight scenes so Nambiar could land his punches cleanly. Nambiar later said MGR 'fought like a dancer' — he controlled the rhythm of every action sequence to make both of them look good.
- Their 1965 hit Ayirathil Oruvan directly inspired the 1978 Bollywood film Don. The plot — a lookalike villain replacing a hero — was lifted scene-for-scene by the Hindi writers, though they never credited the original Tamil film.
- Nambiar was the only co-star MGR allowed to smoke on set. MGR was famously anti-smoking and banned cigarettes from his productions, but made an exception for Nambiar because they shared a private joke about 'villains needing vices'.
- Nambiar once said in a 1995 interview: 'MGR never treated me like a villain. He treated me like a co-star. That's why I never felt small standing next to him.'
- In Ulagam Sutrum Valiban (1973), Nambiar's character was written to die early. But MGR saw the rushes and ordered the script rewritten — he felt Nambiar's screen presence made the hero look stronger, so he kept the villain alive until the climax.
38 films across 3 decades
The 1960s brought 25 films together, anchored by Enga Veettu Pillai (7.6/10).
The 1970s brought 12 films together, anchored by Ulagam Sutrum Valiban (7.8/10).
The 1990s accounted for 1 film, averaging 4.2/10.
- Enga Veettu Pillai
- Ayirathil Oruvan
- Ulagam Sutrum Valiban
- Urimai Kural
- Avasara Police 100
The partnership in numbers
Partnership Pattern
38 films across 30 years represents consistent collaboration.
Language Distribution
Linguistic diversity: 1 language, with Tamil being their primary medium.
Where each was in their career
58% of M. N. Nambiar's screen credits are with M. G. Ramachandran. After Avasara Police 100, M. N. Nambiar kept going for 28 more films; M. G. Ramachandran stepped back.
Baghdad Thirudan was M. N. Nambiar's acting debut.
After Avasara Police 100, M. N. Nambiar went on to appear in 28 more films, including Thanga Manasukkaran (1992) and Sakkarai Devan (1993).
Baghdad Thirudan was M. G. Ramachandran's acting debut.
After Avasara Police 100, M. G. Ramachandran went on to appear in 1 more film, including Kizhakku Africavil Raju (2018).





































Collaboration Journey
A chronological view of M. N. Nambiar & M. G. Ramachandran's professional partnership
Actors and musicians who worked on most of their films
M. S. Viswanathan is the through-line — music on 19 of their 38 films. M. S. Viswanathan scored 19 of them. Nagesh appears alongside them in 18 films — practically a third lead.
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