Kana Kaanum Kaalangal (transl. Era of Dreams) is a Tamildramasoap opera that aired in Star Vijay, Monday to Thursday, from 30 October 2006 to 28 April 2009. [4][5][6] It was the first soap in Tamil television that focused on school life. Due to the success of the show, a sequel called Kana Kaanum Kaalangal Kallooriyin Kadhai was made.[7][8][9][10][11][12] Later another sequel to the serial called Kana Kaanum Kalangal Kalloori Saalai was also made. Both the sequels focused on college life. It was re-aired on Star Vijay Super from 16 January 2017, Monday through Friday at 8:00PM.
Plot
The story is set in school revolving around 12 students, separated into 2 groups. The plot details the rivalry between these 2 groups and the consequences of this. Everyday happenings of the student life are portrayed in this series to very minute details like healthy competition, fights, family matters, ego, jealousy, love and friendship.
The title song was composed by the music director Vijay Antony and the background score was composed by C. .K. Ganesh with lyrics written by Thenmozhi Das. The title song video was directed by Shiran Mather.[14]
Star Vijay conducted a talent search and students between 14 and 22 years were shortlisted and selected for the serial except Hemalatha and Ligeswaran, who had prior acting experience. All others were students who were acting for the first time to make the serial as close to reality as possible.[16][17][18] Following the success of season 1 of the series, season 2 was started with fresh new faces and were promoted to 12th standard. When the producer and director announced the interview for the selection of the cast for second season, it was said that nearly 2000 applicants applied and they had a very tough time in short listing the participants in the selection.
Kana Kaanum Kaalangal went on to top the TRP ratings among the other Tamil serials during its telecast.[19] In 2007, the series had recorded its highest rating of 7.7 TVR in Chennai which helped to increase Star Vijay's average channel share by 16.4 per cent in Chennai and the series was in the leading position among the other Tamil serials which were telecasted during the same time slot, achieving an average channel share by 16.2 per cent in Tamil Nadu.[20]
In June 2007, the series had completed its 100th episode. In order to celebrate the milestone that the series had achieved, a live chat was organized on indya.com through which the fans got an opportunity to interact with the team members of the series. On 10 June 2007, Star Vijay had also organized a fan meet for the series "Kana Kaanum Kaalangal Carnival" at St. George's School, Chennai. The carnival had witnessed more than thousands of fans who had gathered to meet the lead actors and actresses of the series.[21][22][23]
Legacy
Kana Kaanum Kaalangal was a trendsetter series in Tamil television in many ways since almost all the artists of the series were fresh faces for whom the series was their 1st acting assignment or they had earlier appeared as child artists/uncredited extras in serials or movies. The artists for the lead characters were selected by a talent hunt conducted by Star Vijay with a judge panel consisting of Praveen Gandhi, Vasu Vikram and Prabhu Radhakrishnan, moreover, an acting workshop was also conducted by Kalairani for the artists who were selected to play the lead characters. This series marked the debut of many artists as well as technicians for whom the series became a major breakthrough following its grand success. Most of the artists from the series continued to work in lead/supporting roles in serials/cinema and became successful in various other domains of media and arts as well.[24]
After 15 years of the series commencement, the grand reunion of the artists from the series from various seasons was aired as a special show on 18 July 2021 on Star Vijay.[25][26][27][28]
