Kolangal (TV series)

Kolangal is an Indian Tamil-language soap opera. It aired on Sun TV from 24 November 2003 to 4 December 2009 for 1,533 episodes.

It starred Devayani in the lead role along with Deepa Venkat, V. Thiruselvam, Ajay Kapoor, Poornima Indrajith. Other cast included Mohan Sharma, Sathyapriya, Abhishek Shankar, Subhalekha Sudhakar, Nalini, Vanitha Krishnachandran, Srividya Mohan, Manjari Vinodhini, Kuyili, Bombay Gnanam, Dwarakish Giri, Auditor Sridhar, Joker Thulasi, Bharathi, Bharathi Neelima Rani, Devadarshini, Priyadarshini and Dhivyadharshini. It was the first series in Tamil television history to exceed 1,000 episodes. It was remade in Hindi as Maayke Se Bandhi Dor which aired on StarPlus.

Plot
The story mainly revolves abound Abi and her life which changes due to the people around her. Abi is a hard-working, ambitious woman with strong beliefs, and Aditya is her business rival and half brother. Abi with her mother, Karpagam, maternal uncle, two sisters, Anandhi and Aarthi, and brother, Manohar, leads a healthy life though she tries to keep herself happy because she has had a dark past.

Her father had abandoned her family and married another woman, Kanchana, the mother of Aditya, and has settled as a business tycoon. Abi initially marries Bhaskar but the relationship becomes abusive. Her mother-in-law, Alamelu tortures her constantly. Eventually, Aadhi lures all Abi's close family members and turns all her family members are against her.

Abi divorces her husband and starts a new life. She starts a new company but is given competition by her stepbrother Aditya Eeswaramoorthy whom he considers as her as sworn rival. Abi escapes from her brother's tortures and puts an end to his injustice.

In the last scene, Abi with the help of her good friend Tholkappiyan leads a peaceful and hermit life. Abi starts to help an orphanage, thereby ending what she couldn't do to help herself, and wishes to be dear among the orphans even though they are not known to them. She leads a victorious life with the help of 2 friends, Tholkappiyan (Thols) and Usha, Aadhi's wife.

Main

 * Devayani as Abinaya "Abi": (Baskar's ex-wife. Tholkappian and Usha's best friend. Eshwaramoorthy and Karpagam's eldest daughter. Anandhi, Manohar and Aarthi's eldest sister. Adhithya, Arjun and Anjali's elder step-sister and MD of Abi Constructions) (01-1533)
 * Ajay Kapoor as Adithya "Aadhi" Eshwaramoorthy (Eshwaramoorthy and Kanchana's first son and Arjun & Anjali's brother and Anu's cousin, Usha's husband and Kailash's father, Abi's younger step-brother and MD of Aditya Builders; Main Antagonist) (206-1527)
 * Deepa Venkat as Usha (Abi and Tholkappiyan's best friend/well wisher, Aadhi’s wife and Kailash's mother) (01-1533)
 * V. Thiruselvam as Tholkappiyan "Thols" (Dileepan) (Abi & Usha's friend and Menaka's brother and Chellamma's son) (01-1533)
 * Abhishek Shankar as Baskar Narayanan (Abhinaya's ex-husband and Sangeetha's husband, suicides at the end) (02-1530)

Recurring

 * Sathyapriya as Karpagam Eshwaramoorthy (Abi, Aarthi, Anandhi and Mano's mother; Eshwaramoorthy's 1st wife) (01-1533)
 * Nalini as Alamelu Narayanan (Abi's greedy and money-minded ex-mother-in-law. Narayanan's wife. Seetha, Baskar and Vidya's mother.) (03-1530)
 * Manjari Vinodhini (01-788)(976-1506)/ Supriya (829-922) as Anandhi Karthik (Karpagam's 2nd daughter)
 * Srividya Mohan as Aarthi Rajesh (Karpagam's 3rd daughter and Rajesh's wife) (01-1533)
 * Poornima Indrajith as Dual Role - Meenu alais (Menaka) or Menaka Madhubalakrishnan
 * Menaka - a dynamic American multi-millionaire businesswomen & Tholkappiyan's younger sister who allies with Aadhi to do a satellite project
 * Chellamma - Tholkappiyan and Menaka's mother who dies in Kerala after trying to escape from a rich womanizer)
 * Subhalekha Sudhakar as Narayanan (Alamelu's husband. Seetha, Baskar and Vidya's father, a kind-hearted man who always wanted Abi to live with Baskar) (03-601)
 * Mohan Sharma as Eshwaramoorthy;Karpagam and Kanchana's Husband
 * Bharathi as Kanchana Eshwaramoorthy (Aadhi, Arjun and Anjali's mother; Abi's stepmother; Eshwaramoorthy's 2nd wife) (206-1526)
 * Shyam Viswanathan as Rajeshkumar "Rajesh" (Aarthi and Sundari's husband; a drunkard)
 * Sreedharan Gopal (V. G. Sreedharan) as Manohar Eshwaramoorthy (Karpagam's son and Anu's husband) (01-1533)
 * Vishwa as Karthikeyan "Karthik" Dhandayudhapani (Anandhi's husband and Sujatha's brother)
 * Nisha Ajay (278-394)/Deepa Narendra (436-1532) as Anu Manohar
 * Shraddha Viswanath (278-636)/Dhivyadharshini (638-805)/C. Akilandeswari (834-1456) as Anjalidevi "Anjali" Kishore
 * Tinku (278-1377)/Franklin (1396-1445) as Arjun Krishna "Arjun" Eshwaramoorthy (Kanchana and Eshwaramoorthy's 2nd son, Aadhi and Anjali's brother and Rekha's husband; killed by Aadhi)
 * Neelima Rani as Rekha Arjun (Arjun's Wife; killed by Adhi)
 * Sampathkumaran Sridharan (Auditor Sridhar) as Viswanathan
 * Joker Thulasi as Krishnan
 * Gokul Thilak as Sakthi
 * Dwarakish Giri as Giriprakash "Giri", Aditya's Personal Assistant cum Supervisor of Aditya Builders
 * Bombay Gnanam as Padhmavathi, Aditya's grandmother.
 * Vanitha Krishnachandran (9-684)/Kuyili as Saradha Thiruvenkadam
 * Ramachandran as Thiruvenkadam (09-1533)
 * Ziaudeen as Dr. Maheshkumar "Mahesh" Mukesh
 * Revathi Priya as (Priya) Sumathi Mahesh (09-1533)
 * Kalpana Shree as Malayamma alais Shanthi (16-988) (Angusamy's wife)
 * Mouli as Angusamy (Tholkappiyan's friend)
 * Thozhar. La. Ve. Aadhavan as Thozhar Balakrishnan
 * T. S. Raghavendra as Church Father Rafael
 * K. R. Rangamma as Balakrishnan's mother
 * Sujatha Panju as Nangai
 * Bhavana (42-104)/Devadarshini as Sujatha (Karthik's elder sister) (105-464)
 * K. Narmadha as Chithra
 * Prasanna Ravi (3-59)/Preethi Sanjeev (65-459)/Priyadharshini Neelakandan (487-1299)/Unknown (1299-1530) as Vidhya Ramesh
 * K. Prabhakar/S. Kamesh Kumar as Ramesh Kumar "Ramesh"
 * Dheena Chandra Dhas as Aarthi's Boss
 * Bobby Bedi (554-686)/G. V. Vijesh as Kishore Ganesh Neeraj
 * Rajini Nivetha as Neelam
 * M. Ravi as Neeraj
 * Sabitha Anand as Thailambal Thirumalachary, Ganga's mother.
 * Rajasekhar as Thirumalachary, Ganga's father
 * Keerthana as Uma Ramachandran, Ganga's sister
 * Chandra Lakshman as Ganga
 * Aarthika Shree as Vasuki
 * Ponvannan (8-115) / Balaji as Rajaraman
 * Viji Chandrasekhar as Seethalakshmi "Seetha" Rajaram, Alamelu and Narayanan's eldest daughter. Bhaskar's sister.
 * Srilekha Rajendran as Valli
 * Pooja (117-749)/Sujitha "Suji" as Chandrakala "Chandra" Sathish
 * Balaji (9-41)/Dev Anand as Sathishkumar "Sathish" Thiruvenkadam
 * Lakshmi Prasanna as Mahesh's Mother
 * Vijaya Raj as Rajendran
 * Shanmugasundari as Rajaram's mother
 * Vijayasarathy as Bharathi
 * Sheela/Geetha Ravishankar as Ambika Gopinath
 * Devaraj as Gopinath
 * Preethi Menon Dayana (Preethi V.) as Thamizhselvi
 * Shathiga as young Meenu (Menaka)
 * A. Thamizh Kumaran (512-1070)/Rangadhurai (1343-1452)/Bharathi Kannan as Minister Sankara "Sangu" Pandiyan
 * Thilla as Thillairajan
 * Rajkrishna as Raghavan
 * Gandhimathi as Sundara Vadivu, Narayanan’s sister
 * B. Lenin
 * K. Kannan as Sabapathi
 * Premi as Lakshmi, Aarthi's mother-in-law
 * Sneha Nambiar as Ranjani, Bhaskar's ex-fiancé
 * S.Kavitha as Sangeetha Baskaran, Bhaskar's second wife.
 * Vizhuthugal Santhanam as Gunasekharan, Sangeetha's father
 * Yugendran as Sivadas
 * Oorvambu Lakshmi as Annapoorani (Sivadas's wife)
 * Suhasini as Geetha
 * K. Natraj as Antony
 * Imman Annachi as Anwar
 * G. Narendra as Upendra
 * Nagalakshmi as Kala, Rajesh's sister-in-law
 * Karnan as Karunakaran
 * Revathi Shankar/Anjalidevi (photograph) (912)/Revathi Shankar as Maragatham Viswanathan
 * Kalaivani as Kalaivani, Office Staff
 * B. Ramachandran as Harikrishna
 * Anuradha as Rajamani Kandhasamy, Ganga's boss
 * Samson T. Wilson as Ranjan
 * V. Ravichandran ("Apollo" Ravi) as Ravi (Menaka's personal assistant)
 * Jayashree as Jennifer "Jenni" (Menaka's personal assistant)
 * S. Surendran as Thamizh Selvan
 * Harish Uthaman as Madhubalakrishnan "Madhu", a Musician, Menaka's boyfriend.
 * Vinitha as Punitha
 * Deepa Shankar as Sundhari Rajesh, Rajesh's second wife, Kala's sister
 * K. Thangamani Prabhu as Murali
 * Shabnam as Vasundhara Murali
 * Sumathi Shree as Manjula
 * Sivadhaanu as Muthappa
 * Priyanka as Sarasu (Nair's wife)
 * Kamalesh as Shankar
 * Black Pandi as Kannan
 * S. T. P. Rosary as Kathir
 * Pattukottai Sivanarayana Moorthy as Abi's former house owner
 * Birla Bose as Gopinath, sub-inspector/Prabhu, police inspector
 * Iniya as Kalaivani
 * C. N. Ravi Shankar as Karthik's friend/Velu
 * Raviraj as Business man (Ganga's part time business boss)
 * Ennathe Kannaiah as Kannaiah (Photographer)
 * Kovi. Manisekaran as Dasaiya
 * Nesan Nepolean as Raghu
 * Giridhar Thirumalachary (Giridaran) as a psychiatrist
 * Mohan Vaidya as Temple priest (Arundhathi's father)
 * Kulothunga Cholan as Kulothunga Cholan (Detective)
 * Vanaja as Jaya Chithra (Kulothunga Cholan's assistant)
 * Sathish as Vivekanandhan (Kulothunga Cholan's assistant)
 * V. Nagarani as V. Nagarani (HOPE Special School Trustee)
 * Manikandaraj as Police Inspector
 * Saroja as Kamatchi
 * Kovai Senthil as Chitrambalam
 * Lalitha as a land owner
 * Ranjan as a land owner
 * B. Jayalakshmi as Arundhathi
 * Rajadhurai as a police inspector
 * Veera Srinivasan (K. Veera) as doctor (88)/engineer (329 and 423)
 * LIC Narasimhan as Karthik
 * K. Krishnamurthy as Karthik's father's friend
 * Mangalanathan as a temple priest
 * Ravi Varma as Sivasubramaniam
 * Kovai Krishnan as Varadharajan
 * T. V. V. Ramanujam as STV anchor
 * Vijayalakshmi as Varadharajan's wife
 * Sundar as a reporter
 * Bhavya Kala as Sandhya
 * S. Sekar as Vetri Maran
 * Halwa Vasu as Sithakutty
 * Manikandaraj Major as Manikandaraj
 * Usha Elizabeth as a doctor
 * Akila as Geetha
 * Y.V. Subramaniam as Sankara Pandiyan's party president
 * P. S. Vijaya Kumar as an auto driver/Sivadhas former henchman
 * Muthuraman as a man offering flats/Guruvaran, a Builders Association Committee Member
 * Mohan Kumar as Maari
 * Jayakumar as Maari's friend
 * Anandhi Robin as a doctor
 * Venkatakrishnan as a doctor
 * Karate Karthi as Thilla's sidekick
 * G N Bharathi Mohan as Thilla's 2nd sidekick
 * Suruli Manohar as Sundaramoorthy
 * Ramachandran Durairaj as Maddy's friend
 * Sasi as Sasi
 * Bobby Bilal as Prithvi
 * Korattur Lakshmanan as Kala and Sundhari's father
 * Sivaramman as a fake income tax officer/a Builders Association Committee Member
 * Guhan Shanmugam as Sathish's friend
 * Ramki as Shakthivel
 * Selvanathan R. as a chief doctor
 * Aranthangi Shankar as a doctor
 * N. P. Jothi as Vanaraja
 * Yuvraj as Pazhani
 * Le. Muthukumarasamy as Sathish's friend
 * Sampath Ram as a police inspector
 * Soundar as Quarter Govindhan
 * N. Vairamani (Vairavaraja) as a police inspector
 * Nellai Siva as a police inspector
 * Jayaprakasam as assistant commissioner
 * Iyyappan Kobee (Ala Kasi Viswanathan) as a land registrar
 * V. Vishwanath as Joseph
 * Mathivanan as a victim of investment company scam/judge
 * M. Parthasarathy as Raja, police inspector
 * Jayakanthan as a police inspector
 * Y. P. Gajjendran as a financier/Bismillah Khan/judge
 * Banu Balasubramaniam as a judge
 * Jagadeesan as a Baskar's land buyer's friend/police commissioner
 * Baskar Sakthi as Dr. Vaali
 * Ramki as a bank manager
 * Bharathi Mohan as a police inspector
 * Kaladhar Parthasarathy as a police constable
 * Telephone Mani as a doctor
 * Balasubramanian (Bala Subramani/K. Bala) as Raghavan, Rajamani Kandhasamy's partner
 * Seema G. Nair as Seema
 * C. Pauline as Geetha's aunt/Karthik's aunt/police constable/lawyer/guest at Alamelu's feast/as a woman who got cheated in a fake raffle draw/old age home caretaker
 * Jayanthi Shankar as a children's home caretaker
 * E. R. Malliga as Tholkappiyan's area resident/Geetha's aunt/prisoner
 * Gemini Rajeshwari as Geetha's aunt
 * P. Jyothi as a college student
 * Hemalatha as Geetha's friend/Anandhi's colleague
 * Vasantha as Tholkappiyan's neighbour/guest at Karthik and Anandhi's engagement/guest at Abi Constructions stone laying ceremony/Sivadhas's neighbour/Baskar's housemaid/tenant of Eeswaran's old house/prisoner
 * Kovai Saradha as Rajesh's neighbour/saree vendor
 * K. Lakshmi Devi as Ramesh's mother
 * Venkatakrishnan as a guest at Thiruvenkadam's house warming ceremony/doctor
 * Shanthi as a guest at Karthik and Anandhi's engagement
 * Raja Rani Pandian as Construction Workers Association leader
 * R. Selvakumar as Vaiyapuri
 * Vaazha Meen Muthuraj as Sithakutty's son
 * T. Sivakumar (Soodhu Kavvum Sivakumar) as Sivakumar, Rajaram's colleague/Suresh/Aadhi's spy in Abi Constructions
 * R. C. Sundar as Rajamani Kandhasamy's partner/Narasimman
 * Delhi Ranganathan as a judge
 * Viji Kannan as Aarthi's lecturer
 * M. Rani as Vaikkapuri's wife/Vijaya
 * V. Krishnan as Baskar's managing director
 * J. Nadar as Karthik's family astrologer
 * Vijay Ganesh as a marriage broker
 * Srinivasamoorthy as Nalabaga Chakkaravarthy Narasimman
 * Thideer Kannaiah as a marriage broker
 * Kadhal Kannan as Raghav
 * Ashokraj as a mantrik
 * Radhakrishnan (Karna Radha) as Rajaram's house owner
 * Kareem Sasa as Viswanathan's client
 * Robo Chandru as a police inspector
 * M. D. Mohan as a police inspector
 * Tiruppur Ravichandran as a police inspector
 * Raamnath as Ramanathan
 * Vellai Subbaiah as an astrologer
 * Ramachandran as a financier and cardshop owner
 * Ravishankar as a doctor
 * Mythili as Komala Moorthy
 * Haaris as Nathamani & Co owner's brother
 * Senthilvel as David's aide
 * Laltha as Rajesh's former boss
 * K. S. Subhan as a friend of Mano's friend/jail warden
 * Srihari as Parasakthi Newspaper editor
 * Ramamani Monalisa as an ashram guru
 * M. R. Krishnamurthy
 * Jayakanthan as a police inspector
 * MLA Thangaraj as Desiya Sindhanaiyalargal Katchi member
 * Vimal Raj as Sivadas henchman
 * Prema Priya
 * Vijaya
 * Sophia
 * Ushapriya (K. Priya)
 * R. Krishnamachary
 * Poovannan
 * Pavakal
 * Aaramudhan
 * Kamalkanth
 * R. R. Reddiyar
 * Shanthanayaki
 * Thiagarajan
 * KPY Mullai as Storywriter Govindasamy
 * Udumalai Ravi as Guru (Rajesh's Friend)
 * Kuppan as Kuppan

Casting
V. Thiruselvam had some casting choices for the female lead, but B. Srinivasan preferred to cast a film artist for the female lead as he had already informed Sun TV.

Actress Soundarya was first approached to do the female lead. Although she was interested, she was unable to join the crew due to her 2-years contract with the Bharatiya Janata Party to support them during election campaign. Then Devayani was suggested for the female lead by the production side to the director to which he had agreed as she would perfectly fit into the character and she was already acting in films. Initially Devayani had some issues over the terms and conditions agreement with the production side, as a result she almost opted out of this series.

As a result of even considering Kousalya to do the female lead from the production side. But, Sathyapriya who was signed to play the mother of the female lead (Abinaya) managed to convince Devayani to play the female lead in this series and sorted out the misunderstanding between her and the production side. Apart from such issues, Devayani was very interested after listening to the script from her husband Rajakumaran to whom the director had already narrated and he had also praised the director. So, she signed to play the female lead Abinaya. Devayani made her acting debut in television with this series. Actress & Dubbing artist Deepa Venkat who is very well known for playing supporting roles in many serials & movies & lead roles in few serials was signed to play the female lead Usha. Besides Manjari Vinodhini, Abhishek Shankar, Ajay Kapoor, Poornima Indrajith, Chandra Lakshman, Devadarshini, Kalpana Shree, Sathyapriya, Nalini, Mohan Sharma, Subhalekha Sudhakar, Viji Chandrasekhar, Vanitha Krishnachandran, Srilekha Rajendran, Kuyili, Bombay Gnanam, Shanmugasundari, Vijayasarathy, Vishwa, Yugendran, Ponvannan, Dwarakish Giri, Vijayaraj, Auditor Sridhar, Ramachandran, Joker Thulasi, Thozhar. La. Ve. Aadhavan, Sreedharan Gopal, Srividya, Revathi Priya, Pooja, Geetha Ravishankar, Bharathi, Keerthana, Preethi Sanjeev, Zia, Shyam Viswanathan, Devaraj, Deepa Narendra, Tinku, Divyadarshini, Akila, Dev Anand, Neelima Rani, G. V. Vijesh and many other artists were cast and introduced in this series.

Along with writing story, screenplay and directing the series, V. Thiruselvam was also cast as the male lead Tholkappiyan.

Filming
The series was filmed in Chennai, Kodaikanal, Palani, Thambirankanal, Koranattukarupur, Thiruvidaimarudur, Rameswaram, Thangachimadam, Dhanushkodi, Kolli Malai, Ponkurichi, Tirunelveli, Sundarapandiapuram, Courtallam, Chengalpattu, Walajapet, Yercaud, Tirukoilur, Mamallapuram, Kanchipuram, Porur, Poonamallee, Karayanchavadi, Thiruverkadu, Velappanchavadi, Tambaram, Pallavaram, Covelong, Panaiyur, Avadi, Parangimalai, Kovur, Injambakkam, Nerkundram, Madambakkam, Amarambedu, Sriperumbudur, Thiruperumbudur, Kundrathur, Puducherry, Kochi, Alappuzha, Thiruvananthapuram, Perandoor, Thammanam, Bangalore, Manchanabele, Mysore, Magadi and Bangarupalem in India.

Title song
It was written by lyricist Palani Bharathi, composed by the music director D. Imman. It was sung by Harini.

Reception
Kolangal was one of the highest-rated Indian and Tamil soap opera which garnered ratings ranging between 23 and 26 TVR. Between 20 December 2004 to 13 January 2005 it had a rating of 25.68 TVR. In September 2007, it maintained its top position with 21.58 TVR.

The show was initially aired on night 7.30 pm however in 2005 it was later shifted to 9 pm as the previous series Muhurtham received poor response among audience.