Shylock (film) for "Shylock", a Tamil adaptation of Shakespeare's play "The Merchant of Venice". He and his friend Serukalathur Sama directed the film under the name Sama-Ramu. Sama also played the title character. The lyricists were Yaanai Vaidyanatha Iyer, P. S. Sivaramalingam (who acted onscreen as the Duke) and Papanasam Rajagopala Iyer, brother of Papanasam Sivan. S. G. Kasi Iyer, the brother of Tamil theatre actor S. G. Kittappa, was the music director, besides playing Antonio onscreen. Portia was played by T. V. Janakam, and Bassanio by T. S. Santhanam. Shooting took place at Bharat Movietone in Kilpauk. The makers went to
The Merchant of Venice (opera) In his will he left his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company for use in productions of "Hamlet". Tchaikowsky met the theatre director John O'Brien in 1968 and they agreed to attempt an opera on "The Merchant". O'Brien has noted "At first it seemed odd that [Tchaikowsky], as a Jew, would want to take Shylock on, particularly at a time when there was a feeling that Shakespeare was anti-Semitic, which is a nonsensical thing anyway." Most of the opera was written by 1978, and following discussions with the music critic Hans Keller, Tchaikowsky decided to submit it for consideration to