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 (1969 film) and doubled for Venice; and filming was completed in Rome, where Welles was editing "Don Quixote". The film itself was a shortened version of the play, Welles even eliminated the character of Portia from the film after his mistress Oja Kodar declined the role, due to her then-limited knowledge of English. Francesco Lavagnino, who had written the musical scores of Welles's previous two Shakespeare films, "Othello" (1952) and "Chimes at Midnight" (1966), provided a full musical score for this film. Welles completed the film in the summer of 1969, and gave a preview screening to Oja Kodar and her mother