Bharathi Kannamma (2019 TV series)

Bharathi Kannamma
File:Barathi Kannama TV series.jpg
Genre	Social Drama Family
Written by	Maruthu Shankar Pradeep Panicker
Screenplay by	Arun Bharathi
Directed by	Praveen Bennett
Starring	Roshni Haripriyan Arun Prasad
Theme music composer	M. Jayachandran Shabareesh Varma (Lyrics) Ilayavan (Background Score)
Opening theme	"Bharathi Kadhaliyae Kannamma" by Arunraja Kamaraj
Country of origin	India
Original language	Tamil
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	555 (as of 3 July 2021)
Production
Producer	Ram Kumaradhas
Cinematography	Saravanan Venkatesh
Editor	Vignesh Arjun
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	20-22 minutes 42-44 minutes
Production company	Global Villagers
Release
Original network	Star Vijay
Picture format	SDTV 576i HDTV 1080i
Original release	25 February 2019 (2019-02-25) – present
Chronology
Related shows	Karuthamuthu Karthika Deepam Muddulakshmi
External links
Website

Bharathi Kannamma is a 2019 Indian television Tamil language Social Dramatic series aired on Star Vijay and streams on Disney+Hotstar. It premiered on 25 February 2019 starring Roshni Haripriyan and Arun Prasad playing the titular characters. The series is a remake of the Malayalam television series Karuthamuthu.

It stars Roshni Haripriyan (Kannamaa) who plays the role of a girl who has a dusky complexion who has to fight the social norm of not being fair-skinned in India.

Summary

Kannamma (Roshni Haripriyan), a girl of a pure heart, is looked down upon by her beautiful but arrogant stepsister Anjali (Sweety) and stepmother Bhagyalakshmi (Senthi Kumari) owing to her dark complexion. Her only support in the house is her father Shanmugam, who praises her character and hates Bhagyam and Anjali for belittling her. Soundharya (Roopa Sree) is a business tycoon who is obsessed with beauty and fair-skin and dominant. Her son Bharathi (Arun Prasad) is a charming young doctor who follows his heart. Anjali wins the Miss Chennai pageant, and Soundharya develops an instant liking for her beauty and fixes her second son Akhil's wedding with her. Akilan falls for Anjali while she maintains an immense crush on Bharathi. Amidst this, Bharathi and Kannamma frequently encounter each other and Bharathi is impressed by Kannamma's kindness and generosity.

Anjali blackmails Bharathi to marry her or else she will commit suicide. Bharathi says he will talk with his mother after her (Anjali's) birthday party which is arranged by Soundharya later. Bharathi meets Kannamma and Anjali's father and asks his permission to marry Kannamma and reveals that he cannot sire children and asks Kannamma's father to tell this to Kannamma. If she accepts this, he will marry her in a temple. Kannamma's father is unable to find relations for Kannamma and accepts the proposal, but doesn't inform Kannamma about Bharathi's inability to have children. Kannamma is happy that a man with a good heart will marry her. On Anjali's birthday, Bharathi marries Kannamma without anyone from either side and brings her to the birthday party. Soundharya becomes angry that Bharathi married the swarthy girl. Anjali is furious that Bharathi married her elder sister, not her. Akhil, Bharathi's younger brother and Bharathi's father Venu Gopalakrishnan (Rishi Keshav) are happy. However, after some insults, Soundharya allows Kannamma to be in the house and later Anjali marries Akhil but Anjali wants to get rid of Kannamma and Anjali and wants to marry Bharathi but she eventually fails and Soundharya senses odd behavior of Anjali and warns her to be a good wife and daughter-in-law or she will expel her. Anjali stops the attempts and starts loving Akhil. Meanwhile, a new character, Dr. Venba (Farina Azad), enters, obsessive lover of Bharathi, targets the couple, she was also Bharathi's childhood friend. Soundharya likes Venba as she is fair-skinned. Venba becomes angry when she learns Bharathi is married and promises herself she will get him back. Kannamma consults Venba as she wants to get pregnant and wants to know why she isn't expecting yet and Bharathi discusses this with Venba and she convinces Bharathi to change the reports before all of this.

Bharathi and Kannamma go for Kannamma's school reunion. Venba is there, too. A new character, Varun (Raju Jeyamohan), Kannamma's classmate is introduced and Venba makes Bharathi believe Kannamma is cheating on him with Varun. Meanwhile, Kannamma gives some things that a sister gives to a brother. They return from there and Venba manipulates Bharathi more and more so he blindly believes Kannamma is cheating on him. Currently, Kannamma believes the reports that she can't have children. Soundharya learns of this and wants Bharathi to marry again. Venba is happy about this as she believes Soundharya will choose her to be Bharathi's second wife but is betrayed when Soundharya chooses someone else. Soundharya informs Bharathi that she will engage him to another woman the next day. Bharathi is shocked by this and asks Kannamma if she knows about the engagement while Kannamma is fast asleep. Kannamma doesn't answer. The next day Kannamma awakens and is shocked to hear about preparations of engagement. Kannamma cries, thinking Bharathi accepted this. Kannamma's father learns of the engagement and stops it. Soundharya lashes out at him, saying Kannamma can't bear the children. The other day Kannamma had some symptoms of pregnancy so with the advice of Arivumani (Kaavya) (Bharathi's cousin sister) she takes a pregnancy test and it turns out to be positive and tells Soundharya Bharathi doesn't need to marry again as Kannamma is pregnant.

Venba approaches the serial killer Durga (Praveen Devasagayam) who only kills bad people. Venba convinces him that Kannamma cheated on her friend Bharathi and that he wants to get rid of her. Durga accepts the deal and enters as the car driver especially for Kannamma. Kannamma is sad that Bharathi is behaving oddly with her and showing no sign of happiness for the pregnancy. Kannamma goes to her parents where even her father treats her weirdly, so tearful Kannamma returns. After seeing Kannamma's kindness, Durga is convinced that Venba is the bad one. Venba learns of this and convinces Durga she won't harm Kannamma anymore but Durga doesn't believe her and remains the car driver to protect Kannamma from Venba. Venba plans to kill both of them as she killed Hema, but they escape with few injuries but Durga succumbed to his injuries. Later Durga confesses to Kannamma he was there to kill her. Hearing this, a stunned Kannamma asks who wants to kill her, as she never harmed anyone her entire life. Durga says Bharathi to protect Venba as he is in love with Venba. Kannamma returns home and prepares to leave the house but Soundharya stops her and asks why she wants to leave the house. A tearful Kannamma tells Soundharya that her Bharathi wants to kill her and the baby which is growing in her womb. Hearing this, the family is shocked and they ask Bharathi why he wants to kill his pregnant wife and Bharathi says he may dislike her but would never try to kill her. Furious, he spills the truth, saying he isn't the father of the child, shocking Kannamma. Soundharya slaps Bharathi, telling him to watch his words. Bharathi shows the reports to the family and everyone becomes silent. A betrayed Kannamma leaves the house saying she can't live in a house where her loyalty and love are questioned. She goes to her parent's house and confronts her father regarding him knowing the truth from the beginning and storms off. A guilty father tries to stops her and asks her to live with him, but Kannamma says even he doubted her and leaves. Soundharya believes, but Venu Gopalakrishnan and Akhil don't believe Bharathi and ask to take the tests again but Venba convinces him not again to test. Kannamma tries to find a job so she can take care of the baby.

Later Soundharya tries to convince Bharathi to take the test, but Bharathi doesn't listen to her. After so many hurdles, Kannamma gives birth to twins and Soundharya takes one baby away so the babies can reconcile their parents. Soundharya takes the dark-skinned baby with her to redeem herself for mistreating Kannamma while she was in the house. Kannamma awakens and caresses her remaining baby. Thulasi (Sherin Jaanu), the nurse who delivered Kannamma's baby, offers shelter to Kannamma. Soundharya takes the baby home and says she got the baby from an orphanage so Bharathi could care for her. Bharathi initially doesn't care for the baby, but slowly begins to love her. Bharathi and his family name the baby Hema in the remembrance of his ex-lover Hema and Kannamma names her baby Soundharyalakshmi her mother-in-law's name. Meanwhile one day, Venba tries to marry Bharathi with his approval but later gets stopped by his mother Soundharya. Kannamma leaves the city to live peacefully with her baby.

8 years later

Hema (Lisha Khelge) and Soundharyalakshmi "Lakshmi" (Raksah Shyam) are now eight years old. Kannamma lives with Soundharyalakshmi in a village where they meet Palani and Seetha and became close to them. Kannamma runs a tailor shop. Bharathi and his family come to that village for organising a free medical camp for those people, unaware that Kannamma lives there. The family stays there to attend the village's temple festival. Bharathi meets Soundharyalakshmi, not knowing that she is his daughter. After 8 years, Durga has become a doctor. Now all the staff and patients from Venba's hospital go to Durga's hospital just opposite the road; it makes Venba angry. But Durga falls in love with Venba. Now Kannamma and Lakshmi go to Chennai by auto. There, Lakshmi goes into Bharathi's hospital and asks where he is. Meanwhile, Kannamma stays in the auto and sees Bharathi leaving the hospital and stay near his car. She hides from him, but Bharathi does not see her since he was on a phone call. Now Kannamaa and Lakshmi stays with Thulasi. Here Anjali is pregnant also she realised her mistakes and changed her character. Hema and Lakshmi studies in same school with same class. Bharathi has a soft corner towards Lakshmi. Again, Bharathi decided to marry Venba against his family but her attitude towards Hema. So Bharathi hates her. Here, Kannamaa, Thulasi and their house owner Sumathi (Neepa) started a new business. Few Days ago, Hema and Lakshmi surprised to have a same birthday date. So, they celebrates their birthday at the same time in same place. In that time, Bharathi meets Kannamaa for the first time with Hema. Later, Hema gets kidnapped by Venba. Bharathi accuses kannamma thinking that she kidnapped her.Later he understood the truth,that kanamma didnt kidnap Hema.He and Hema visit Kannamma's house as Hema wants to bid a farewell to Kannamma before she goes to America with her father.

Cast

Main

Portrayed by	Character	Year(s)	Description
Roshni Haripriyan	Kannamma	2019–present	Bharathi's ex-wife; Hema and Soundarya Lakshmi's mother. Venba's arch rival. Shanmugam's elder daughter, Anjali's half-sister and Soundharya's elder daughter-in-law. Thulasi's best friend. She is dark-skinned, illiterate but bold, courageous, talented, intelligent and zealous lady also, is a tailor and food supplier. She is also called by Hema as Samayal Amma.
Arun Prasad	Dr. Bharathi Priyan	2019–present	Kannamaa's ex-husband, Venba's love interest, Anjali's ex-love interest; Hema and Soundarya Lakshmi's father and the ex-boyfriend of Hema, a Cardiologist. He marries Kannamma, but later distances himself from her due to a misunderstanding that she had an affair with her friend Varun. He is also called by Lakshmi as Doctor Mama.
Raksah Shyam	Soundarya Lakshmi	2020–present	Also known as Lakshmi. A fair-skinned and talkative girl, Bharathi and Kannamma's daughter; Soundarya and Venu's grand-daughter. She's the eldest of twins born to Bharathi and Kannamma. She's bold and talkative and stays alone with her mother in a poor house.
Lisha Rajkumar	Hema Bharathi Jr.	2020–present	She is dark-skinned and calm, Bharathi and Kannamma's daughter; Soundarya and Venu's granddaughter. She's the youngest of twins born to Bharathi and Kannamma. She's sensitive and stays with her father, uncle, aunt and grandparents in the rich villa, after Bharathi adopted her thinking that she's an orphan.
Farina Rahman Ubaidh	Dr. Venba	2019–present	A fair-skinned girl, Bharathi's childhood friend, colleague and obsessive ex-girlfriend, a gynecologist also a drug addict and insane woman. She wants to separate Bharathi Kannamma's relationship and she wants to marry Bharathi, also she hates Kannamma, she killed Bharathi's first lover Hema and repeatedly tried to kill his wife Kannamma, and she is Durga's love interest.
Roopa Sree	Soundarya Devi	2019–present	Venu's wife; Bharathi, Akhilan and Shruthi's mother, Kannamma and Anjali's mother-in-law; Yazhini, Soundarya Lakshmi and Hema's grandmother. She loves Kannamma. Initially, she hated Kannamma for her skin tone but then she realized her innocent qualities and began to support her. She is a powerful businesswoman and loves her daughter-in-law Kannamma and Anjali also. She tries to unite Kannamma and Bharathi and hates Venba for doing wrong thing.
Kanmani Manoharan ("Sweety")	Anjali Akilan (Miss Chennai)	2019–present	A fair-skinned girl, Akilan's wife (pregnant); Kannamma's half-sister; Shanmugam and Baakya's daughter. Soundharya's younger daughter-in-law. Initially, She hates Kannamma; she loves Bharathi and had feelings on Bharathi but not now and married Akhilan his younger brother. She hated Kannamma because of her mother Baagya's upbringing but later reconciled with and supported her.
Akhil Pushparaj	Akilan	2019–present	Anjali's husband; Venu and Soundarya's son; Shanmugam and Baakiyalakshmi's son-in-law. He loves and marries Anjali and later tries to unite Kannamma and Bharathi, along with his parents. He supports and loves Kannamma like his mother. He hates Venba for being close with Bharathi.
Rishi Keshav	Venu Gopalakrishnan	2019–present	Soundarya's husband; Bharathi, Akhilan and Shruthi's father, Kannamma and Anjali's father-in-law; Yazhini, Soundharya Lakshmi and Hema's grandfather. He loves her wife so much and give respect to dessicion He also supports Kannamma and likes her innocence and boldness.

Supporting

• Sherin Jaanu as Thulasi Sundar: A former nurse in Bharathi's hospital, she assisted in Kannamma's delivery. She concealed the secret about birth of twins, on Soundarya's request. A good soul for Soundarya's family, Kannamma's close friend, Sundar's wife (2020–present)
• Venkatesh (2019-2021) (Dead) as Shanmugam: Kannamma and Anjali's father, Bharathi and Akhilan's father-in-law, Shenbagam and Baakiyalakshmi's husband. He loves her elder daughter Kannamma more than his younger daughter Anjali
  • Muthu Kumara Swamy (Jun.2021–present) (Replacement of Venkatesh after his death)
• Senthi Kumari as Baagyalakshmi "Baagya" Shanmugam: Anjali's mother and Kannamma's stepmother, Shanmugam's second wife, Anbukarasi's daughter. She is greedy and mistreats Kannamma and hates her husband as he loves Kannamma more than her own daughter Anjali. Soundarya teaches her a proper lesson to mend her ways but she remains greedy. (2019–present)
• Kaavya Hegde as Arivumani: Soundarya's niece; Bharathi, Akhilan and Sruthi's cousin, Kannamma's best friend and Selva's love interest (2019–present)
• Rajkumar Manoharan as Selva Ganapathy (Selva): Bhagyalakshmi's brother, Anbukarasi's son, Anjali's maternal uncle, Kannamma's helper; Arivumani's love interest. (2019–present)
• Vijayalakshmi as Anbukarasi "Patti": Baagyalakshmi and Selva Ganapathy's mother, Anjali's grandmother also Shanmugam's mother-in-law. She hates Kannamma (2019–2020) (Dead)
• Raju Jeyamohan as Varun Mohan alias Sundar: Kannamma's classmate and her best friend also a famous poet. Thulasi's husband. Though he treats Kannamma as a sister, Venba brainwashes Bharathi into believing that he had an affair with Kannamma, eventually creating a misunderstanding (2020–present)
• Shruthi Shanmugapriya as Sruthi: Bharathi and Akhilan's sister Soundarya and Venu's daughter, Kannamma and Anjali's sister-in-law (2019–present)
• Praveen Devasagayam as Dr. Durga: Initially, a rowdy, Venba's helper; but he realizes his mistakes and knows that Kannamma is innocent, so he vows to protect Kannamma. Venba's arch-rival; after eight years, he became a doctor (impostor) to intimidate Venba (2020–present)
• Neepa as Sumathi Sekar: Kannamaa's house owner and her good friend (2020–present)
• Tanushri Gowda as Young Yazhini: Shruthi's daughter and Soundarya and Venu's granddaughter (2019–2020)
  • Akshaya Dinesh replaced Gowda as Yazhini: Shruthi's daughter; Venu and Soundarya's granddaughter (2020–present)
• Revathee Shankar as Gayatri: Venu Gopalakrishnan's sister and Soundharya's sister-in-law (2019–2020)
• Pushpa Vetriselvan as Santhi: Venba's housekeeper (2020–present)
• Yogi as Maayandi: Kannamma's ex-fiancée, Anjali's helper and Nimmi's husband (2019–2020)
• Subageetha as Nirmala "Nimmi" Maayandi: Maayandi's wife and Anjali's caretaker. She hates Kannamma (2019–present)
• M. J. Shriram as Venba's uncle (2019–present)
• Balaji as Babu: Venba's helper, Durga's enemy (2019–present)
• Mahesh Kumar as Sekar: Sumathi's husband: Arrogant (2020–present)
• Adhithiri Sree as Manju: Sumathi and Sekhar's daughter, Lakshmi's friend (2020–present)
• Manoj Kumar as "Brother" Kumar: Kannamaa's helper, an auto-driver (2020–present)
• Lakshmi as Gomathi: A stranger in an orphanage, Venba's helper to destroy Kannamma. She is accidentally killed by Venba (2020)

Special Guests

• Deepthi Kapil (2019) as young Kannamma
• Spoorthi Santhosh Rao (2019) as Young Anjali
• Snehan as himself (Episode 1) (2019)
• Preethi Sanjeev as Vadivambal, Kannamma's cousin (2019)
• Deepa Shankar (2019) as Shenbagam: Shanmugam's first wife; Kannamma's mother (Episode 1)
• Arunraja Kamaraj as Himself - Bharathi's friend (2019)
• Alya Manasa as Dr. Hema: Bharathi's ex-lover. Bharathi's first love in college. She was killed in a car accident planned by Venba. Bharathi names his adopted daughter Hema after her (2019)
• Uma Rani as Shenbagavalli (Episode 2-3, 92-93, 242-243) (2019–2020)
• Manimegalai as Manimegalai, Shenbagavalli's daughter and Bharathi's proposed bride (Episode 242-243) (2020)
• Kaaka Muttai Shanthi Mani as Paatti (Episode 3) (2019)
• Madhumitha Illayaraja as Meenatchi "Meena" Sathasivam: Akhilan's love interest and his dream girl (2020)
• Manoj Kumar as Sathasivam: Meena's father (2020)
• Madurai Mohan as Natraj: a person who helps Kannamma while she left home, he takes care of her, a hand carter (2020)
• Chenniamma as Petchiamma: Natraj's wife (2020)
• Rohini as Veni: an owner in petrol bunk (2020)
• Jeya Lakshmi: an incharge in an orphanage (2020)
• Vasu Vikram as Mahalingam: Kannamma's MD in a tailoring departmental store (2020)
• Babitha as Maheshwari Mahalingam: Soundarya's friend and Mahalingam's wife (2020)
• Yuvan Pattison as Prashad Mahalingam: Bharathi's friend and Mahalingam's son (2020)
• KPY Pazhani as Pazhani: Kannamma's neighbour, good-hearted (2020-2021)
• Nilani as Seetha Pazhani: Pazhani's wife, Kannamma's friend based in Thiruvallur (2020-2021)
• Jeyanthi as an IAS officer (2021)
• Aari Arujunan as Himself (2021)
• Sivaangi Krishnakumar as herself (2021)
• Suresh Chakravarty as himself (2021)
• Bj Bala as himself (2021)
• Archana Chandhoke as herself (2021)

Production

Soundtrack

Bharathi Kannamaa soundtrack
Soundtrack album by M. Jayachandran, Rajesh Murugesan
Released	01 January 2020
Recorded	Since 2019
Genre	Tv serial soundtrack
Language	Tamil
Label	Rejaputhra Visual media
Producer	M. Jayachandran

Soundtrack

Track list
No.	Title	Singer(s)	Length
1.	"Bharathi Kadhaliyae Kannamaa (பாரதி காதலியே கண்ணம்மா) Romantic Version"	Arunraja Kamaraj	4:57
2.	"Kannamaa Kannamaa (கண்ணம்மா கண்ணம்மா) Sad Version"	Sean Roldan, Pradeep Kumar	1:08

Filming

Due to the COVID-19 outbreak in India, Bharathi Kannamma, and all other Indian television series and films production were suspended from 19 March 2020. Three Months later, shooting was permitted and the team commenced filming in July. The show commenced telecasting new episodes from 27 July 2020. With the increase in Covid cases in Tamil Nadu, the production was once again suspended in mid May 2021 for few days and resumed soon.

Crossover Episodes

In January 2020, Bharathi Kannamma had a crossover with Pandian Stores for a week. It also had a crossover with Raja Rani 2 during March 2021 for 3 weeks and a day (Raja Rani S2 E-108 to E-126). With the sudden announcement of suspension of shoot in mid May 2021 and with a few cast availability then for bank episodes shoot, once again the series was crossed over with Raja Rani 2.

Adaptations

Besides Bharathi Kannamma, Karuthamuthu is adapted in various other Indian languages listed below.

Language	Title	Original release	Network(s)	Notes
Malayalam	Karuthamuthu(Original) കറുത്തമുത്ത്	20 October 2014 – 9 August 2019	Asianet	1450
Telugu	Karthika Deepam కార్తీక దీపం	16 October 2017 – present	Star Maa	Ongoing
Kannada	Muddulakshmi ಮುದ್ದುಲಕ್ಷ್ಮಿ	22 January 2018 – present	Star Suvarna	Ongoing
Marathi	Rang Majha Vegla रंग माझा वेगळा	30 October 2019 – present	Star Pravah	Ongoing
Hindi	Karthik Purnima कार्तिक पूर्णिमा	3 February – 27 March 2020	Star Bharat	45

Reception

Ratings

In September 2020, the sequence of the series where lead Kannamma leaves the house and was seen walking on the streets for 5 episodes, received criticisms with memes which trended on online platforms due to which the series gained more popularity and viewership than before, entering top five tamil television programs. During which, in the week 37 of 2020, it became the third most watched Tamil soap for the first time garnering 8.254 million impressions and becoming the second Star Vijay program to enter top five. However, in week 21 of 2021 when the rival channel Sun TV's top rated soap Roja was shifted to 9:00 pm (IST) against Bharathi Kannamma, the viewership of Bharathi Kannamma dropped drastically and it moved out of top five but soon returned back within 3 weeks.

Week and year	BARC viewership (Tamil GEC)		Ref(s)
	Impressions (in millions)	Ranking
Week 37, 2020	8.25	3
Week 50, 2020	9.41	2
Week 4, 2021	7.01	5
Week 6, 2021	9.10	1
Week 7, 2021	9.53	1
Week 8, 2021	9.00	1
Week 9, 2021	8.546	2
Week 10, 2021	8.540	2
Weel 12, 2021	8.18	2
Week 14, 2021	7.94 (3 April) 8.12 (4-9 April)	3 2
Week 15, 2021	7.92	4
Week 16, 2021	7.42	3
Week 18, 2021	7.84	3
Week 19, 2021	7.77	4
Week 20, 2021	8.89	3
Week 21, 2021	10.50	1

Awards and honours

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient(s)	Character(s)	Result	Ref.
Behindwoods Gold Medals	2020	Most Popular Actress	Roshni Haripriyan	Kannamaa - Bharathi Kannamaa (Star Vijay)	Won
		Most Celebrated Pair On Television	Roshni Haripriyan and Arun Prasad	Kannamaa and Bharathi	Won
6th Annual Vijay Television Awards	2021	Favorite Heroine	Roshni Haripriyan	Kannamaa	Won
		Best Hero	Arun Prasad	Dr. Bharathi	Won
		Favorite Villi	Farina Azad	Dr. Venba	Won
		Favorite Mamiyar	Roopa Sree	Soundarya Devi	Won
		Favorite Couple	Roshni Haripriyan and Arun Prasad	Kannamaa and Bharathi	Won
		Best Director	Praveen Bennett	Bharathi Kannamaa	Won
		Popular Serial	Bharathi Kannamaa		Won
		Best Supporting Actor Female	Kanmani Manoharan	Anjali	Nominated
		Best Supporting Actor Male	Akhil Pushparaj	Akilan	Nominated

External links

• official website at Hotstar
• Bharathi Kannamma on IMDb