Subbu Arumugam

Subbu Arumugam (born 1928) is an Indian musician, writer and Villupattu theatre art exponent.[1][2][3] In 2021, he was awarded India's fourth-highest civilian award the Padma Shri in the Arts and Literature category.[4][5] He has published 15 books containing Villu Pattu narratives, songs, short stories and novels such as Veera Pandia Kattabomman. Some of his published notable works are Noolaga Villisai, Ramayanam, and Villisai Mahabharatham.[1]

He has many Villu Pattu audio-cassettes, videos, and devotional songs to his credit. Some of the other notable works include Kannile Nalla Gunam, a video on diabetic retinopathy, which was produced by Sankara Nethralaya, Chennai, and Sattam, Sathyam, Samudhyam, a video on legal matters, was produced by the Government of Tamil Nadu.[1] He has also written comedy tracks, dialogues and lyrics for various films in India.[4]

He was born in 1928 at Chatthiram Pudukulam village of Tirunelveli district in Tamil Nadu, India. He received training in the Villu Paatu theatre art under A. Subbaiah Pillai, N. Krishna Pillai, and N. S. Krishnan.[1]

He has been performing Villu Paatu professionally for about 40 years from the 1930s up to the 1950s in various temples, schools, colleges, factories and corporate offices as well as over the broadcasting media.[1]

He was awarded the Kalaimamani title in 1975 by the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manramfor for excellence in the field of art and literature. Subbu Arumugam was honored with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for his contribution to the practice of Villu Paatu.[1]