remembers the actor calling her "Papa", the Tamil termed that was used by her family and friends, and he would search for her throughout the sets while yelling "where is Papa, where is my heroine". According to Subhash Chheda, when Amar Deep was released, the long-awaited airing of Vyjayanthimala and Dev Anand was compared to the Madhubala and Dev Anand pair, where the public gave the verdict that: "If Madhubala brooks no equality, Vyjayanthimala admits no superiority". Unfortunately, the film failed to turn the Vyjayanthimala and Dev Anand team into a hit pair. The same year Vyjayanthimala was booked by M. G. Ramachandran for his second directorial venture Ponniyin Selvan. One of the first screen adaptations of Kalki Krishnamurthy's Ponniyin Selvan, the film had a huge ensemble cast consisting of Savitri, Gemini Ganesan, Padmini, Saroja Devi, M. N. Rajam and Nagesh along with Ramachandran and Vyjayanthimala. In the film, she was given the role of Kundavai, the elder sister of Raja Raja Chola I, played by Ganesan and the wife of Vallavaraiyan Vandiyadevan, played by Ramachandran. However, in mid-1958 the film was shelved for unknown reasons. The same year she did another Tamil film Gemini Pictures's magnum opus Vanjikottai Valiban along with Gemini Ganesan and Padmini. Written by Gemini Story Department which was headed by Kothamangalam Subbu, the Black-and-white epic film was produced and directed by S. S. Vasan. She played the role of Princess Mandakini, the beautiful princess of Ratna Island Kingdom. As a stubborn princess, she always wanted to achieve her ambition in any deed which led to her ultimate death and formed the climax. The film had a great theatrical run where the film completed 100 days run at cinemas and was labelled as a blockbuster at the box office. The film is still remembered for the dance of Vyjayanthimala and Padmini in the song "Kannum Kannum Kalanthu" which was choreographed by Hiralal, and was well received by critics and audience alike, wherein the popularity of the song surpassed the popularity garnered by the film. The song is still regarded as one of the best dance sequences in Indian cinema. Vanjikottai Valiban was followed by its Hindi version titled Raj Tilak. Screenplay of the film was by Ramanand Sagar. The film was directed by S. S. Vasan with Ganesan, Vyjayanthimala and Padmini in the lead. Within a week, the film sank at the box office and was