at Palayamkottai, Madurai and Karaikudi. The Kerala Government initially refused to give Daniel any honour because J.C. Daniel was born and also later settled in Kanyakumari district which later became a part of Tamil Nadu, in 1956. The Government's insistence was that if Daniel wanted any financial assistance, he had to apply for it from the Tamil Nadu Government. At the far end of his life, he had told R. Kumaraswamy, the editor of the film magazine Nana: "Malayalam cinema is a thriving industry now. But never have anyone bothered to recognise me as someone who made a film all by himself in those days. As for the new generation, they don't know me. But it is not their fault, I soothe myself." Long after Daniel's death in 1975, as an afterthought, the Kerala Government instituted the J. C. Daniel Award in 1992, as a part of the Kerala State Film Awards, to honour lifetime achievements in Malayalam cinema. Daniel is now known as the father of Malayalam cinema. The failure of Vigathakumaran is attributed by some people, to it being a silent film, although all cinemas were silent back then. In reality this cinema was a huge success artistically, and failed only from a financial perspective. Legacy A lot of literary and cinema works have been made, based on the life of J. C. Daniel and the making of Vigathakumaran. Nashta Nayika is a novel by Vinu Abraham which details the life of P. K. Rosy, the heroine of Vigathakumaran. The film was remade in 2003. In 2013, Kamal wrote and directed a biopic on J.C. Daniel titled Celluloid. The film details the struggles of Daniel to produce and exhibit Vigathakumaran, while plunging into financial crisis. The film, based partially on the novel Nashta Naayika by Vinu Abraham and the Life of J. C. Daniel, a biography by film journalist Chelangat Gopalakrishnan, also deals with the life of Rosy, the lead actress in Vigathakumaran. Prithviraj plays the role of Daniel, while Mamta Mohandas plays his wife Janet and newcomer Chandni plays Rosy. The film generated criticism over its subtle reference to an IAS Officer and the then Kerala Chief Minister, which purportedly points to the bureaucrat and writer Malayattoor Ramakrishna Iyer and K. Karunakaran, who allegedly worked together to deny J. C. Daniel credit for his contribution to Malayalam cinema since he was a Nadar (Christian). Author and civil