‘Silambam’ an ancient martial art of south India practiced since 4th century BC
An Indian migrant worker, Ganesan Sandhirakasan (33), from Tamil Nadu has won the first prize in a government-sponsored competition of choreography and traditional Indian martial art, Silambam, in Singapore.
Ganesan topped the competition after getting the maximum number of ‘likes’ and ‘views’ on his videos on his TikTok account. He surpassed 19 other participants in this competition of ‘Silambam’, a traditional martial arts form practiced in India from the 4th century BC.
Ganesan received 1000 Singapore dollars (approximately Rs 55,000) as a reward. The competition was held for expatriate workers working in Singapore and its final episode aired on Monday night.
Ganesan topped the competition after getting the maximum number of ‘likes’ and ‘views’ on his videos on his TikTok account. He surpassed 19 other participants in this competition of ‘Silambam’, a traditional martial arts form practiced in India from the 4th century BC
The competition is part of the Tamil series ‘Chill Pannu Mappi’ organised by the Ministry of Communications and Information and produced by Cosmic Ultima Pictures for migrant workers.
The show’s executive producer SS Viswanathan said that as part of the contest, migrant workers were required to send videos of their talent and the organisers received over 600 entries.
Ganesan started learning martial arts at the age of 12 and won the Rajak medal for India at the first Silambam World Championships in 2010.
He says: “After seeing the advertisement on the website, I decided to participate in the contest. My office was closed during the Covid pandemic. I wanted to devote my time to some work. So, I recorded the choreography of the Indian martial art Silambam.”
Ganesan, has been living in Singapore for the last seven years. Since the past 5 years he has been teaching Taekwondo as a private coach.
He said, “I chose Silambam so that more and more people may come to know about this ancient martial art from India and become more conscious of their health.”
