Ace lyricist Vairamthu`s critically acclaimed best seller novel `Kallikattu Ithihasam` is going to be translated into 23 languages by the Sahithya Academy of India.

Vaitamuthu has penned thousands of super hit Tamil film songs has an array of independent poetry collections, novels and essay collections to his credit. One of his bestsellers was 'Kallikattu Ithihasam', a novel which registered the plight of the people living in 14 villages evacuated for the construction of Vaigai dam. It won the Sahithya Academy award for the best literary work in the year 2003. More than one lakh copies of the novel have been sold and it has seen many reprints which is a remarkable achievement in the book-sales industry.

Now the announcement on the voluminous translation of the novel would go as yet another glittering gem in the crown of this multi faceted Tamil writer.

Vairamuthu in a press statement has said that the novel will be translated in English and 22 Indian languages, including Hindi, Sanskrit, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali, Gujarati,Kashmiri and Urdu. Srinivasa Rao, the Secretary of the Sahithya Academy in a letter to Vairamuthu has stated that the translation work will begin soon.

About the initiative, Vairamuthu said "The translation attempt would serve as a cultural bridge Tamil and other Indian languages".