C. Alvares

Celestino Santana Francisco Alvares (1 August 1920 – 28 February 1999) known by his stage name C. Alvares was a Goan tiatrist, film actor, producer and director. He was from Saligao.

Alvares specialised in composing and singing poignant duets on various social issues and for this reason, he was called the "King of Duets". He acted in two of the most memorable Konkani films, including Amchem Noxib, Nirmon, Mhoji Ghorkarn, Bhuierantlo Munis and Uddta to Buddta. He received the award for best actor for Nirmon, while the film itself won a National Award.[1]

Alvares is credited with renewing the trend of female participation on the Konkani stage. He encouraged the maximum number of girls who succeeded in earning a reputation for themselves as actresses. Actresses whom he introduced on the Konkani stage were Shalini Mardolkar, Filomena Braz, CarmensRose, Cecilia (Albuquerque) Machado, Antonette Mendes, Miss Mohana [Cabral], Ophelia Cabral, Jessie Dias and Betty Fernandes.

Alvares has written 107 tiatrs besides acting in thousands of tiatrs during the span of 60 years that he served the tiatr stage. Because of his lifelong work, he has been called the greatest contributor to the konkani stage.[2][3] He also produced the Konkani film Faxi Mogachi.