Kangabam Tomba

Biography

Kangabam Tomba (born 10 June 1946) is an Indian actor from Imphal, Manipur. He started his career in theatre. His first appearance in movies is in Matamgi Manipur, the first Manipuri full-length feature film where he played a college guy. His is popularly known as Lamja Tomba for his title role in the 1974 movie Lamja Parshuram. Tomba bagged the Best Actor Award at the 1st Manipur State Film Festival 1984 for the film. He was conferred with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 11th Manipur State Film Awards 2018. He appeared as a college guy in Matamgi Manipur, the first Manipuri feature film in 1972. His first movie as a leading actor is Lamja Parshuram released in 1974, where he played the title role. The movie became a hit and since then, he is popularly known as Lamja Tomba. His 1979 movie Olangthagee Wangmadasoo ran for 32 weeks, the longest Manipuri movie to run in theatres till date and broke the local box office records of Sholay. In Paokhum Ama, he played a government employee from Imphal who is posted to a hill district of Manipur. He was the leading male protagonist in 1990 Aribam Syam Sharma's movie Ishanou, which was critically acclaimed worldwide and participated in the prestigious Cannes Film Festival 1991 (Restored film was again selected for the classics section at Cannes 2023).