SINGAPORE - Tamil Murasu, Singapore's national Tamil language daily, celebrated its 75th anniversary with a gala concert at the University Cultural Centre on Saturday evening.

President S R Nathan, the guest-of-honour, unveiled the new look for Tamil Murasu, which is brighter, bolder and of a more contemporary design.

Tamil Murasu will don its new look, including a new masthead, starting Monday Sept 6.

With the revamp, there will be more colour pages and pictures.

The layout will be more reader-friendly and readers can also look forward to increased pagination with more local content as well as coverage on South Asia.

Sections such as the cinema news will be beefed up, while regular columns on lifestyle, technology and health will be added.

Young readers can look forward to more pages in the student tabloid, Maanavar Murasu, which is distributed as part of the main paper every Monday.

Ms Murugaian Nirmala , editor of Tamil Murasu, said: "Not many people know that Singapore's Tamil Murasu is one of the oldest Tamil newspapers in the world.

"Tamil Murasu has come a long way in establishing itself as a trusted source of information for our readers.

"We will continue to build on this strength to engage our readers, as well as to preserve the Tamil language, especially among the younger generation."

Shown at the concert was also a video which showcased the contributions of the Tamils and Tamil Murasu towards nation building. The video was produced by The Straits Times RazorTV,

The concert attracted about 1,600 people from all walks of life, including community leaders, junior college students, beneficiaries from voluntary welfare organisations and avid readers of Tamil Murasu.

Founded in 1935 by G Sarangapany, a Singaporean Indian business leader, the paper has grown from a circulation of about 200 copies in the founding years to its current average of 13,000 on weekdays and 20,000 on Sundays.

It was bought by Singapore Press Holdings in 1996.

Tamil Murasu has established itself as the voice of the Tamil-speaking community in Singapore. The paper is also known for its coverage of Tamil Nadu news.

To serve the wider Indian community better, Tamil Murasu introduced tabla!, a free English language weekly, in Oct 2008.

The paper, aimed at catering to the needs of the growing Indian diaspora in Singapore, circulates 30,000 copies on Fridays.