Crossing the Kodambakkam Bridge - Part 1

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I boarded a train from Mumbai with my family ( wife and son) to join the Chennai office of the publication that reports on filmdom. As my friend had arranged a flat to stay, I could move in straight away. After reporting to my boss , got out to go on studio rounds. I had brought my scooter along with me from Trivandrum. Being a Malayali  and living in an area  where Tamils are  in plenty , Tamil cinema was nothing new. Every new Tamil film release got released simultaneously in the theater in my locality. The same frenzy by fans as in Tamil Nadu took place in this theateres. Most of us who went by Hindi and Malayalam films and idolized Rajesh Khanna Prem Nazir - Satyan- Jayan and Amitabh Bacchan found this celebrations

of  pouring milk on cutouts of Tamil Stars by the fans as something weird.

 Start: My Boss told me that all I had to do was to cross the Kodambakkam bridge and keep going. He told me that all the studios are on this stretch. I managed to find my way to Kodambakkam bridge and went over it and kept on going. I saw nothing though I had  been riding for half an hour. The first studio I saw was Vijaya Studio and opposite it was Vijaya Gardens.

My first shock was that the watchman said that no press is allowed inside as exclusive scenes were being shot. If I saw it the exclusivity would be gone, he said. I told him that I had no camera with me. He still was adamant. The oldest trick worked. I could smell booze on him. I told him that I could pay for a quarter and he saluted me. From that day onward, we became great friends. All I had to do was to ask him if any actors worth the while were inside, he would give the info.

The shooting inside was of a Bhagyaraj film. It was a song sequence. I did not know anybody on the sets. Yet another hurdle  was a production hand guarding the gates of the set. He told me to wait outside till the hero and heroine came out during the break. As I sat under a tree, a production guy offered me  buttermilk. I asked him what was so secretive about the song being filmed. His answer stumped me. He said that the costumes worn by the hero would be copied and duplicated by lesser heroes whose films got  released  before this film. He said that one actor called Arjun was master in this. So even the still photographer printed the photos in a very secure photo studio and left no trace  of it behind. I had heard about film being copied at theater through video cameras and brought out as videos. It was the first time that I heard  about costume piracy!!!