Jayalalithaa - Karunanidhi and more

Stalwarts I met and did not

I met some film stalwarts as a political journalist and some as a film journalist. Prem Nazir , NTR and MGR, I met as a political journalist I never interacted with Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi and interviewed Dr Rajkumar and Karnataka CM Bangarappa as a film  journalist. Interactions with Nadigar Thikam Dr Sivaji Ganesan will come as a special section. 

Prem Nazir coming from Cheranyngir a little town off Trivandrum ( my home town) was known to me even before I came to journalism. Many of his relatives were my classmates and friends. Through them, I have talked to him and seen him at marriages etc. He knew my grandfather S S Pillai ( then Editor of Screen weekly). In fact, we had a group that saw every first second show of Nazir film. Second show was convenient to say some excuse from home and escape. In fact, we started a fan club of Nazir funded by Latheef Bhai. Latheef was  a know production controller in Malayalam films and a right hand of Nazir.

The announcement came that Nazir is to enter politics and that too on a Congress ticket. Karunakaran was said to be behind the move. The talk was that pressure from IT raids had led him to take refuge in Congress. I was then working for The Sunday Observer and took his interview. His entry did not go as planned. One night, I got a call saying Nazir was no more and his body was coming next day from Madras to Trivandrum. Photographers climbed to a parked ladder to shoot the body coming out of the exit door of the passenger side but instead it came from the luggage loft below. At one end there was a microphone blaring that Kerala’s  golden son’s mortal remains has touched ground. Later after I was doing my film rounds in Chennai, I was told that Indian Airlines asked for passenger charges if the body had to be kept o top. It meant removing seats. Hence Kerala’s Golden Son came in a regular flight and in a luggage hold. Many producers who became lakhpati due to Nazir suddenly went penniless when they were asked to pay for the airline charges. What about Nazir’s brother and son;s decision ? Your guess is as good as mine.

MGR

As the custom in Trivandrum, we were members of MGR and Sivaji fan clubs. The theaters showing Tamil films belonged to my classmates Dad, a Tamilian himself. Cut-out came from Nagercoil by road. Burly men in cycles fitted with load racks and sporting multicolored lungi and net bannian came in droves for MGR films while car parking lot overflowed for Sivaji films. One fine morning, we were told that MGR was coming to campaign for Kovalam beach constituency. He had a press meet at Guest House and what he said was not clear. His public speeches were translated into Malayalam but bore no link to his mutterings.  He had a man who shouted the question in Tamil and interpreted the mumblings into Malayalam. That was interview of MGR for Sunday Observer.  A big disappointment for a fan turned journalist.

Dr. Rajkumar

My first meeting with Dr Rajkumar was at his Trustpuram house. He had an interpreter to translate his Kannada into Tamil and vice versa.. His wife Parvathamma and sons spoke good Tamil. He had the best of relations with all thespians and more so with Sivaji. In fact, he spearheaded the shift of Kannada filmdom to Bangalore. Behind his white and white dress and a messiah like smile lay a sinister man who went to any extent to keep his rivals out, was what many said about him. All said, his charisma remained intact even after quitting films and not having occupied any political chair. Till his end, he kept politicians on tenterhooks saying that he nursed political ambitions. Luckily for him, his sons too have taken after him.

NTR

During the Shivarathri festival of ten nights, we usedt o see purana ( mythological) films every night to keep awake We saw NTR in many such films and followed by Gemini and Sivaji. We heard that people  fell at his feet and prayed when he came out  of his house. Later while covering a Sivaji film shooting, I was introduced to the cameraman Williams ( known as Korangu ( monkey) Williams). I was told by Williams that he had the audacity to smoke and not get up from the chair , when NTR walked in. Williams got away with it or not, I can’t recall.

I was investigating a major scam In Tirupati temple  involving sale of laddus and sharing of revenue among a few families called archakaras. I stayed in a seedy lodge and with a tout gathered all evidence of a underworld operating from the free room facility for pilgrims to national level flesh trade. Later, taking my iD as reporter of The Onlooker and I met the TTD Executive officer, He made me the TTD Guest and gave me a royal suite with staff and I could walk straight to deity without any queue   My next was to meet NTR who as CM and Tirupati MLA had decided to take on the crime syndicate in the temple town. I went to CM’s office and gave a letter asking for an interview. In no time, a team came and asked me to give the questions as he answered only after seeing the questions and answers were in written form. No recorders were allowed when he answered supplementary. I was told that Illustrated Weekly took an interview of his in English and published it ad verbatim to show him as a clown. Appointment time was 4 AM. Car comes to hotel and takes me to a cottage that looked like a set where the hermits lived. Trees and landscaped with creeks etc. I sat on the floor. (No chairs around). Before NTR came, a plate full of fruits came. It was carried by men and not women.

As he entered, I froze. Should I fall at his feet or just do a namaste? Fresh as ever ,with many precious stones on him, silk kurta and dhoti. I had read the answers and asked a few supplementary. He conversed in broken English. A few minutes later  he waved me off saying, -Before you reach Bombay, everything will be changed. It did. The whole temple was taken over. How can you protest when the GOD NTR who has played Shiva- Vishnu etc takes over the abode?

Karunanidhi-Jayalalithaa and Bangarappa :

Jayalalithaa is one person that I have not interacted. The only time I got to see her close was to go on stage during a function organized by FEFSI to celebrate her becoming CM. I was part of the office bearers of South Indian Film Journalists Association run by Filmnews Anandan and Cinema Express Ramamurthy. In case of Karunanidhi, it wa a case where I could meet him anytime I wished. But it never happened. Right from Murasoli Selvam to Amritham to Cochin Haneefa ( dear friend) and all at Murasoli Movies were great buddies but never did I come across Karunanidhi on the sets. He usually turns up late night on sets, I was told. The time I saw him close was at the wedding of Priyadarshan with Lizzy at Taj.

The other CM whom I saw and interviewed was then Karnataka CM Bangarappa. His son Kumar Bangarappa was acting in a Kannada film produced by Kottarakara ( a family friend). He just took me past the security and put me in front of Yedurappa. As I was a film journalist, I asked him about how he planned to make Bangalore into a film makers dream.

Balakrishna and Wills :As I had mentioned about NTR, I think, I should talk about his son Balakrishna. We used to meet often in Chennai and he later started spending more time in Hyderabad. He asked me to fly over to Hyderabad to do a promotion of his film. I was put up in Banjara Hills Hotel. He said that he would meet me by the pool-side. I went to the pool side and saw that opposite to the lawn was a hall filled with Congressmen. Hordes of cops  at entrance. Balakrishna is in TDP ( not MLA) and how will he cross these cops and sit by the pool to have a drink ?. He came and I saw the cops salute him. He walked towards the pool and pulled up a chair. What will you have he asked. Rum and water, I said. I added a packet of Wills please. He smiled and told the waiter- same here. His drink and smoke was the same. He said that he carried Wills when he went abroad. From there, he drove the car to a busy narrow street which was full of pungent chicken masala. He got out and like any guy ordered two plates and sat on the stool at the roadside and ate. I asked him if he did not feel nervous that the CM( of Congress) was in a hall by the pool side and now eating here on the roadside without any bodyguard. He laughed and said- “ If you have people who love you, they will take care of you. As for CM, We the NTR clan are here for generations. They do not see us as politicians.”