Ayudha puja was a special day for film journalists who did the studio rounds. We hopped from one studio floor to another and attended number of film launches, Apart from this, many producers who did no have launches too invited unit people and their regular technicians to come to the office and take part in the concluding part of the 9 day festival. Dubbing - recording theaters, outdoor unit and processing labs to offices of all union offices of the film workers trade bodies wore a festive atmosphere.
Cars and bikes from T Nagar to Arcot road zipped across . It was literally a day of film workers who saw the occasion as the start of another year that offered them jobs. Producers felt that this day heralded a new prosperous year. This was one day when workers got cash as pooja gift apart from the customary pooja offerings. Wine shops and bars ran full house. Theaters had pooja releases. Pooja was the only festival which gave school- education institutions a 9 day holiday.
There were some producers who did not forget the workers of related establishments who had worked for their film. Kalaipuli S Thanu among some made it a point to go to the processing lab where his film had been processed and gave all workers a gift pack and cash. Similarly Editor and his team as well stunt masters team who were engaged for the shoot were invited to the office and given gifts. Most of the dancers , stunt men, makeup assistants, assistant directors are those who have no touch with the producers. But certain producers made it a point to draw up a list of such people who worked for them at some point or the other and gave them pooja gifts.
Studios made way to apartments and malls, Labs turned into digital service providers manned by IT guys, Editing suites were housed in two BHK flats, many other digital offerings like DI VFX and so on came and all of the people working on it were PG in the respective fields. Producers lost or rather saw no reason to interact with them.Everything became impersonal.
It was no more necessary for any personal interaction with film journalists. The PRO took care of it. Publicity on visual media was all paid for nobody needed any favours. When a press meet of around 25-30 people was held then , today it is in the range of 200. The number of fly by night producers and directors outnumbered the ones who made movies constantly.
Now the COVID virus has put a permanent lockdown on Kodambakkam puja festivities. Films are made with 100 men and in total silence. Theaters are closed. Sun TV which used to run special programmes on Puja releases is now running a programme of a film shot after COVID restrictions were lifted and it will be coming first on Sun TV and not theaters !!!. The film is for a Diwali release. The days when a carry bag with apples, oranges, bananas, betel leaves, nuts, packets of puffed rice, rice flakes, fried green dal, and palm sugar and envelope with a 500 -1000 Rs note given to workers has become a thing of the past.
As I was the Chief of Screen bureau , my peon waited for me to give him his cash envelope. All the puja was done by him and so all the materials went to him. As Screen was a weekly, It was an unofficial holiday. The peon however saw to it that he collected his cash gifts from others, a day before. All computers , doors, cupboards bore the sandal wood paste. Unlike other office cabins, mine had no Gods and Godesses on the wall. It had blowups of Big B, Madhuri, Rajinikant, Kamal, Vijaykant, Mammooty and so on. A desktop calendar of Sivaji gifted by his fans. My peon spared these GODS on earth from sandal wood paste and vermillion.
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