The village cashier who turned movie mogul | India News

Hailing from Sirukoodalpatti, a nondescript village in the Chettinad region, educated only up to middle school and without any godfathers in the film industry, AL Srinivasan, or ALS as he came to be known in the film world, went on to become a prolific film producer, studio baron and industry leader respected even by the greatest stars of Hindi cinema of the day, like Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan.Today, the village is known to many as the birthplace of Kannadasan, ALS’s younger brother by four years, and boasts of an imposing memorial to him, but the poet himself grew in reputation and recognition in the shadow of his illustrious elder who held the record of being president of South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce, South Indian cinema’s premier trade body, for eight terms between 1960 and 1972. According to Kannadasan, ‘‘Only after ALS made a mark in life, the fortunes of our family began to look up.”ALS was barely 18 when he came to Madras in 1941 to work as a cashier in Ajax Products Ltd – an early manufacturing enterprise of the AM Murugappa group that specialised then in making steel security equipment. He had initially put up at the founder’s sprawling bungalow on Edward Elliots Road – his father Sathappa Chettiar was a friend of founder Murugappa Chettiar – but quickly shifted to a lodge for Nagarathars on Coral Merchant Street. medium103210585Like many in Madras in the war years, ALS also wrestled with the fear of imminent Japanese attacks, but he was also thrilled by the sight of the sprawling Gemini Studio in the heart of the city and took movie mogul SS Vasan as his role model in life.As a young man, ALS is reputed to have shown some distinctive traits. He was affable and cheerful, was always impeccably dressed and quick to gain partners in any enterprise he undertook. While working in a Coimbatore distribution company as its representative, he founded a distribution company along with three other Coimbatore businessmen and bought the rights of exhibition of CN Annadurai (CNA)’s Velaikkari (1949). The move brought huge profits, and ALS hosted a victory event for CNA and the film’s director ASA Samy, on its 100-day run. This was the first of the gala film world parties that later made ALS a byword for elegant and urbane hospitality. Back in Madras, ALS started a film distribution concern on his own and bought the ‘negative rights’ of Mohanasundaram (1951), a film based on a popular detective novel and starring singing star, TR Mahalingam. This method of exercising control over the distribution of a film paid dividends. ALS took this route to bankroll films made by other producers, as for example, those of the great actor-director BR Panthulu.But in 1952, he was ready to himself produce Panam, a film scripted by his close friend M Karunanidhi, and directed by the comedian NS Krishnan. The film which introduced the historic music director duo, Viswanathan Ramamurthy, was also the first to have Kannadasan write most of the songs. But it flopped, and when NSK died a few years later in 1957, he owed a huge sum to ALS who generously wrote it off. medium103212297In the 40-odd films which he produced or bankrolled, ALS introduced many new talents, as his daughter-in-law Jayanthi Kannappan points out. He had scriptwriter K S Gopalakrishnan direct Sarada (1960), the first of 70 films which the latter went on to helm. The iconic Kannada filmmaker Puttanna Kanagal debuted as director making the Malayalam film Poocha Kanni for ALS in 1966. P Madhavan, the prolific film director, debuted in ALS’s Maniyosai (1963). Kannadasan produced his first film Maalai Itta Mangai (1958), to gain the freedom of writing lyrics without being hamstrung by pre-set tunes, with the blessings of ALS. Director Bhimsingh, whose films with Sivaji Ganesan proved iconic, made his debut with ALS’s Senthamarai in 1953, but the film released only in 1962 as all three of the Travancore sisters who figured in it, Lalitha, Padmini and Ragini, got married, one after the other, while the film was in production!medium103210527Such unforeseen events often hit ALS’s film production. MGR suffered a fractured leg when Thirudaathe (1961) based on Pocketmaar was in production, delaying the film.For the gods-demons battle of Kandan Karunai (1967), ALS’s production team had worked for over a month on the sands of Kovalam beach erecting picturesque sets with the help of hundreds of studio hands, but a midnight storm just a day before shooting brought them all down like ninepins.Production Manager Veeraiah would recall informing ALS about this apocalypse over the phone when he was in Bombay, and being amazed at the way he took it in his stride. It was around this time that ALS surprised actor Cho by presenting him a car for playing the comic role in the film Lakshmi Kalyanam (1968)!ALS’s control of studios with extensive production facilities through leases (first Bharani Studios, then Majestic, renamed Sarada Studios), gave him a lot of elbow room; even his last production Cinema Paithiyum (1975), a remake of Guddi, benefited by this studio connection.In the mid-1970s, ALS was caught in the crossfire of Tamil Nadu politics because of his closeness to chief minister Karunanidhi, who was charged with having shown favouritism towards ALS. According to Kannadasan, this broke the heart of ALS who was already battling the ravages of diabetes. Hearing the news of his passing on July 30, 1977, actor Sanjeev Kumar would burst out: “What will I do in Madras without my king!”The writer is a Tamil film historian and author of several books of the subject