My 3rd Film as Assistant Director ''Interview'' (Malayalam) in 1973

My 3^rd film as Asst.Director was Evershine Productions,’  ‘’Interview’’  in 1973

 Star Cast : Prem Nazir, Jayabharathi, Bahadoor, Adoor Bhasi Lyrics-Vayalar Music-Dhakshina moorthy Director-Sasikumar

Production Executive Mr.Nambiar picked me from my home and we went to meet Mr. S .L. Puram Sadanandans the script writer of ‘’Interview’’.  His house was in K.K.Nagar, Chennai. Nambiar introduced me to S. L. Puram. After a formal talk he handed over the script of ‘’Interview’’ to me. From there we went to Evershine office in Ashok Nagar. He appointed Sukumaran from production unit as my production boy to serve me coffee and lunch. I started copying script.  I completed  copying of the script, scheduling the break down, preparing  property list, one line script and List of the dresses for the entire film in three days. I handed over one copy of the script to Sasi sir. He asked my opinion about the script. I told him it’s full of family drama and a ladies oriented film and I liked the story very much. He instructed me to keep a copy of the script with me and go through it every night and come with suggestions for the shooting. Then onwards, Sasi kumar Sir lent his ears to my suggestions and improvised the stories of the films.  Baby chettan (LISSA BABY Super hit director) is the Associate director of the film , Producer Tirupathy chettiyar’s second son, Lakshmanan was the In-charge of Production and he fixed my salary as RS.1500.  We finished the film within 25 days. Most of the scenes were shot in Shyamala Studios. For most part of the film we had to work at night shifts in Shyamala Studios due to the shortage of Nassir sir’s call sheets. Even now it’s scary to think how we were working in the olden  days in night hours. We had to bear with the bites of giant mosquitoes. Hats off to great Nassir sir, who bear the bites of mosquitoes and worked with us with patience .  ‘Interview’ is emotional family drama. Adoor Bhasi, the comedy actor made a negative role with comedy in this film.

During that period at the time of censoring we had to submit the censor script.The script was written in the night hours only viz.,12midnight  to morning 6.Iused to run every reel  in the movieola and mark shots with footage in the script.I was very busy in that period. After the shooting time in the day shift I will work for editing till night 12 and after 12 till morning I was working writing script. I worked like this for 8 years. It was a nice experience working with Baby chettan. He was very loveable and always he taught me a lot of things like how to behave with Leading Artistes and how to teach acting to actors and actresses. The film was released and it was a super hit in the box-office .

My 2nd film as an A.D ‘Thaniniram’ in 1973

My 2^nd film as an Assistant director ‘Thaniniram’ in 1973

Sasi Kumar sir Introduced me  to Mr.Ragunath. He is also one of the associate directors to sir. And  director asked me to work with him as an assistant director for ‘’Thani niram’’ produced by Azeem and Co.                                                                                                                                                                    Azeem and co. were supplying the set properties to film production companies in Madras. (CINE DECAR) Proprietor was Mr.AZAM  BAI. He produced a number of films in Tamil and Malayalam. His office and godown were next to liberty theatre in Kodambakkom. I went to the office with Raghu Annan met the produce r Azam bai and production Executive and Cameraman Durai  Rajendran. He offered me a salary of RS.500 every month. & gave me an advance of R.S.500. I told Sasi Sir about the salary they offered me. He told me don’t ask any thing to any producer, whatever the amount be, take it happily. I started the work on the script: copying and breaking down. Raghu Annan instructed Rajendran to pick me up from home and drop me after the work every day. So the first day they dropped me to my home, From that day onwards I got vehicles from the companies. Next day morning by 8 O’clock the car came, the driver Mani , an  old man and Aazam bai’s personal driver,  picked me and went to pick Raghu Annan at kacherry road , Mylapure. Raghu Annan was staying in a lodge. He Introduced me to Mr. Krishnan Nair a Veteran Tamil  & Malayalam director. He advised me a lot of things about cinema. From Raghu Annan I learned professionalism. Raghu Annan was staying in Trivandrum. Only for the shooting he came to Madras. That’s how I got more scope to work independently.

Sasi Sir was very busy with shooting for other films. One day he asked me to meet Vayalar Rama varma (lyricist) and explain the situation of the song. I went to Old woodland hotel in Royapettai. I met him and explained the situation of the song & the song was needed very urgently. So I waited for him .He offered me a tea and after taking his bath he started to write a song , (VIGRAHA BANJAGARE). He requested me to copy it. I made a copy: he checked it and told me that my handwriting was very good. From there I went to AVM C theatre to meet Devarajan master, the music director. He was busy with some back round score. But R.K. Sekhar helped me to meet him and describe the song situation.

Oneday Azam bai suggested that since I was working with the topmost director of the film industry, I should  have more dressing sense. That day evening I met Costumer Kumar. He took me to Kailas silks, Pondy bazaar and purchased some cloth and he himself stitched some dresses for me. That was an eye opener- Since that day I took special care in selecting my oufits. We finished the film ‘Thani niram’ - An action oriented political drama in the locations of Sivaji Gardens, Nannu’s farm house and Prakash studios. Prem Nazir, Vijayashree, Bhasi, and Bahadhur were the main cast.

When we finished 60% of the film, the actor Bahadhur and producer Azambai  had some misunderstanding. Without Bahadur it was impossible to complete the film. But the producer was not ready for any compromise. Finally Sasi Sir decided and completed the balance portion with Pattam Sadan. In the film in scenes Nazir, Adoor bhasi and Bahadhur  go inside the house & they are come out. But  in the scenes happening  in the interior of the house Nazir, Adoor bhasi and Sadan only acted. Like this the film got completed. After seeing the film everybody was upset especially the distributor Geo kuttappan.  Only Sasi Sir was confident. He didn’t want the producer to Invest again extra 50%. Our Director always supported the producers. Sasi Sir said, “The film is story - telling and the audience will always be involved in the story; nobody will bother about the actors.”  When the film got released Sasi Sir’s judgment proved to be correct. The film was a box office hit.