Those Kannada days...

The late Tamilnadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa began her film career as a child artiste in Kannada. MURALIDHARA KHAJANE talks to some old timers about their association with the actor

December 08, 2016 02:35 pm | Updated 09:05 pm IST

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T amilnadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa started her film career as a child artist in Kannada cinema. It was through celluloid, that Jayalalithaa catapulted to politics and eventually became an icon in the political history of the country.

When Aroor Pattabhi was shooting for his ambitious film Sreeshaila Mahatme in 1961, a noted actor of that time, Sandhya, took her daughter to that studio, where she was shooting for some other film. While this cute girl was watching the shooting curiously, a problem cropped up: the child actor playing goddess Parvathi in a school drama scene in the film did not turn up. Not knowing what to do at that juncture, the producer Neerlahalli Thalikerappa and Pattabhi asked Sandhya whether the girl could be asked to act in the dance sequence. Sandhya agreed and the girl was quickly dressed as Parvathi and the scene was shot. At that moment, noone knew that this girl would create history of sorts both in Indian cinema and politics. That girl was none other than J. Jayalalithaa.

“Though Jayalalithaa carved a niche for herself in Tamil films and politics, she started her career in films through Kannada. She shared the screen with the stars of that time including Dr. Rajkumar, Udayakumar, Balakrishna, Narasimaharaju and Kalyan Kumar,” says film historian N.S. Sridhara Murthy.

Jayalalithaa has acted in as many as six films in Kannada from 1961 to 1965. As mentioned before, she made her debut as the child artist in Sri Shaila Mahatme , starring Dr. Rajkumar and Balakrishna. J. Jayalalithaa danced in this film as the child artist in a song and there was no looking back after that.

She had acted in over three Kannada films in 1964 including Chinnada Gombe, her debut film in Kannada as lead actor. The film was produced and directed by B.R. Panthulu. M.V. Rajamma, Sandhya (mother of Jayalalithaa) and Kalpana were in the lead roles. The film was later remade in Tamil as Muradan Muthu,Gopi in Hindi and Palletoori Chinnodu in Telugu.

Jayalalithaa also acted in Mavana Magalu starring Kalyan Kumar and Aswath which was directed by S.K. Ananthachari and Mane Aliya starring Kalyan Kumar and Narsimsharaju.

She acted with all the top stars of those times  Jayalalithaa was phenomenally beautiful and a committed actor

She acted with all the top stars of those times Jayalalithaa was phenomenally beautiful and a committed actor

She had acted in two films in 1965 including Nanna Kartavya and Badakuva Dar i directed by Vedantam Raghavaiah. She had shared screen with Kalyan Kumar and R. Nagendra Rao.

Veteran photographer, Bhavani Lakshminarayana of Chikkaballapur who is a living witness to the growth of the Kannada film industry from its nascent stage has vivid memories of shooting pictures of Jayalalithaa during her initial days in Kannada cinema. “When I took her pictures during the shooting of Mavana Magalu , I did not have any idea that she would become a phenomenon in Indian films and politics,” said the 83-year old photographer.

Bhavani Lakshminarayana took her pictures for two of her films. “I took her pictures both in indoor and outdoor locations. It was during the shoot of Mavana Magalu in Nandi Hills along with Kalyan Kumar, then a famous star in South Indian film industry. She was humble and co-operated till I got suitable light.”

In fact, Sandhya was close to Bhavani Lakshminarayana more than her beautiful and talented daughter. “She used to write to me from Madras to promote her daughter in Kannada films. Sandhya would ask me to take her pictures during my visits to Madras. In those days I was visiting Madras very frequently to take pictures of Kannada stars.”

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Every letter carried an ‘English’ signature of Jayalalithaa. She would understand Kannada but was not fluent. She used to converse with me mostly in Tamil, using Kannada words occasionally,” said Bhavani Lakshminarayana, who also helped in getting Jayalalithaa’s pictures published in most of the Kannada cinema magazines, besides family magazines that were being published back then.

Despite his failing memory Bhavani Lakshminarayana has a ‘photographic memory’ of his interaction with Jayalalithaa during his visits to Madras. “Jayalalithaa was hospitable and treated me like the way she treated me when I first took her photographs. She used to appreciate the quality of my pictures, which were ‘quarter’ size at that time. I used to take a minimum of 10 pictures during each visit to Madras,” he recalled.

In fact, Bhavani Lakhshminarayana tried to meet Jayalalithaa, once she become the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, but failed. “Whenever I visited her house, she would be on a tour,” he regretted.

Ask him about his impression about her persona and he says: “She was always reserved, intelligent. She used to read a lot I think, because, she used to carry English books to shoots. Being a Bharatanatyam dancer, she had a photogenic face. Never would she pose for pictures without make-up. She was conscious about her beauty.”

He still treasures two letters written to him by both Sandhya and Jayalalithaa as a memento of his association with the two greatest actors of yesteryears.

“Besides being an actor, Jayalalithaa sung songs for over 14 films. After becoming an icon in politics, she refused to forget the film world from where she came. In a rare gesture, she appointed P.B. Sreenivos as the the Secretary, Department of Tamil and Culture,” says N.S. Sridhara Murthy.

Recalling his association with Jayalalithaa, noted film maker and chairperson Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy S.V. Rajendra Singh Babu recalled Jayalalithaa’s residence in Saraswatipuram, Jaya Nivas. “I have not met Jayalalitha during her student days. When she was shooting for a film directed by Prakash Rao, I used to take her from Metroplole Hotel to the shooting spot, as directed by my father Shankar Singh. During the journey, Jayalalithaa used to share many things about the south Indian film industry with me,” he remembers.

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