As far as directions go, getting to Vadapalani is quite easy. Just take the Kodambakkam Bridge and drive straight. There’s a no-entry, someone might warn you, but it’s still simple; you just have to take the left and then the right again to hit the main road. Soon, you’ll enter Vadapalani — Forum Mall and Green Park stand adjacent to one another, as any college-going youngster today will point out.
More than 50 years ago, however, it wasn’t so straightforward. There was no over-bridge then and to go to Kodambakkam — which then comprised hamlets including Vadapalani and Saligramam — would involve waiting for a long time at the railway gate for the train to pass. Those waiting would include the biggest movie stars of the times.
“You could see a lot of fan frenzy then,” recalls ‘Film News’ Anandan, who, then a journalist, would venture into the area that he describes as a ‘forest’, “When the gate was shut, everybody had to wait. Stars were no exception, obviously.” That would please fans immensely, as they’d run across to the cars to catch a glimpse of them. “NSK (N.S. Krishnan) used that time to crack a lot of jokes; I remember him once saying, “Na keetu thane mudinen” (a wordplay of ‘keetu’ and ‘gate’).”
Much before the bridge came up, Kodambakkam was considered back of beyond by many. “It was a village,” says Mohan V. Raman, actor and film historian, and hastily adds, “Actually, not even a village. Saligramam and Virugambakkam were small hamlets. There were no motorable roads after the Vadapalani temple; you had to take a bullock cart through mud tracks to reach some of the studios.”
Some of them — like Bharani Studios that was set up in the 1950s — had paddy fields across the road from them. And these fields helped the cause of studios when they had to film! “A lot of the fields that you see in the movies of those times, are ones that were right opposite the studios,” chuckles Mohan. “The area was so deserted that the men who worked in the studios would venture out together after drawing their pay, in the fear of getting mugged on the way!”
Those were the early days of Kodambakkam’s connection with films. “At that time, the areas around Purasaiwalkam and Kilpauk already housed studios,” says G. Dhananjayan, film producer and author of books on Tamil cinema. “And of course, we cannot forget the contribution of Gemini Studios on Mount Road to cinema.”
Things changed, however, when Vauhini Studios was set up. Also, AVM, a Karaikudi-based studio, came to the city with dreams of making it big on celluloid. The diminishing popularity of Gemini Studios, then a leading name in the industry thanks to the hits churned out by S.S. Vasan, made sure that people connected to the ‘industry’ that had moved beyond the city. “After that, everybody looked towards Kodambakkam and beyond,” adds Dhananjayan. The other big studio that was situated in another part of the city was Sathya Studio, near Adyar, which has seen many memorable film shootings with MGR.
For anybody with dreams of making it big in cinema, Kodambakkam and its periphery soon became the go-to address. Not just for people from Tamil Nadu (that included actors, technicians, wig-makers, make-up artistes), but other parts of South India as well. “It was the place to throng for stars and directors from all four south Indian languages,” says Venkatesh Chakravarthy, regional director, L.V. Prasad Film and TV Academy.
That’s perhaps one reason why you can find a Chennai connection in the leading stars from all south Indian film industries; they had to come to Kodambakkam back then to get work done. Things gradually changed, as better opportunities and technology made them shift to places closer home.
Venkatesh, who will be leading a walk next week on ‘The City and its Cinema’ also remembers a time when scooters entering the studios would have to wait for a shot to finish. “There used to be lights inside to signal people coming to wait and proceed,” he reminisces, “For, shoots would be happening at various places inside the studio premises. That era is over now.”
Though only a few studios of those times survive today, Vadapalani is still considered the hotbed of film post-production. Preview shows of all the latest films still take place at Prasad. But, shoots have moved outdoors mostly. “Film shoots still happen, but it has come down considerably. Shoots for television programmes, however, happen quite regularly,” Venkatesh says.
