S. S. Vasan - Movies

Movies

In 1936, Vasan's Tamil novel Sathi Leelavathi was made into a movie. Two years later, he became a film distributor when he obtained the distribution rights for films made by the Madras United Artists' Association. When a fire broke out in 1940 in the premises of the Motion Picture Producers Combine, a prominent film studio owned by the film pioneer K Subrahmanyam, damaging it completely, Vasan purchased the studio, rebuilt and renamed it as the Gemini Studios. It is purported that the name was chosen because Vasan was an extremely successful punter, involved in horse racing at that time and owned a successful race horse named Gemini Star. That very year, the Gemini Studios produced their first movie, Madanakamarajan, which was a box-office success. Vasan followed it with Mangamma Sapatham and Miss Malini both of which were successful. Miss Malini, based on the story Mr. Sampath by R. K. Narayan, launched the career of Gemini Ganesan, who later became a leading actor in the Tamil film industry. The Hindi version of this film was Mr Sampath in Hindi and, these films are the only adaptation of his novels that the famous writer R. K. Narayan was involved in the scripting of the screenplay. Mangamma Sabatham launched Vasundhara Devi, the mother of actor-politician Vyjayanthimala Bali as the lead and created a craze making her a huge star in just one film. The picture was directed by Acharya, one of the early brilliants of Tamil cinema. Other successes during the period leading to independence included comedy capers like Kannama En Kadhali, Daasi Aparanji - a period social satire and Apoorva Sagotharargal, an adaptation of the story of the Corsican Brothers - a tale of co-joined twins separated at birth. It was one of the first films in India and one of the first few in the world that had a double role for the lead M.K.Radha who played both brothers and for which masking technology was used. It also set the trend for innumerable successful films in India that had siblings, especially look-alike ones that were separated at birth and grew up in two different circumstances a la Prince and the Pauper or Man in the Iron Mask only to be switched or join forces to extract revenge. The actor-politician, M. G. Ramachandran picked this film to remake as "Neerum Neruppum" as a tribute and homage to Vasan in 1971 and earlier in 1968 had done his 100th film Oli Vilakku, particular that it be a Gemini production. Another successful film in this period, a devotional Nandanaar was a controversial story of a harijan man overcoming the shackles of the caste oppression to gain admittance into the Chidambaram Nataraja temple with divine sanction, hence becoming a Nayanmar shaivite saint. This starred the famous singer Dandapani Desikar with the film and soundtrack becoming a runaway superhit in Tamil Nadu. Technically, it was the first film in India that used playback singing in a portion where a divine song, a call to the saint in a heavenly voice rings out of the ether - this of course set a trend for playback singers and revolutionized the necessity to use singer-actors for films that had been the norm through the 30's and early 40's.

Vasan's involvement in films eventually led him to direct his first movie, Chandralekha. He was really preparing his big post-independence break. The 1948 Tamil Chennai film industry classic Chandralekha was rereleased in Hindi. The film, a spectacle, is remembered for its drum dance and extensive sword fight sequence. 603 prints of Chandralekha were made and the film was released in the United States as Chandra with English subtitles - the first Indian film to do so! Even now, a print exists in the Library of Congress as representative of classic Indian cinema. Vasan encouraged his dear friend Tarachand Barjatya to found Rajshri Pictures in 1947 and assigned him the distribution of Chandralekha in the North, the first project distributed by Rajshri and one of the biggest successes of its time thus spurring off the growth stories of one of the biggest distributors and producers of Indian cinema today.

Released in 1948, after five years in production,the film became a highly acclaimed film of the period. It had the first drum-dance and the longest sword-fight sequence captured on film. It was the costliest Indian film made until then and was the first major Indian film to be dubbed into English and released internationally. Made for a budget of Rs 3.6 million in 1948, the budget adjusted for inflation (equaling approximately Rs 162 crores today) makes it one of the most expensive films ever made for half a century in India. The Hindi version of the film was one of the first South Indian productions that found all India success and can be hailed as one of the first pan-Indian major blockbuster. Following the success of Chandralekha, Gemini Studios made several films in Hindi that include Insaniyat, Aurat, Paigam, Gharana, Grahasti, Ghoongat, Zindagi, Mr Sampat, Sansar, Lakhon Mein Ek, Raj Tilak, Nishan, Mangala, Bahut Din Huye, Teen Bahuraniyan and Shatranj that all found Box office success. Interestingly Insaniyat was one of the only films to star both Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand and Gemini films first begun the practice of making popular ensemble cast films with multiple leading men. Interestingly, while films have been made by Gemini and Vasan with almost all the top leading heroes of the time including Raj Kumar, Rajendra Kumar, Manoj Kumar, Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand, there was no picture that Gemini made with Raj Kapoor while there were two that had Prithviraj Kapoor making a comeback in strong supporting roles in Teen Bahuraniyan and Zindagi. Aurat had one of Rajesh Khanna's first major on screen roles in Aurat before he got his major break as a leading man. Similarly, Amitabh Bachchan got his opportunity to become introduced as the male lead man opposite Mala Sinha in a Gemini production (produced and directed by S.S. Balan, Vasan's son), Sanjog shortly after Saat Hindustani and just before his success with Zanjeer. Many technicians, writers, directors, producers and artistes across India were introduced into the media world by Gemini and even personally encouraged or mentored by Vasan.

In the 1950s Gemini Pictures came out with films both in Tamil and Hindi in addition to Telugu and other regional languages. Popular Hindi films include Mr. Sampat (1952), Insaniyat (1955), Raj Tilak (1958) and Paigam (1959). In 1958, he established Gemini Colour Laboratories and believed in establishing the Film Trade on professional lines. His vision saw establish one of the very first media conglomerates in the world that were vertically aligned that included the Gemini Picture Circuit - one of the largest film distributors in the country that saw a variety of prestigious Indian and foreign films release under its umbrella across the nation. He noted that success of a film depended on its distribution and found its validation with the success of the GPC. The Gemini Studios was also the location of choice for various film shootings across the country and also boasted of having the first air-condition floors in addition to the largest sound stages in Asia at the time. Meticulously organized, Gemini Studios ran like a factory churning out successful films in multiple languages for 30 years under his dynamic vision. The distribution network was spread across South Asia and even had trade links with Hollywood, London and Russia. Additionally, the ownership and popularity of the magazine Ananda Vikatan under his aegis completed the vertical alignment of the media empire. Major films in Tamil include "Avvaiyyar" (1952) on the life of the poet-saint that was directed and produced by Vasan at lavish cost and that found everlasting success starring K. B. Sundarambal who was persuaded to act in the film (as she had been widowed a few years earlier) for a whopping sum or Rs 1 lakh rupees which was the highest ever fee for an actor at the time. Other extremely successful Tamil films produced and some directed by him include Mangamma Sabatham, Vazhkai Padagu, Nandanaar, Motor Sundaram Pillai, "Oli Vilakku", Chakradhari, Aboorva Sagotharargal, Vanji Kottai Valiban, Irumbu Thirai.

Vasan was the President of the Film Federation of India for two terms, helping found it and was even nominated to the Rajya Sabha (the first film producer to be an MP of the Rajya Sabha). He also helped found the South Indian Film Chamber. He pushed for extensive reforms of the film trade, gave up cash transactions in film financing as early as the 50's and was one of the first pioneers to ask for industry status. He was the given the Padma Bhushan by the Govt. of India in 1969, the year of his death. His son S. S. Balan was mentored by him, and ran the flourishing Gemini Studios and Vasan Publications (Ananda Vikatan) till the concept of movie studios themselves were threatened in the 1970s. Balan had been a successful director promoting independent cinema and having written as well as directed successful movies prior to the 70's. However, an expensive production in 4 languages in the mid 70's that failed to make its mark at the box office dealt a fatal blow to the studios that were then sold in the 80's. The Gemini banner now continues to be owned by the L. V. Prasad family of Prasad Studios. Balan continued as editor and managing director of Ananda Vikatan and launched the first Tamil investigative journal, Junior Vikatan, which became very successful till 2006, and he is now Chairman of the Vikatan Group. At the time in the media and film world world, especially since many had come from the mentorship of either Gemini or Vikatan, everyone used to address Mr Vasan, "Boss" (including his own son) and that is how he was universally referred to - indicating his power and the respect he inspired.

Gemini Pictures declined in the 1970s although it has remained successful as a studio and equipment rental business though no longer held by his family. Ananda Vikatan under Vasan Publications has branched off into being one of the largest media groups in Tamil Nadu and continues to be privately held within family.