Seniors during my First year (1968-69)

I should not leave out other non- Malayalee senior students whom I came in to contact during my first year. There was Vikas Desai with his impressive stature and the ever active Student’s Union President Gurucharan Singh, both from 1969 Direction batch. Guru as he is fondly called had been a regular fixture at the Institute as he had earlier done his Editing Course in 1965 and then joined Direction course. So being Super senior he knew all the in and out of the Institute and took control over the students, staff and faculty with ease.He was the Students Union President as well. From the 1970 Direction batch, I remember lively Ashoke Aggrwal, soft spoken Vishnu Mathur, brooding Madan Gopal Bawaria and a quiet Amar Kumar Bhattacharya.

From the Motion Picture Photography (1969) U.M.N. Sheriff, S.R. Krishnamurthy, Naresh Bedi, Barun.K. Mukherji, Bala Mahendran, A K Bir, Sona Ram Talwar, Mohd. Sidiq Aminzai, J.P.Gautam, F.R. Khan and Daulatram.R. Kulmi were there. I remember Naresh Bedi showing Shri.Kulkarni, the photographs of cobras that he had taken during the Nag Panchami festival. Some of the photos were later published in the National Geographic magazine. He used specialise in wild life photography andhis home in Delhi was a mini zoo itself!

I used to meet U.M.N. Sheriff whenever he dropped down to Thiruvananthapuram for the International film Festival of Kerala. Many years back I had occasion to interact with S.R. Krishnamurthy in Mumbai while I was doing a Hindi Film “PATITA” and he did some sequences which were re-shot by the Producer Promod Chakraborty in conflict with its Director I.V.Sasi.

Bala Mahendran was from Ceylon ( Sri Lanka) mostly moving around with foreign student community and not the type of person who will mix with people. In contrast was Lai Teck Kwong from Singapore ( 1970 – MPP ) who was always laughing and friendly with all the fellow students. From the same batch, Vinod Gandhi, Kamal Kumar Nayak, Jaya Krishna Patra and Biman Chandra Sinha were all friendly and helpful. Arun Kumar Nigam was noticeable by his pushy and jovial nature.

S.Ramachandra deserves special mention, as he was the room mate of Azad and like Azad he used to call me “Thampy" (younger brother) and was a friendly, affectionate mentor to me. We still keep in touch with each other.

Meeting of FTII graduates from Kerala

Myself, K.R.Mohanan, Kabeer Rawther & Muralidharan

IFFK 2007

During December 2007 while the International Film Festival of Kerala was taking place at Thiruvananthapuram my senior, C. Muralidharan ( Sound engineer (1970 Batch ) who is based in Mumbai sounded the idea of organizing a get together of FTII graduates during the Festival period. Kabeer Rawther and K.R.Mohanan ( Kerala Chalachitra Academy - Chairman) were also supported the idea. It so happens that many FTII graduates from many other states attend the Film Festival in large numbers. But there are no means of knowing either their presence nor there are enough opportunities to meet them. We were wondering whether to organize a get together in connection with the IFFK.

Recently, on the initiative from Leenus L.K. ( 1993 - Film Direction ) , Rasi ( Art Direction - 1999) and Fr. Benny Benedict (1994 Editing ) a meeting of FTII graduates from Kerala was convened on 27 th May at Thiruvananthapuram. About 25 FTII graduates attended ranging from the earliest to the recent ones, which included John Sankaramangalam, Adoor Gopalakrishnan( 1965), Kabeer Rawther, K.G.George, K.R. Mohananan, V.R. Gopinath, Sunny Joseph, Ajith Kumar, etc.

Since the First Video festival of Kerala was also happening at Thiruvananthapuram during our get together, we had the honour of having Ms Chandita Mukherjee and Mr.Ramani as our guests.

Mr.John Sankaramangalam dwelt at length regarding the First GAFTII association which was formed many years back at Pune. Ms.Chandita explained the details about the formation a new entity called Graftii Foundation at Mumbai.

Finally it was decided to form a core committee for establishing an Alumni association in Kerala and proceed with the required formalities.

I think it is a timely and welcome beginning of friendship and fellowship among the GraFtiians of Kerala!

Ramachandra Babu, Leenus, Fr.Benny & Rasi

(R to L ) Chandita with Sunny & Leenus

John Sankaramangalam, Sunny & K.G.George

Ramani, Jain Joseph, Leenus & Sunny

John Sankaramangalam addressing

the gathering

Myself, Leenus, Rasi, Sunny & Fr.Benny

V.R.Gopinath, K.G.George, Adoor & John

(R to L) Kabeer Rawther, Myself & John

Farewell to Seniors from Kerala

At the time the Institute was teeming with lot of Malayalis –John Abraham, Devassy (Direction – 1969) P.Bhaskaran Unny, G. Sadasiva Panickkar and A. Kabeer Rawther (Direction – 1970) K.G.George (Direction – 1971) M.Azad ( Screenplay writing – 1970) C. Murlidharan (Sound recording – 1970) and C. Ravindranath Menon ( Ravi Menon) ( Acting – 1970)

Though I, George and Ravi Menon were in the first year we had good rapport with our seniors from Kerala. Azad and Kabeer Rawther were always willing to act as our Godfathers and filled us with their worldly wisdom. One most unassuming person whom I met at the Institute was Raman Nair, who at that time was working at the Film processing laboratories. He was a very mild and soft spoken person who was always ready to help you with his worldy wisdom. He was such a low profile person, I was surprised to learn much later that he was the younger brother of Film Archives P.K.Nair and had passed out from the Institute in the Editing 1966 Batch! Years later while we both settled in Thiruvananthapuram we had opportunity to work together and meet occassionaly. Unfortunately he is no more as he had died a few years back unsung and to me it is still a mystery as to why he worked in the film processing after doing the Editing course?

The most notable person at that time was none other than John Abraham. Many of my encounters with John always ended with my parting with some money for his daily need of “Tarra” the local brew. Most of the time he will be high and with his long hair and beard and unwashed clothes he was a real Hippie! Out of fear, I always avoided crossing his path. But I had to face him on the day when we juniors gave our seniors a farewell party.

Azad and John Abraham

To beard the lion in his den, I thought that I should also have a few drinks at the party so that I will be on par with John! But I was just a novice when it comes to consuming hard liquor. Earlier, I had never taken more than a peg and that too just to feel the taste of it. In the party I gulped two or three pegs of rum and joined the fun. But I soon passed out resulting in a hangover and severe head ache next morning!

Myself and Kabir Raother - 40 years later in 2008

The above photo was taken recently at the get together of FTII Graduates in Thiruvananthapuram. ( Note the change in the spelling of Kabir's name)

More Lifetime Achievement Awards

Balu Mahendra receiving the Life Time Achivement award from
Producer R.B. Chowdhary

On 1, May 2008, the South Indian Cinematographers Association (SICA) in a colourful function at Chennai presented Life Time Achievement Awards to eminent personalities of the South Indian Film Industry. Amongst those who received the Awards were two of the Alumni from the Film Institute, Pune. They were Balu Mahendra and Myself!

Ramachandra Babu receiving the Life Time Achivement award from
Producer R.B. Chowdhary

Jayadev Award for Surendra Sahu

I am happy to know that Surendra Kumar Sahu, my classmate had been Awarded the JAYADEV AWARD by the Govt. of Orissa for his LIFE TIME CONTRIBUTION to the growth of Oriya Cinema on 28 Feb. 2008. My congratulations for the ever smiling and hard working Sahu, who had done a lot for the cause of Oriya Cinema. Jaiswal gave me the news and also his phone number and I was able to call him up and convey my happiness and best wishes. Often Sahu used to come to Chennai for the processing of his films and many a times, we used to meet in the corridors of the Laboratory. When Prasad opened their Colour Laboratories at Bhuvaneshwar his visits to Chennai ended. I missed meeting him as I too don’t go Chennai often as Prasad had established a Lab in Thiruvananthapuram too.

Another good friend of mine, who was my senior, S.Ramachandra (1970 – M.P.P. Batch) had also been conferred with a Life Time Achievement Award by the Karnataka Government for his contribution to Kannada Cinema in 2006. Around that time I happened to be at Bangalore in connection with the International Film Festival and I was able to meet and personally congratulate him for this honour.

My Batchmates and Other Friends

First let me start with the local guys - the always jovial Debu Deodhar ( I always saw him with a permanent laughter on his face) and the quiet R.S Agarwal. They were from Poona and being day scholars we missed their company after study hours. There were two foreign students, Prem Upadhyay from Nepal and Naapo Gbande from Ghana. Prem was almost like an Indian spoke Hindi very well and mixed with all students. Behind the serious looking face of Naapo there was a friendly heart. Below is a photo with him and David Ankora, also from Ghana (Sound – 1971 Batch.)

David Ankora, myself and Naapo Gbande

Surendra Sahu from Orissa, was another fun person to be with and a great friend. Whenever he used to come to Madras, if I am in town we used to meet and exchange letters often. Then there are those Punjabi Trio Anil Dhanda, S.K.Jolly and Harish Gupta, who were boisterous with their Punjabi humour and down to earth nature. Once Anil Dhanda went to Nanded Gurudwara as part of a Documentary Student crew and had brought for me a Stainless steel Kada. Ever since then, I had been wearing that in my right hand and had not removed it even for a single day! I should not leave out dear Venugopal Thakkar though hailing from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, he was more of a North Indian speaking Hindi very well.

On the whole our batch mates were a very friendly and cohesive group of guys and definitely we had a great time of togetherness at the Institute which remains still green in my memories.

Of course there are others in various departments about whom I'll write later on as and when the time comes.