HOW I MET MADAM JAYALALITHAA !

HOW I MET MADAM J JAYALALITHAA :-

Amma is buried in Marina beach, after her formidable battle with death for 73 long days of stay in Apollo hospital. Those days, that were shrouded in mystery, when no one was allowed to call on her. Even first citizen of the state Honorable Governor was not allowed.  None of her Cabinet Colleagues had any access to her and a few blood relatives were shooed away (as they were claiming in some TV Channel).

I was lucky to have seen her close proximity and taken her autograph. It was in 1971, when I was in class nine. We were living in Moyar Camp (PIN 643222) in The Nilgiris District as my father was employed with Tamil Nadu Electricity Board.

 Film shootings were a common feature in our area, as we were in Mudumali wild life sanctuary. Moyar River which was trisecting Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala was flowing freely. Dams were constructed in it in Glenmargan, Singara and Moyar camp to generate Hydro Electricity.  There were many beautiful parks in all these camps were members of Electricity Board lived. Apart from this as the area was a reserved forest area many forest departmental people lived. So film shootings needing a park scene or thick forest cover were always shot there.

People from Moyar Camp, Singara had to travel to Masinagudi where there was a High School in the name of Sri Shanthi Vijaya High School, in electricity department’s school bus. Whenever there was an examination in school we used to offer special prayers to Lord Vinayaka and he used to come in the form of a rogue elephant and block the bus route. After waiting for half an hour or so, the bus driver used to return to camp back stating that it was risky to travel to our delight.  The school had class 9, 10 and 11. In Masinagudi now Mithun Chkraborty has built lot of cottages and doing roaring business attracting tourists.

Those days, one private bus used to come from Ooty (District Head Quarters) every day via Gudalore carrying mail in the evening. After overnight stay in Moyar Camp it used to make its return journey next day morning. Thus we used to get newspapers every alternate days.

We had many chances to see live shootings. Most of Sando Chinnappa Devar’s films were shot in Nilgiris. As it was cheaper to accommodate film stars and the crew in places like Moyar, SIngara , Masinagudi than in Ooty stars used to stay in these camps and enjoyed locals hospitality!

As locals had no visitors or guests calling on them they were very happy to meet and host film crew.

Thus we had met Rajesh Khanna, Sasi Kapoor, Rakhee, Nirupa Roy, MGR, KR Vijaya, Nagesh, Muthu Raman and Jayalalitha. Two Hindi film shootings I vividly remember were Hathi Mera Sathi &Janwar aur Insaan. In Tamil I had seen Nalla Neram (Hathi Mera Sathi Tamil Version) and Thikku Theriyatha Kattil.

Muthuraman and Jayalalithaa acted as hero and heroine respectively for the Tamil Film Thikku Theriyada Kattil. Elaborate shootings were done near our school in a lake. I had obtained autograph from MGR, Ashokan, Nagesh, Muthu Raman and Jayalalitha.

 I have watched members of film crew busy with chatting, smoking, gossiping, playing cards to pass away their time. But there was always an exception in Madam Jayalalithaa. She was always accompanied with an English Novel with a book mark. As soon as the director called for the shot, the book would be closed made to rest on the chair.  Madam would go for the shot and return on hearing “cut” and made herself busy again with the book!!