I was awakened at midnight by Tamil Nadu police who informed me that the then TN Chief Minister M G Ramachandran would meet me early morning at his Ramavaram Thottam residence.
Trouble was afoot between the TN government and Doordarshan Kendra, Chennai, in 1980 over the coverage of the Golden Jubilee celebrations of South Indian cinema inaugurated by President Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy.
The DD Director S K Kapur was on leave; as deputy director I was looking after programming. After the function was telecast, the CM publicly expressed his ire without citing any specifics; so DD was forced to avoid TN government functions. Camera teams were mercilessly thrown out. Desperate efforts to sort it out through official channels failed and senior TN officials could not help arrange a meeting with MGR. The power supply to DD Kendra became erratic! The problem could have snowballed into a major crisis.
I was at my wits’ end.
I had to take my son to KJ Hospital. While junior doctors attended to my child, Dr Jagadeesan probed my condition. My joy knew no bounds when he said he would try to arrange a meeting shortly. The midnight knock at my doors was the result. In the early hours, a police car took me to MGR’s residence. There was a large crowd waiting including senior officials. I was nervous. The Fifth World Tamil Conference was coming up in Madurai and we needed time to arrange for elaborate coverage.
After a while, MGR walked in and I apologised for my inability to converse in Tamil. He patted my back, talked in Malayalam and made me feel at home. He then divulged the reason for his wrath: When DD covered Golden Jubilee function, it showed the lighting of lamp by the president, but ... “Why were Ammu’s shots not shown?” he asked. J Jayalalithaa, the great artiste, had handed over the kuthuvilakku to the president and that must have been included.
He wanted us to make amends. I was not sure we had filmed those shots! Meekly promising to do my best I requested him to stop the boycott of Doordarshan. He summoned R M Veerappan, the information minister, and instructed full support to DD. He asked me to wait for breakfast. He was at his hospitable best and gave me his contact details.
My colleagues Sampath Kumar and Gopalie, ace producers, suggested an ingenious solution. The function’s footage fortunately was not trashed. So we redid the programme including the ‘omitted’ footage and telecast it. It worked magic. A TN official conveyed MGR’s appreciation to us. Till my transfer from Madras, MGR showed his fondness for me even in a crowd.
K Kunhikrishnan
Email: kkunhikrishnan@gmail.com