It was sheer coincidence. As the grand old man of Malayalam cinema started talking at his home in Kochi, his name was being announced as a ‘legend’ in Chennai, where the centenary of Indian cinema was being celebrated by the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce (SIFCC). But, at 97, Tripunithura Esoda Vasudevan was more humble and polite, quite unusual of a producer with 50 films to his credit.
In his characteristic style of being simple and immaculate, as the dhoti and collarless shirt of khadi, he chose to keep away from the ‘vices’ associated with the industry. And he has a reason for that. “When you don’t have anything else while entering a business, your character is your capital,” he says in fluent English.
When Vasudevan began his career, there was no Kerala state, no film spoken in Malayalam, and the few cinema halls were dependent on Tamil, Hindi, and English films. Born in Tripunithura, in the erstwhile princely state of Kochi, he became an exhibitor at the age of 21.
His first film as a producer was Amma (1950), the 18th talkie in Malayalam, made on a budget of a million rupees, when Rs 10 could buy you one gram of gold. But after seven films, Vasudevan understood the economics of film production and switched to low-budget ones and went on to make 40 films. He hit the jackpot when he could restrict the budget to less than Rs 2 lakh. A massive hit, Kuttikkuppayam, was made on a shoestring budget of Rs 99,000.
“My experience is that even low-budget films can pay well,” says Vasudevan. “Even now I am getting a fairly good amount as monthly income from them. At least a dozen films have been taken by private television channels. The money keeps on increasing when the contract gets renewed. My film, Snehaseema will have its telecast on the Lok Sabha channel this week.”
However, the nonagenarian is not leading a retired life, though his last film came out in 1987. He is active in research on the industry and the business of his old films. He compiled a history of the Malayalam film industry from 1928 to 2000, which was released as a CD by the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy.
“I called it a day when I learned that there was no value and respect for a producer,” he says. Incidentally his last film was titled, Kalam Maari, Katha Maari (Times changed, now a different story). Incidentally, five films have won National Awards. But he did not go to Delhi even once to receive the awards.
When Kerala Government instituted JC Daniel Award, the state’s top honour in films, Vasudevan was its first recipient in 1992.
The SIFCC had been recommending Vasudevan’s name for Dada Saheb Phalke Award for more than a decade, in vain. They stopped recommending only at his insistence.
“I am sumptuously fed by God even at this age,” says Vasudevan, the epitome of contentment while stepping out of the office room full of awards bestowed upon him.