KOCHI: In 1962, at the age of 12, G Ravishankar alias Shankar, a native of Kozhikode, went to Madras (now Chennai) to pursue his education. After matriculation in 1966, he joined the famous AVM Productions as a helper in the sound engineering section at an age of 16 and later got promoted to sound engineer. His stint in Chennai enabled him to collect rare negatives and photos of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and matinee idol MG Ramachandran (MGR) taken by the Renganatha Rao, who passed away 16 years ago.
“In Madras, I lived in a portion of a house with Renganatha Rao. We shared a good relationship. In 1966, he gave me the negatives of the pictures he took of MGR at various movie locations,” he said.
Shankar has over 60 negatives with him now, which he plans to hand over to the MGR Memorial which will come up soon in Palakkad. At Palakkad, the work to convert the house of MGR to a memorial is going on.
Shankar says he is in touch with the relatives of MGR. “I informed them my willingness to donate the negatives. They asked me to send some copies. They were interested to take over the negatives, when they saw it. I will hand them over when the memorial opens for the public,” he said. The photos include MGR riding a cycle-rickshaw carrying T R Sundaram, producer of the first sound film in Malayalam. Joining them is another famous producer RM Veerappan. This was shot at the location of Rickshawkaran.
“MGR was not good in riding the cycle-rickshaw. While he tried, it turned turtle. To balance the vehicle, it was decided to carry two passengers on board. But nobody was ready to take that risk. So, the crew decided that RM Veerappan and TR Sundaram would ride in the rickshaw. Renganatha Rao froze the rare moment,” he explains the story behind the picture.