Vasan also asked� K. Ramnoth to shoot some sequences with Sundarambal made up as Avvaiyar.� However Vasan did not feel happy over the footage shot by Ramnoth and he decided to scrap it. All the footage shot by Murugadasa and Ramnoth ended on the proverbial cutting room floor.
�
Now Vasan brought in Kothamangalam Subbu to work on the project as director� under the supervision of the boss. Shooting began on the morning of the auspicious day of ‘ Vinayaka Chathurdhi’ in 1948. There was no hype, no fanfare, no glossily printed invitations, no garlanding. No sweets and snacks were served. No launching party either. Vasan was in no such mood for celebration, pomp and circumstance.
�
Sundarambal lit the traditional lamp to mark the occasion of the launch of the movie. In Gemini Studios movies, names appearing in the credit titles did not always tell the full story. Whoever was officially credited every technician worked on the project under the supervision of Vasan. Not a single frame of a Gemini Studios movie could leave the studio without the stamp of approval of the ‘boss.’
�
Progress in the shooting of "Avvaiyar" was slow and impact of the footage shot was leagues away from being impressive. There was a huge set built at considerable expense in one of the shooting floors of Gemini Studios. Sundarambal made up as an old Avvaiyar with silvery hair, stick in hand and all had to walk singing. She took four long minutes to cover the distance and the shot came up to 360 feet in length! (In the ‘sound film’ the picture runs at the rate of 90 feet per minute.). The shot seemed to run 'from here to eternity’, (as the famed writer Rudyard Kipling put it in one of his poems!), and was most certainly boring. Quickly the footage was abandoned and it ended on the cutting room floor.
�
Thus it all began. Sets were built day and night, and again day. Songs were recorded and again recorded over and over again, each song taking well over one week before Vasan gave his green signal. Often a day's work of nearly twelve hours’� shooting produced hardly fifty feet of usable footage. According to the ideal working standards of the Golden Age of the Hollywood Studio Years and a day's work of eight hours should produce a minimum of two minutes of usable edited length, that is 180 feet of 35 mm of the final movie. So much of work for so little, but that was the way movies were made at Gemini Studios in that leisurely era!
�
Those were the happy days when there was no union of workers at Gemini Studios and Vasan too such good care of his team, crew and staff that nobody ever thought of anything other than work. However the changing conditions in the country and also the world of labor were such that a union of workers in the studio came into existence in 1953. At first Vasan was most unhappy about the union but the turn in the tide� and time in� the affairs of the country and men were so strong that he had no option than come to the conclusion that a workers’ union was a solid fact and stark reality.
�
Indeed when the Cine Technicians Association of South India, popularly known as ‘CTA’ was promoted in 1940 by� K. Ramnoth and his friends, Vasan thought that it was a backdoor attempt to introduce unions among film -land workers and he opposed its formation.
�
(This writer knew K Ramnoth quite well during his brief and 'briefless, beardless' innings as an apprentice- at- law and junior in the chambers of his guru-in-law, V. C. Gopalratnam.. During a meeting in his chambers Ramnoth told him� in confidence that the founding of CTA was one of the reasons for the differences that later arose between him and Vasan which led to the famous filmmaker leaving Gemini Studios along with A. K. Sekhar on August 15, 1947.)
Source:
http://www.galatta.com/community/blog.php?user=randorguy&p=8
�
Now Vasan brought in Kothamangalam Subbu to work on the project as director� under the supervision of the boss. Shooting began on the morning of the auspicious day of ‘ Vinayaka Chathurdhi’ in 1948. There was no hype, no fanfare, no glossily printed invitations, no garlanding. No sweets and snacks were served. No launching party either. Vasan was in no such mood for celebration, pomp and circumstance.
�
Sundarambal lit the traditional lamp to mark the occasion of the launch of the movie. In Gemini Studios movies, names appearing in the credit titles did not always tell the full story. Whoever was officially credited every technician worked on the project under the supervision of Vasan. Not a single frame of a Gemini Studios movie could leave the studio without the stamp of approval of the ‘boss.’
�
Progress in the shooting of "Avvaiyar" was slow and impact of the footage shot was leagues away from being impressive. There was a huge set built at considerable expense in one of the shooting floors of Gemini Studios. Sundarambal made up as an old Avvaiyar with silvery hair, stick in hand and all had to walk singing. She took four long minutes to cover the distance and the shot came up to 360 feet in length! (In the ‘sound film’ the picture runs at the rate of 90 feet per minute.). The shot seemed to run 'from here to eternity’, (as the famed writer Rudyard Kipling put it in one of his poems!), and was most certainly boring. Quickly the footage was abandoned and it ended on the cutting room floor.
�
Thus it all began. Sets were built day and night, and again day. Songs were recorded and again recorded over and over again, each song taking well over one week before Vasan gave his green signal. Often a day's work of nearly twelve hours’� shooting produced hardly fifty feet of usable footage. According to the ideal working standards of the Golden Age of the Hollywood Studio Years and a day's work of eight hours should produce a minimum of two minutes of usable edited length, that is 180 feet of 35 mm of the final movie. So much of work for so little, but that was the way movies were made at Gemini Studios in that leisurely era!
�
Those were the happy days when there was no union of workers at Gemini Studios and Vasan too such good care of his team, crew and staff that nobody ever thought of anything other than work. However the changing conditions in the country and also the world of labor were such that a union of workers in the studio came into existence in 1953. At first Vasan was most unhappy about the union but the turn in the tide� and time in� the affairs of the country and men were so strong that he had no option than come to the conclusion that a workers’ union was a solid fact and stark reality.
�
Indeed when the Cine Technicians Association of South India, popularly known as ‘CTA’ was promoted in 1940 by� K. Ramnoth and his friends, Vasan thought that it was a backdoor attempt to introduce unions among film -land workers and he opposed its formation.
�
(This writer knew K Ramnoth quite well during his brief and 'briefless, beardless' innings as an apprentice- at- law and junior in the chambers of his guru-in-law, V. C. Gopalratnam.. During a meeting in his chambers Ramnoth told him� in confidence that the founding of CTA was one of the reasons for the differences that later arose between him and Vasan which led to the famous filmmaker leaving Gemini Studios along with A. K. Sekhar on August 15, 1947.)
Source:
http://www.galatta.com/community/blog.php?user=randorguy&p=8
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