MOGHA MULL SAGA continues....

Hi,welcome back to my mogha mull days.....After the screen test got over i was pretty confident that i would do this film, INTUITION ,or should i say it was a case of deja vu.I went back to mumbai and was waiting for my call but as luck would have it ......NOTHING happened.Two months later i got a call and i was on the bus to stardom,at least i thought so but i did not realise that the most difficult part of my life had begun........ The picture above with the legendary actor, NEDUMUDI VENU,shows how innocent i was not realising the toil i was to go through in the film industry.. The shooting began in my hometown of KUMBAKONAM,a place which i visited for the first time only when i went for this shoot.It was an awesome place with temples all around and i was in the midst of making history.The role of BABU which i played was a dream role for somebody like KAMAL sir..Kamal sir always wanted to do this role and as luck would have it , I was BABU.My co star in this film was ARCHANA JOGLEKAR,a veteran actor from marathi stage.Being from bombay she had a problem with tamil and as i knew hindi and tamil we did manage to go ahead with this classic piece of work.The music of the film was by the maestro ILLAYARAJA and the songs were a big hit . The rerecording scores were another highlight of the film.I had the divine oppurtunity of meeting sir after the release of the film and he presented me with a bouquet for my "realistic potrayal"as said by sir..... The film went into making for three long years and it was only the sheer willpower of the team that saw the release of MOGHA MULL on 12th may 1995. Thru these years there were so many ups and more of downs in my life.The loss of my father, the agonising wait for the movie to be completed and the longer wait for the release of the film.It was heartbreaking.Finally success came to us in the form of a national award,INDIRA GANDHI LOTUS,Our director got us accolades and i lost the best actor award by a narrow margin to my guru,Nana Patekar, for his potrayal in Krantiveer. I DESERVED TO LOSE TO HIM as iam a crazy fan of his ...Apart from this ,the only other good thing that happened to me was that i did not get any FILM...WHAT AN IRONY .... Will see you soon. .

MOGHA MULL Experience

Whoever sees me has a common question to ask,"how did cinema happen?"It seems like it was destined to happen.I had come to chennai to catch up with the latest movies and also meet my relatives here.I was walking through pondy bazaar when i happened to meet a friend of mine,AKILAN KANNAN.He was talking to me and suddenly he asked me wether i would be interested to act in films.I was taken aback by this sudden happening yet i did muster courage to tell him a big YES.He asked me to go and meet the director immediately.It was too sudden and i was not even wearing the best of clothes, i was thinking wether it was really worth seeing somebody now, as i rushing to catch up with a noon show.Better sense prevailed and i embarked on the journey to meet the director, little did i realise that all would change post this meeting.I reached koturpuram housing board building and walked into a room where i met an IAS officer not realising that he was the director.Mr.Gnana Rajashekar. He seemed to be a very tough task master from the very outset.He asked me if i can sing and i said,"well iam the best singer in college."He said sing and i did,he continued ,"Now let me see how you act?"He gave me a scene and i had to go through the process which is called a SCREEN TEST.Iwas a little nervous but the city of BOMBAY,it was called BOMBAY then,had given me the guts to go through any grind..SALAAM BOMBAY oops SALAAM MUMBAI. The scene was a very intense one and i took on to it as if my whole life was hanging on it.I did a great job at least that is what my producer,JANAKIRAMAN,had to say.I was mighty thrilled that i had come to watch movies in madras,it was MADRAS, then..and now iam going to be in movies.WOW........But like all teleserials that tend to have a twist on friday episode, my life , too had a twist...Kahani mein twist hai...You can read about the MOGHA MULL experience tommorow..Till then cheers and have a great evening..............

The national awards are out..these awards are the most awaited awards in the film industry..I still remember being a part of it when in 1995,"mogha mull", got the INDIRA GANDHI LOTUS..It was avery proud and emotional moment for me. i had lost my father before the release of my first film,'MOGHA MULL', and the day award was announced i broke down.that was the day that i felt my dad's absence.SORRY,got a little nostalgic and emotional as well.The reason i spoke about this experience is because this award becomes something very special to everybody..Amitabh,Mohanlal,Kamal hassan.....the list is endless,all these people CHERISH this award as the most close to their heart.WHY?Well it seems that not only commercial cinema but a film with artistic value generally gets the award.This was true for a long time,Shyam benegal and the others ruled the award secenario but slowly things changed.Mainstream cinema started to get recognised and all the top actors wanted to be a part of this ceremony. When ever there is an award happening,LOBBYING,follows.Does this happen is a million dollar question and the answer to this is better,IF IT IS LEFT UNANSWERED..No guesses on this.This year's award looks very fair to me though...CONGRATS to all those wonderful artistes and technicians......You made us proud yet again.CHEERS..