AR Rahman's first film song is not what you think! | #231

+ who owns the KSRTC brand? 🤔

Nov 23, 2024

Friends,

The business of cinema is a strange one. Some mad genius types inspire a team of actors, technicians and artists to produce something magical and in the end hope that the hard work translates into good fortune at the box office.

It is an extremely volatile business with very few hits, but a lots of misses. 2024 has been defined by the latter in most film industries save for Malayalam Cinema. Their annus mirabilis (say this with a Malayali accent) includes Manjummel Boys, Goat Life, Aavesham, Premalu, Kishkinda Kandam, Bramayugam to name a few.

This week we take a look at some interesting stories from the Malayalam Film Industry.

Things we learnt this week 🤓

Kerala and Karnataka, share more than just a border—they also share an acronym: KSRTC, or Karnataka/Kerala State Road Transport Corporation. This led to a bit of confusion over who actually 'owns' the name. In 2013, Karnataka took the matter to court. Kerala hit back in 2015 with a rather unexpected defense:

An old Malayalam film - The 1969 classic Kannur Deluxe featured Prem Nazir playing a CID officer investigating a murder on a bus. The film was shot on an actual KSRTC bus, running from Kannur to Thiruvananthapuram, as the plot revolved around the bus itself. Kerala argued that this was 'proof' that KSRTC existed long before Karnataka was even a state in 1973. Despite this rather cinematic evidence, the tribunal is still yet to reach a decision. In any case, it’s about the journey and not the destination right?
Cinematic proof of existence! Kannur Express film (1969 nice!)
Which was the first film song composed by AR Rahman? If you think it is a song from Roja - you are wrong. The boy genius is said to have composed the song Vellithen Kinnam from the 1975 Malayalam film Pennpada. The music director of the film RK Shekhar had composed 3 songs for the film and took a short break. During the break, his six year old son, the artist formerly known as Dileep Kumar, sat down at the harmonium and played some music bits. Everyone in the room was surprised by his talent, and they decided to use his composition as the movie’s soundtrack.

Malayalam Cinema is known to tackle unusual subjects. How about adapting the life of the Formula One driver Niki Lauda? Film director Rajiv Anchal and Mohanlal were supposed to make a film titled Australia. Based on a script by P. Balachandran, it was the story of a car racer who meets with an accident and suffers serious burns on one side of his face. Filming began at Sriperumbudur with a Formula One car race sequence featuring Mohanlal that was shot with six cameras. Then Mohanlal opted out of the film as he was advised not to do the film as his on-screen disfigurement would jinx his career. But why let some wonderful footage go to waste? Rajiv Anchal made another film with Mohanlal called Butterflies and he used the footage of Mohanlal racing around in a car in the opening titles with the song titled Minnaminni Koodum Thedi. Best example of a recycling!