Potpourri of titbits about cinema - Producer A. L. Srinivasan

Endearingly addressed as ‘ALS’ by film industry people, A. L. Srinivasan was a popular name of his times. He was basically a producer with many hits to his credit. He was born to Saththappan Chettiar – Visalakshi as the couple’s sixth child out of the nine. ‘Kavignar’ Kannadasan was his younger brother. Right from his childhood days, he was fascinated by cinema. He studied up to 8th Std. only and joined a job in Chennai for a monthly payment of Rs. 40 in the year 1941. And, he moved on to Coimbatore to take up the job of a representative of a film distributor. During that time, he got introduced to T. R. Mahalingam and N. S. Krishnan. He founded a film production company, which he named as ‘Coimbatore Pictures’ along with Thirumalaisamy Gownder, Muthumanickam and Duraisamy Gownder. The company was a distribution company of movies. The company bought the rights of the film ‘Velakkaari’, written by ‘Arignar’ Anna. The film was a smash hit and ALS got good money. He started ‘Madras Pictures’, a production company in Chennai in the year 1951. The company’s first production was ‘Panam’. The film was directed by N. S. Krishnan. The story and dialogues were written by ‘Kalaignar’ M. Karunanidhi. The cast included Sivaji Ganesan, Padmini, SSR and VKR. For Sivaji, it was his second film. In the year 1957, ALS produced the film ‘Ambikapathy’ with Sivaji and Bhanumathy in the lead roles. And, he changed his company’s name to ALS Productions. It was ALS who introduced MGR in social films through his movie ‘Thirudaathae’. Till then, MGR was doing roles only in movies with historical themes.

Spotting the latent talent of K. S. Gopalakrishnan for creativity, ALS gave him the responsibility of directing the movie ‘Sharda’. And, P. Mahadevan became a director through the film ‘Maniyosai’, produced by ALS. The Kannada director Puttanna was also brought to Tamil cinema by ALS. In the year 1960, ALS took Bharani Studios on lease and in 1961 he took Majestic Studios also on a long lease and changed its name to Saradha Studios. It was ALS who introduced the practice of controlling ‘Nagative rights’ to Tamil cinema. ‘Negative rights’ means outright purchase and distribution of a film to the various distributors on area basis or straightaway release of the movie at theatres by the buyer himself.

ALS was well versed in the nuances and the various aspects of film-making and other things connected with the film industry. With his vast knowledge and experience, he had helped many in the industry whenever they found themselves helpless trapped by various problems. ALS would solve all their problems with so much ease and skillfulness. In the year 1965, during the Indo-Pak war, ALS took many leading artistes to the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Sastri and donated a large sum. And, he organized cultural programs at the war-front to entertain the soldiers. He organized programs with film artistes at various places and raised a big amount of Rs. 17 lakh and 350 sovereigns of gold and donated them also to the government. And, he raised funds through star-cricket also, which he donated to the government during this period.