By definition, superstars are difficult to work with. They want the story and script changed to fit their persona. They want to fill the crew with their cronies and send home anyone who has rubbed them the wrong way.
Yet they stand by their commitments. They read a script, or get someone to read it out to them, and let the director and script writer know of his decision at the earliest.
A star rise in the 1990s changed the practice in Malayalam cinema. The actor wouldn’t listen to a story line. He would not spare a minute unless he is approached with a full script. That would keep the script writer busy for at least six more months. Another six months would go waste before the star finally lends his ears to the script.
Then the script would go to his coterie of relatives and close friends, who would recommend modifications to the script. The process would take years yet the project would be a non-starter.
The fresher, however, could take heart from the star’s releases in the meantime. Most of the imaginative situations and interesting jokes in his yet-to-be-approved script would have made their way into the movies! People in the industry would already be familiar with the script.
Then the masterstroke comes. The star would pose an innocent question to the script writer: “Why don’t we work on a fresh subject?”
This painful delay is a deliberate tactic to keep the screen writer occupied for a few years. The star does not want a script he rejected to be a hit elsewhere. He had been stung by such experiences. So he devised a plan to kill the work.
No wonder that the star has earned so many adversaries among the newcomers.
Stars of superstars
The cinema industry is ruled by superstitions. Some actors are known to hire dubious tantrics to bring about their rivals’ downfall.
One of the screen heroes is so finicky about his fortunes that he can’t plan anything unless an astrologer approves it. Ironically, the star has acted as a common man obsessed with zodiac predictions.
He would collect the horoscope details of everyone involved in a project, including the director and the producer, before fixing the crew. Not everyone was game to the superstition. A new-gen director-cameraman refused to work with the actor after he understood that the star was trying to analyze his zodiac sign. He gave the advance back.
The same actor once went to Haripad to employ black magic to destroy a competitor. Unfortunately, the tantric happened to be a neighbor of the target’s mother.
Small-time actors are a nervous lot when they are on the sets of a movie featuring the actor. He carefully scans through the extras in make-up to see if there is anyone who does not fit his schemes.
The extra actors could expect a day off if the star decides so. The star has a habit of blaming his flop movies on the extras who acted in them! So anyone who had the misfortune of acting with the star in a flop movie becomes persona non grata in future movies.
Artificial audience
Stars do anything to guarantee a hit and sometimes, to ensure that another stars’ movies bomb at the box office. The job is not difficult given the army of fans surrounding them.
A few years ago, a superstar movie was greeted with unprecedented booing on the first day in a theater in Kochi. The surprised theater manager found that the commotion was not so spontaneous. He immediately called up the producer of the movie.
The producer was not one who took it lying down. He pinpointed the gang who booed at the superstar at regular intervals. Faced with a fist on his face, the gang leader spilled the beans. He was a manager to another actor. He was leading a group of people to create an impression that the superstar movie was a flop.
Such backhand deals relied on the availability of a mass of dedicated people on hire. That explains the increased presence of criminals in cinema circles, personified by Sunil Kumar aka ‘Pulsar’ Suni, who is accused of assaulting an actress in an apparent attempt of blackmailing for an actor.
Veteran make-up man Pattanam Rasheed says that everyone in the industry is responsible for letting in criminal elements. “Malayalam cinema stooped to this low after stars started ruling over the movie, which is essentially a director’s creation. Even an internationally renowned director had to drop his regular make-up man to appease a star,” he said.
“This is a failure of the trade bodies and unions. The criminal (Suni) had been working as a driver in the industry for seven years. Why did no one ask for his union membership or identity card?”
The criminals viewed cinema as a fertile ground to thrive. They have made themselves integral to shooting sets.
A leading director in Malayalam found himself trapped in such a snare in Kochi. The cameras had just started rolling on his movie when a local goon descended on the location. Unable to ward off the menace, the production managers just hired him as a bouncer!
Such criminals merged their shady deals including drug peddling with showbiz. Rave parties became a part of Kochi’s cityscape.
The goons cemented their position in the industry with the emergence of various associations. Actors and technicians formed their associations. Then they split them to form new ones. The office-bearers of rival associations vied with each other to attract as many members to their fold, without bothering to check the credentials of the new entrants. The doors were officially opened for goons.
Some of them even tried to get themselves elected as leaders. Members of an association were surprised when a two-movie director was nominated to the executive council. The office-bearers simply told them that the novice director could be useful to them because of his connections in the gangs of Kochi.
Dangerous co-existence
Pulsar Suni‘Pulsar’ Suni was a regular in cinema circles even before he offered his services to Dileep. He had worked as a driver for another actor for sometime. Once, Suni was assigned to drive the actor’s fiance to Palakkad.
Midway, Suni bumped the car into another car. There was a commotion and Suni dramatically announced that the car belonged to the actor. The curious crowd poked their noses inside to see the celebrity.
The terrified woman called up her fiancee, who told Suni to settle the dispute immediately by paying whatever damage they asked for.
The actor was smart enough to realize that the accident was staged by his driver to make him pay up. He told Suni not to come to work until he asked him to. Then the driver showed his true colors. He visited his former employer in a set in Kochi with a group of menacing friends. The actor had the good sense to send him off somehow.
The criminal coexistence most often proves a liability for celebrities. Actors who rely on goons’ services would be obliged to bail them out in times of distress. They end up as accomplices in serious cases including assault and murder.
The Paper Babu murder case in Ernakulam South was one such instance. Babu was killed by goons who were linked to the cinema industry. The killers sought refuge at their leader’s den after the murder. The gang leader took them to the house of an actor. The killers fled to Tamil Nadu in the actor’s car.
The actor later died in mysterious circumstances. His affinity to the goon was an open secret. He fell out with the gangster a few months before his death because the criminal had sent overtures to a woman close to him.
(To be continued...)
(Reported by Unni K Warrier, Renji Kuriakose, R Krishna Raj and Joji Simon; Compiled by Tony Jose)
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