A date with Tamil tinseltown

AVM, the oldest and largest film production studio in Kollywood located down the road was but just a local landmark to me until the French TV team decided to go visit it and I tagged along as interpreter. The studio had been modernised in recent years and hence had apparently lost a lot of its earlier charm.Nevertheless we did come upon a few sets of city streets, with signboards,facades of houses,shops and the likes. These though seemingly dilapidated the first day, came to life completely the next when we got lucky and chanced upon a scene being shot with a much loved actor on the sets. Here, the shops were all decked up with merchandise and people in colourful clothes stood around acting out their respective roles. The scene looked like a busy but cheerful market scenario until our eyes fell upon the bloodied actor on the floor with a motorbike next to him and blood all over his head and our man,the Hero, looking on. The first glance shocks you, but then you realise that it is just another "action" scene that you stand witness to, an integral part of any Tamil movie. When he gets a chance, Jerome,the TV host pops the question to our much-loved actor. Why this? How can you, being a role model to millions of your countrymen, permit the show of violence in your movies? Pat comes the answer that To show light you need to show darkness first. To show peace you need to show violence first. To show the Good you need to show the Evil first. Only then will our simple,innocent, common man understand. Oh, really?
The second time I got to the premises of this studio was when I was graciously called upon to oversee a tamil to french dubbing session. This time I got a peek, well more than a peek, into the dubbing rooms. And the privilege of taking the place of the director, even for just half an hour, to correct and re-dub (if that exists) some scenes.
To say it all, what really impresses me about this place is that, you could be sitting right next to a well known and much-loved artist, and apart from that faint tinge of familiarity that occurs to you, you would never even guess until some good soul enlightens you. I suppose that part of the age-old charm remains, and the studio continues to reign tall.