Behind the scenes Take a selfie with the Sivaji statue. Or marvel at the car that MGR once drove. At AVM’s Heritage Museum, cinema history comes alive
Asnazzy, young Rajinikanth rode a Suzuki RV90 in the 1965 Tamil film Paayum
Puli.
Much later, in 2007, Rajinikanth and Shriya Saran were featured atop a bright red vintage MG TB car in Sivaji.
Both vehicles find pride of place in the recentlyopened AVM Heritage Museum, in Vadapalani. The AVM studios — one of the oldest surviving studios in the country — now has a new addition: a heritage museum.
This museum is the brainchild of AVM Saravanan’s son, MS Guhan, well known for his collection of cars and bikes some of which have been used in films, and are now on display here. Also on display are equipment and machinery used in the cinema production business in the past, providing audiences with a rare insight into how films were made.
Aruna Guhan, partner and creative director, AVM
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Productions, says, “Cinema has grown since the time of my great grandfather (AV Meiyappan). It is important to celebrate the processes of those times, which have brought cinema to where it is today.”
There are many fun items on display: the statue that features in Rajinikanth’s Sivaji, as also the palanquin that he used in Yejaman. One of the highlights of the museum is a 1945 Buick car used in multiple hit Tamil films.
Aruna and her team are currently in the process of hen costume designer Stephy Zaviour told friends that she was set to direct a film she was warned that there would be frustration and a lot of tears. “There were no tears, if there was a problem I would just deal with it. What is the point of tears?” says the awardwinning costume designer who makes her directorial debut with Madhura Manohara Moham.
Starring Bindu Panicker, Rajisha Vijayan, Saiju Kurup,
Sharafuddeen, and Vijayaraghavan among others, Madhura Manohara Moham is a ‘family, comedy drama’. “It is peopled by characters that we may or may not know. I am not claiming that this is a ‘different’ film, but there are parts in it that might resonate with some of us.” It is the story of a mother, Bindu Panicker, and her three children essayed by Sharafuddeen, Rajisha Vijayan and Arsha Chandini Baiju.
WGetting to the movies
What Stephy does not say is that it would take more to make her cry.
Stephy chose fashion design with an eye on the film industry, determined to make a career as a costume designer. She made her debut designing costumes for
Lukka Chuppi and Lord Livingston 7000 Kandi in 2015. Guppy landed her first State Award in 2018.
Getting to where she is right now, making the journey, literally and metaphorically, from Wayanad to establishing herself in the Malayalam film industry without connections, designing for films such as Aadujeevitham, Angamaly Diaries, Ishq, Joseph, Guppy, and adding more information, such as sourcing the film stills and Tamil descriptions. “We should pick lessons from the past, and see if that will help us with learnings for the future,” she adds, pointing to a plaque celebrating the shooting spot of Sivaji Ganesan’s debut film, Parasakthi (1952).
This heritage museum hopes to add to its collection every three months, with memorabilia from its rich repository of filmrelated material. Costumes worn by stars in popular films top the list; Aruna already runs a series titled Costume Closet on her social media for film trivia buffs. Think the jacket worn by MGR in the ‘Puthiya Vaanam’ song in Anbe
Vaa (1966). Or the bulletproof vest worn by Vijayakanth in Sethupathi IPS (1994).
All that will hopefully be part of the museum in the future. “We also hope to have pieces from movie sets, like a staircase used in a particular film or a sequence with explainer cards telling how the prop was used and where.”
All this, adds Aruna, is a work in progress. “There’s history all over this studio. Everything here is treasured and part of our cinematic journey.”
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Jana Gana Mana no cakewalk.
She was ‘advised’ to ‘stick’ to doing what she knew best and ‘warned’ that the move would jeopardise her costume designer career. “The privilege extended to a cinematographer or an editor when they turn director is denied to an art director, a makeup artist or a costume designer. We may all be in the spectrum of ‘creative’, but some of us are not enough. I have learnt from experience that it is very difficult to prove that you can be creative as a director,” she says.
She was also cautioned that she could lose work as a costume designer. “I had no such fears, in fact, I had to turn down a couple of films because Madhura was in postproduction. That said, I don’t take this chance (to direct a film) lightly.” The eight years spent in the industry have been a period of learning, some lessons in what to do and others in how not to be.
Ezra (2017) a supernatural horror film directed by Jayakrishnan, for which she was costume designer, is the film that got her curious about
The privilege extended to a cinematographer or an editor when they turn director is denied to an art director, a make-up artist or a costume designer
STEPHY ZAVIOUR