Bunt/ Tulu Bunt
This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. |
In Indian cinema
As in 2023
Deepthi Sanjiv, Nov 18, 2023: The Times of India
Camera, action: How a Mangaluru family left its mark on Indian cinema
Three of them worked in the Madras and Bombay film industries from the 1930s to the 1980s. Sham Sundar Shetty was stunt guru to the likes of Dilip Kumar and Rajesh Khanna, and his cousins P Lakkappa Rai and M Vishwanath Rai were cinematographers in over 100 films, including Lava Kusha, Julie and Jaag Utha Insan
Aishwarya Rai and Shilpa Shetty have legions of fans across India. So does director Rohit Shetty with his brand of action flicks. But few viewers outside of the South know that these three, along with dozens of other famous cinema personalities, such as Suniel Shetty, Prakash Raj and Pooja Hegde, belong to the Tulu Bunt community that has its home in Karnataka’s coastal region. And the community’s contribution to Indian cinema can be traced all the way back to the black-and-white era.
Ask Thimmangoor Subbaya Shetty, entrepreneur and former president of the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry, who has been documenting the achievements of three cinema luminaries from the Maganathady family who played an important role behind the scenes in the 1980s.
He says he got interested in the project when Kannada film star Shiva Rajkumar visited the Koragathaniya shrine in Mangaluru and saw a photograph of actor and stunt director Sham Sundar (Subbaya) Shetty in the Maganathady house. “When Shiva Rajkumar exclaimed Sham Sundar had been his master, we told him he had been our yajamana (head of the family responsible for religious ceremonies and rituals).”
Stunt Master To Stars
Born in 1913, the tall and handsome ‘Stunt Master’ Sham Sundar Shetty left for Mumbai – then Bombay – in 1935 for a career in the film industry. He learnt swordsmanship and bodybuilding there before moving on to Chennai – then Madras – in the 1940s. Madras was the hub of the South Indian film industry those days and Sham Sundar joined Gemini Studios as a sound recordist and actor, and honed his action skills.
Thimmangoor Shetty says SS Vasan, founder of the storied Gemini Studios, recognised Sham Sundar’s talent, and together they toured Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Germany and other countries. MG Ramachandran, a rising star at the time, was highly impressed with Sham Sundar’s work and roped him in as his stunt director.
Gemini films like Chandralekha and Insaniyat, in which Sham Sundar directed stunts, achieved great success at the box office.
Sham Sundar also worked as a stunt director in Bollywood for actors like Dilip Kumar, Rajendra Kumar and Rajesh Khanna, winning a gold medal for his work in Hindi cinema and silver for stunt direction from the government of Tamil Nadu. Altogether, he worked in 423 movies and dramas across Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Tulu. He was instrumental in the formation of the Stunt Masters’ Association in Chennai and Bengaluru.
Camera Maestros
Sham Sundar’s success inspired his cousins P Lakkappa Rai and Vishwanath Rai to become cinematographers. What the Mistry brothers Fali and Jal were to Bollywood, the Rai brothers were to the Madras film industry. Together, they have over 100 films to their credit.
P L Rai was two years younger than Sham Sundar and came to Bombay in 1938. He apprenticed under the renowned cameraman of that era, Govardhan Bhai Patel, at Ajanta Studios. In 1942, he moved to Madras to begin his career as an assistant cameraman at Sundaram Studios, eventually becoming chief cameraman in 1951. His work shines in films like Prithviraj Samyukta, Mangayar Thilakam and Bhagyavathi. In 1962, he achieved immense success with the Telugu colour film Lava Kusha that ran for an unprecedented five years.
His association with Telugu stars like N T Rama Rao and Nageswara Rao got him more opportunities, and he left his imprint on Hindi cinema also with films like Milan, Doli, Julie, Jwar Bhata, and Rakhwala. In 1984, P L Rai received the Filmfare trophy for Best Cinematographer (colour) for the film Jaag Utha Insan.
His younger brother M Vishwanath Rai, born in 1928, wanted to be a commercial pilot until an ear injury suffered at Pahilwan Sankappa Shetty’s godhe (wrestling school) in Mangaluru nudged him towards Neptune Studios’ (later Sathya Studios) camera department in 1953.
Starting in the mid-1960s, Vishwanath Rai’s 30-year collaboration with director A C Thirulogchander (ACT) delivered more than 25 movies in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. Most of these Tamil films starred Sivaji Ganesan. His brilliant cinematography in the Tamil films Avanthan Manithan and Dr Siva earned him the Best Cinematography award from South Indian Film Fans’ Association. In 2016, on Ganesan’s 88th birth anniversary, Rai was bestowed with the prestigious Dr Sivaji Ganesan Memorial Award.
Vishwanath also ran the camera in the first-ever Sivaji Ganesan-Rajinikanth starrer, Naan Vazhavaippen. Among his films, Badra Kali was perhaps the most challenging as Rani Chandra, the leading lady, had died in an airplane crash before the film was finished. Nearly 50% of the film, including two songs and the climax, had to be shot with duplicates.
