DAKSHIN KA EK AJEEB SA PRODUCER JO APNI KAMAAYI KA AADA HISSA APNE BHAGWAN KE NAAM RAKTA THA.... BY ALI PETER JOHN

In the 70s, a strange man from the south, dressed only in a lungi from his waist downward and his broad chest smeared with all kinds of coloured powder and beads came down from Madras (it was still known as Chennai) - Ali Peter John

He was living at the Shalimar hotel in south Bombay and was busy sending out his men to meet stars, music directors, writers and technicians from Bombay, telling them that he and his banner Devar Films were respected name in the Tamil film industry, especially known for the films they made with animals as bigger stars than the stars they worked with.

Most of the people they approached found to be crazy and were not interested even in meeting him,, but he had the money power which finally did all the talking for him.

He was not only a very clever and even cunning man, but also a very great believer in his God who was Lord Muruga in who he had all the faith and had a huge temple built in his honour in the compound of his house in Madras where he prayed for hours every morning and the most important line of his prayer always was, 'My Lord and my God, the film I am making is as good as your film. If it succeeds at the Box office, you take 50% and I take 50%' and the line worked for several years as most of his films were huge hits.

It may be said here that he had a huge 'home' for all the animals he had his 'Devar Farm' where personally trained by him, were well maintained by highly qualified staff which was supervised by him who claimed to know the language an hehaviour of animal and snakes, the most poisonous of them better than the best or the worst kind of human beings.

Sandow Chinappa Devar (he was called Sandow because he was a wrestler who never lost a match in the ring for which he again gave all the credit to his God.

The most interesting thing about this unusual man was that he did not travel to his office and back home by any vehicle when he had a fleet of cars, but rode on a tiger, a lion, a leopard or any elephant. There were many of his rivals and his admirers who tried to understand or analyze the phenomenon called Devar, but no one could.

His main purpose of coming to Bombay which he was told was a place full of cheats and scoundrels was to try and see if he could make a Hindi film with one of the leading heroes.

together with four of his elephants. He had to wait in Bombay for days till he realized that he just would have to get Rajesh Khanna who was ruling the waves those days to sign his film and he knew that according to the crazy rules of Bombay, once he had hero, everything would fall in place.

Rajesh was game, but he wanted Sandow to have the new and rising writers, Salim-Javed as his consultants and Sandow agreed and paid both Rajesh and the writers whatever price they demanded.

The money was paid to Rajesh Khanna got the changes made in the script as he realized that the 'Ramu', the elephant who is killed by the villain (K N Singh) wins the more sympathy and even has an entire song sung by Mohammed Rafi for him looks like tuff competitor for him and suitable changes were made to satisfy the new superstar who was also responsible in putting other things like getting Laxmikant-Pyarelal and Anand Bakshi to look after the music as they were his very good friends.

It was a very important film for Rajesh Khanna who still to establish himself as a superstar, but for Tanuja who clearly said that she was doing the film only because of the elephants and the money that she was getting in one shot and who also said that it was so much fun for such a lot of money, except for the irritation of bearing the company of Rajesh Khanna, who had the bad habit of digging his nose which she couldn't stand.

The film, 'Hathi Mere Sathi' was a super duper hit and established Rajesh Khanna as a superstar and Salim- Javed as the emperors of writers and made Laxmikant-Pyarelal the highest paid composers of Hindi films. And Devar went back home and the first thing he did was to offer the 50% share he had promised to Lord Muruga.

Devar was encouraged to make other Hindi films with a combination of stars from Bombay and his own star-animal, films like 'Janwar' but he couldn't work the same kind of magic like 'Hathi Mere Sathi'.

He then made 'Gai Aur Gouri' which had Jaya Bhaduri and Shatrughan Sinha and a cow in the lead role. The cow in the Devar film had to be star, but the audience slowly seemed to have seen through Devaer's game and the film was a big disappointment.

Devar then made a smaller film called ''Shubh Din' which was an unusual love story between a cobra and a young girl, with the cobra even planting a kiss on a girl's lips. The audience couldn't make head or tail of the film and the Man of God cursed the audience and for reasons best known to his Lord Muruga, he died soon afterwards, which was a very big shock for his animals who according to many cried for several days and did not even eat or drink water for days.

Devar Films however, had to continue. His son, C Dhanda Vuthapani, who was highly educated young man, took on the responsibility of running the Devar Films. He did not follow any of his father's principle and value.

He decided to make a typical multi-starrer Hindi film made in the Bombay-way. He signed Rakesh Kumar who was known as an Amitabh Bachchan specialist as a director and showed how ambitious he was when he gave him a bungalow in Juhu as the signing amount to direct the film.

Those days Amitabh Bachchan use to carry a signed letter from Shashi Kapoor in which he agreed to work in any film Amitabh suggested or recommended hi name for without asking any questions and so it was Amitabh and Shashi in Devar Film's 'Do Aur Do Panch' with Parveen Babi and Hema Malini or Zeenat Aman in lead role.

It was the first time that Devar Films had no animals, not even a horse or pet dog in the film which bombed very badly and Devar Film was out of the race for good.

I can never forget my first meeting with Mr Sandow Chinappa Devar. I was still a newcomer in 'Screen' and live always made the 'bali ka Bakra' when it came to interviewing difficult and tricky personalities and I continued to be grateful to God for letting me overcome all the challenges thrown in my way by my bosses because I somehow not only came up the best interviews, but also made friends with these difficult people for life.

I remember the flask Devar had presented me as a gift which I never used all my life, but kept looking at most of my life, wondering why such a big man could have thought of presenting with a flask, and what a poor young boy who couldn't afford to prepare his own tea or even buy a few cups of tea could do with that funny looking flask with all kinds of animals painted on it.

And more than the flask I remember the man behind that long name who could speak very fluent English who at the end of our meeting told me I was a boy who would go 'very far'. I often wonder how far I have reached.