AVM’s Saravanan passes away at 85

Chennai: M Saravanan, who took over the iconic AVM Productions after his father A V Meiyappan’s death and produced several blockbusters starring superstars of the South Indian film industry, passed away here on Thursday due to age-related illness.

Saravanan, 86, breathed his last at 5.30 am and his body was kept for public viewing at the 3rd floor of the AVM Studios, one of the first film studios in the then Madras Presidency, in Chennai’s Vadapalani area. He is survived by his son M S Guhan and daughter Usha.

The eldest son of Meiyappan, who is considered one of the pillars of Tamil cinema having produced several movies, Saravanan took the production house to new heights by focussing on family-based scripts.

It was under AVM’s banner Kannada film thespian Dr Rajkumar made his debut in the 1954-film Bedara Kannappa, which went on to become the first Kannada film to win a National Film Award in the best feature film category. Though AVM primarily concentrated on the Tamil and Telugu film industries, the production house did produce over half-a-dozen Kannada movies.

Saravanan has the unique distinction of having worked with five generations of actors from the legendary M G Ramachandran to Sivaji Ganesan to Kamal Haasan to Rajinikanth in the Tamil film industry to N T Ramarao and Chiranjeevi in Telugu and Dr Rajkumar in Kannada.

Under Saravanan, AVM produced several blockbuster movies such as Sakalakala Vallavan starring Kamal Haasan and Murattu Kaalai featuring Rajinikanth. All nine movies that Rajinikanth acted under AVM banner were blockbusters, including Sivaji The Boss in 2007.

Rajinikanth always addressed the producer as his ‘mudalali’ (owner) in public. So much was their bond that Rajinikanth agreed to work for Sivaji bankrolled by AVM in 2007 by accepting a mere Rs 1,000 as advance. The production house approached Rajinikanth to act in the film to infuse a new lease of life into the business.

“Saravanan had a major role in shaping my film career. He had stood by me during my tough days. His death is a major loss to his well-wishers like me,” Rajinikanth said after paying his last respects to Saravanan.

Saravanan also cultivated a new crop of directors such as S P Muthuraman, who is credited with elevating Rajinikanth as the superstar. The soft-spoken Saravanan continued to produce films till 2014 and is known for his humble behaviour.

Under Saravanan, the AVM group split between him and his brother Balasubramanian, who diversified into real estate. Much of the once thriving studio that hosted the who’s who of the Indian film industry is now home to luxurious apartments.