The royal masked by the reel

Whenever Mandya makes headlines, often for the wrong reasons, such as protests, Sanjay Circle on the Mysuru-Bengaluru Highway finds a prominent mention in the mass media. This circle is in close proximity to Sanjay Talkies, situated at the intersection of Rajendra Prasad Road and the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway.

Sanjay Talkies, established by H C Channaiah in 1941, gained recognition for screening movies featuring Rajkumar and his sons Shivarajkumar, Raghavendra Rajkumar, and Puneeth Rajkumar, along with occasional showings of English films. Channaiah, an entrepreneur from Halahalli on the outskirts of Mandya during the pre-Independence era, also established cinemas with the same name, ‘Sanjay,’ in Bengaluru and Maddur. While the movie-viewing landscape has evolved in Bengaluru, with single-screen cinemas giving way to multiplexes, his family continues to own the theatres in Mandya and Maddur.

In the 1980s, watching Rajkumar on the big screen was a major attraction, and people went to great lengths to catch the shows. My father and our neighbour, H C Ningiah, would sometimes purchase tickets in the ‘black’ market for blockbuster movies at triple or quadruple the regular price. As a young boy, I would stand in long queues to buy tickets for both our families. Once, we managed to secure only two ‘black’ tickets for the Kannada movie, Eradu Rekegalu. As a result, Ningiah uncle’s nephew and I watched the film while our families returned home disappointed.

Sanjay Talkies, originally known as ‘Cinema Theatre’ and later as Mandya Talkies, was renamed Sanjay Talkies in 1968 and remains an iconic landmark of Mandya. So much so that the circle near it, originally named after Jayachamarajendra Wadiyar, is now known only as Sanjay Circle.

When I asked my friend Sanjay, who is Channaiah’s grandson, about the circle’s name, an embarrassed Sanjay said, “I will soon have a plaque or a signboard installed at a strategic point within the circle, at my own expense, to ensure people know its correct and rightful name.”

A similar confusion surrounded VV Road, a prominent commercial street in Mandya. Some believed VV stood for Sir M Visveswaraya, given his reverence in the region for his role in constructing the Krishnaraja Sagar (KRS) dam. However, I was not convinced, and rightly so. Another friend familiar with the town’s history recently clarified that VV stands for Vani Vilasa, referring to Maharani Kempananjammanni, who was addressed as Vani Vilasa Sannidhana.