Madras? Yes, you read it right, Madras. The city was then called Madras, which was later renamed as Chennai.
I & two of my friends went to Madras to write our exams & a day after the exam we decided to watch a film. After discussion we decided to watch
Thalapati just because it had Rajnikant. None of us knew Tamil but stuck to decision of watching
Thalapati.
It was first day first show & you can imagine the crowd for Rajnikant's film. Somehow we managed to buy the tickets in black & entered the theater.
The crowd went berserk when Rajnikant made an entry, whistles, screams & what not. They did everything to show their love for the man on the screen.
We three were watching only the video part as the audio part was beyond our understanding. Then there was a scene when Mamoothy says something to Rajnikant & with that all hell broke loose. Noise, screams, banging of chairs, etc could be heard & we three had no clue why it was happening. The film was stopped. We realised that the crowd was angry. But didn't know the reason.
I asked a person who was almost fuming the reason behind the scenario. He asked me, "do you know who is that person who shouted at Rajnikant". I said "No".
"He is Mamoothy, actor from Kerala. How can he talk to Rajni like that?", was his reply in form of a question. I didn't had guts to ask him any further question.
We three looked at each other & soon the crowd became quiet after someone came & spoke something in Tamil. The film started again & this time Rajnikant replied to what Mamoothy had said to him. The crowd once again went berserk. Claps, whistles, screams, everything the fans could do to express their happiness they did & also some words in Tamil were shouted. They forgot what happened few minutes ago & all floated with the present happenings on the screen.
We prayed while we watched the film that no such scene should be there, which can propel the crowd to loose control. Thankfully nothing happened till the end. We walked out of the theater with no understanding of the film but the episode that took place almost 18 years ago is still so fresh.
We promised that we will NEVER watch a Tamil film in Tamilnadu. Because the fans worship their favourite stars & can go to any length to promote & support their favourite stars.
May be that is the reason why they don't make multi starrer films in Southern part of India.
Though I have seen few Tamil films after that namely
Khushi, Anjali, Mauna Raagam, Pokiri, Ghajini, etc but all on DVD. Safe bet I would say.
Written Without Prejudice