Tirulokchandar had great respect for stage artistes: Y Gee Mahendra

He was a great friend of my father Sri YGP and a regular for all our dramas. In my early days of my career, he encouraged me a lot. My first movie with him was Deerga Sumangali and this was also my first 100 days movie. A gentle giant is what I would call him.

Three of his most unforgettable movies are Nanum oru penn, Deiva magan and Anbe vaa. He was Sivaji’s favorite director and perhaps the only director to whom MGR surrendered himself completely. I had the opportunity to do his last movie with Sivaji also, Anbulla appa. When I was acting in his movies (almost six with him) I once told him I had seen Deiva magan thrice on a single day at Shanthi theatre while I was a student and he humorously asked me “Are you asking me for the ticket money now ?”. He had a great respect for stage artistes and even if it was a small artiste he would relieve them from shoot by 5 pm if they had a drama that evening, even making the hero to wait. I did a great character role in his Penn janmam and a hero in his TV serial for AVM. AVM Saravanan was his greatest friend and stood by him till the end. One of the pillars of Tamil cinema has fallen.

(Y Gee M is veteran actor and stage artiste)

(As told to B. Vijayalakshmi)