Story: Nikhil Raghavan / Original manuscript of published version in Commercial Vehicle magazine
This is the era of the Global Indian. Numerous Multi National Corporations across the world are being headed by Indians. Non Resident and Resident Indian businessmen are buying up companies around the world and creating mega entities out of them. In the automotive sector, while Indian companies (read: Tatas) are gunning for brands like Jaguar and land Rover, global luxury brands like Lexus, Hummer and Cadillac are targeting the ever-increasingly rich Indian.
Have you noticed how India is suddenly a focal point in so many different spheres – retail, automotive, mobile telephony, fashion labels, watches, et al? It is the ‘I’ factor – ‘I’ as in Indian. Remember, in automobile circles, the latest model to hit the Indian roads is the i10 from Hyundai. Now, along comes another ‘I’ factor – from Ashok Leyland Ltd. (ALL), nonetheless!
To be unveiled at this year’s Auto Expo (even as you read this) is the ‘iBus’ – a concept people transport vehicle touted as Tomorrow’s City Shuttle. It all began a year ago when the Young Executives Forum (YEF), a two-year-old activity of ALL, was given a brief by the top management – Be as radical as you want, as wild as you can let your imagination run, as free as the spirit in you – but, come up with a unique concept in vehicular transport, that works.
A group of 25 under-thirty fives drawn from across all departments of ALL put their heads together and came up with Project Concept Bus. Under a structured hierarchy of 10 mentors (senior executives), 15 experts and top management personnel, the 25 go-getters met regularly for a couple of months and bounced around ideas – some wacky, some outrageous, some unthinkable, some radical. Eventually, they formed four core groups to put some direction to their thinking processes and ideas – Opportunity Assessment (for market research and feedback), Design & Integration (for concepts), Testing & Validation (to try out the concepts) and Production Engineering (liaising with suppliers).
CV met with three representatives of the YEF, as it would have been difficult to get all the 25 under one roof at one time, to learn more about the iBus, the Concept Bus which the Forum came up with.
The ‘I’dea:
What does the ‘i’ denote? Says Bharath Rajagopalan, Deputy Manager, Mission Summit, ALL and member of the Opportunity Assessment and Design & Integration core team, “The letter stands for Indian, Intelligent and Innovation, the three important criteria we set for developing the iBus.” Venkat Subramanian, Deputy Manager, Marketing, ALL and member of the Opportunity Assessment core team explains further, “When we thought Indian, the factors included that the bus should be ideally suited to all Indian road and user conditions. Therefore the features should be user friendly and robust without compromising on comfort. The first thing we decided was that it should be a semi low floor so that the chassis doesn’t become too costly.” Pitched in Vivek Upadhyay, Senior Engineer, Advanced Engineering, ALL and Design & Integration core team member, “The design, features and facilities had to be innovative to make the iBus different and user friendly. We decided to incorporate Passenger Information System (PIS). Telematics with the use of a GPS tracking system, LCD screens and driver information systems were introduced. The Intelligent factor came in with extensive use of electronics for both the innovation as well as in the running of the bus itself.” The PIS displays dynamic route information based on the GPS location data. You get to know Estimated Time of Departure and Arrival, vehicle speed, weather conditions, etc.
The frequent brainstorming sessions of the team had one common goal – the design should impact the life of an emerging Indian. Says Bharath, “We wanted to design a city bus ideally meant for mass transportation needs. We sent out e-mails to almost 500 to 600 people to do a survey and found that the average requirement of most bus commuters was how to avoid sweating while traveling, beat traffic congestion and avoid delays. We also found that most commuters wanted to spend the long travel time constructively. So, when we thought of the iBus, we had to address all these factors.”
The ‘I’ design:
To start with, the iBus is built on semi low floor 635 mm chassis. For the first time a 152 KW, fuel-efficient common rail ‘eCORE’ engine, which is BS3 compliant, is installed as the power train. Along with power steering, a fatigue-free driver friendly unique feature being introduced for the first time is a no-clutch operation. Called an Automated Manual Transmission (AMT), the system is ideal for frequent start/stop intra city transportation. It combines the luxury of a fully automatic transmission with an ‘Indian’ cost. While the gear changes automatically, the driver has the option to shift to a required gear with the use of a joystick. Consequently, there are only brake and accelerator pedals on the floor.
An ‘intelligent’ electronic architecture is the heart of the iBus. The Central Body Control Unit interacts with all the on-board Electronic Control Units and provides diagnostic information to the driver. Additional features of the iBus include ABS, disc brakes, infrared camera and ultrasonic sensors mounted at the rear, which provides visual and audible alerts.
The front-end structure of the iBus is designed to be pedestrian-safe. The body structure is indigenously designed to absorb energy during impact. It is designed to meet European roll over safety standards (Indian Bus Body Code - AIS-031). The seating capacity is for 42 passengers.
For the passenger, the iBus has compartmentalized interiors. For the first time, you can choose between traveling Executive or Economy class in the same bus. There will be Internet on the move, airconditioning, reading lights and audio speakers.
“While conceiving the overall design of the iBus, we kept in mind four basic needs of the passenger – safety, comfort, economics and ecology. With this design, the first two aspects were taken care of for the passenger. For the vehicle operator, the economics would be better in comparison to normal buses because of the fuel-efficient engine, smoother drive and ergonomic design. The operator also has a revenue model in the LCD display which can be used for commercial displays,” says Vivek Upadhayay.
An ‘I’ to the future:
Now that the iBus has been exposed to the public gaze at the Auto Expo, it is left to the powers that be at Ashok Leyland to take it up for production for the larger benefit of the Indian passenger and his needs. The success of the concept and design is the result of a team effort and the encouragement given by a forward thinking management at Ashok Leyland, to the vast talent pool available within their young work force.
END
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Two-wheel drive wonder
Story: Nikhil Raghavan
In the book ‘The True History of Rokon Motorcycles’ author Bob Gallagher writes: “The history of the Trail-Breaker two-wheel-drive motorcycle can be traced back to around 1958 when Charles Fehn of Thousand Oaks, California began work on his invention, a "Motorcycle for slow cross-country travel over obstructions and in mountainous regions, and over snow and soft ground". Long-winded, yes, but it was the birth of the Trail-Breaker. Charlie Fehn applied for his first patent for this beast on April 13, 1959. His second application, abandoned like the first, came on August 31, 1962. It wasn't until his third patent attempt, now titled ‘Motorcycle having two driven wheels’, filed August 20, 1963, that Charlie would finally get his patent. By the date of the third filing, the bike was in full-fledged production and it would be August 23, 1966 before the patent would be granted.”
Yamaha's 2 Wheel Drive Bike
Much later Yamaha displayed a prototype, the Deinonychus at 'The Art of Engineering' at the 39th Tokyo Motor Show. It leveraged in-wheel motors and offered a completely new type of two-wheel-drive Electric Vehicle. The bike included 'Stretch & Shrink' functions in the vertical and horizontal directions allowing the rider to adjust the riding position and also the silhouette of the chassis to fit the rider's body size, riding environment, road surface conditions and personal preference.
After Yamaha with this 2-wheel drive WRF450 motorcycle, Austrian motorcycle manufacturer KTM got ready with their version of an all-wheel drive motorcycle.
Many major companies specializing in producing off-road motorcycles have experimented with various designs and methods of transferring power to the front wheel, the most common being the hydraulic drive. Some have tried using cable drive, but all these are still in the development stage and not in regular production. This is mainly due to the many flaws inherent.
Hydraulic drive is convenient due to the hoses being flexible, but the problem is with weight, fluid leaks and losses due to low efficiency of pump and motor. Cable drive was also good theoretically, but the losses due to friction, especially because of the more acute angles while turning, made it phenomenally inefficient.
The technology
Unlike a car, where it is easy and efficient to fit a mechanical drive from the side of the wheel hub, a motorcycle is essentially two-dimensional and requires complicated mechanical transmission to drive the front wheel, necessitating overly complex and awkwardly styled front suspension members and frame elements.
For two-wheeled vehicles such as motorcycles and bicycles, the term 2x2 is used to describe vehicles which can power the front as well as the back wheel. The term 2x2 is also used, to denote two total wheels with both being driven. 2x2 vehicles are typically either mechanically driven via chain or shaft or are hydraulic driven. This scheme greatly improves offroad performance, but is quite complicated and requires more power to operate, thus most 2WD machines are either "exotic" bikes for enthusiasts or created with special uses in mind.
Manufacturers who have one in production include Rokon. Manufacturers who are working or have worked on a prototype include ZID, Suzuki, Yamaha and Honda. Drysdale Motorcycle Co. is developing a chain drive 2WD that will be a 'bolt-on' conversion. It is inspired by the original 70 year old FN design but will be more sophisticated. It uses 2 chains and a custom "banana gearbox" to drive the front wheel; conventional front forks are retained. It is currently being developed on a Honda 750 Africa Twin and will then be fitted to KTM 620 single. The design is suited to all chain drive bikes with narrow motors - so singles and V twins.
On home turf
While all this was going on in the world of mobikes, a student quartet from Madras-based Hindustan College of Engineering (HCE), undertook an unusual project for their final year – a two-wheel drive motorcycle!
BIKE India caught up with the foursome at a nearby rough terrain where they were putting their machine through the paces, amply demonstrating the prowess of the bike.
Four years ago when the fresh batch of students from various parts of the country converged on HCE, four like-minded guys became friends. Rachit Aggarwal from Delhi, Arpit Tandon from Muradabad, UP, Pawan J B Rana from Nepal and Lakshman Sreedhar from Chennai dreamed of becoming outstanding automobile engineers when they graduate from HCE.
Today, four years hence, the foursome has passed out of the college and is realizing their dream, partly. Pawan wants to go to Germany and become an automobile mechanic. Arpit wants to start working immediately, while Rachit was desperately trying to get into Cranfield University, UK to do his masters in automobile engineering. Sadly, he did not get selected and instead is going to City University, London.
Project two-wheel drive
When the foursome started working on the two wheel drive bike, they found themselves up against numerous hurdles. Not much data was available on mechanical transmissions for such bikes. The ones already done used hydraulics. But, they were determined to make it mechanical to cut down on costs.
“We designed and developed a unique system to transmit power to the front wheel even during extreme wheel travel and turning, using a combination of shaft and chain drive. This ensures minimal losses, the ability to select single wheel drive or two wheel drive as per conditions and adequate turning radius and continuous drive irrespective of wheel position,” says Rachit.
Some serious homework resulted in a decision to use Jeep transmission parts. Fortunately, some Jeep_Thrills enthusiasts came to their rescue and introduced them to the ‘Jeep spares’ market from where they were able to pick up the transmission case and mechanicals.
Then came the designing part. The toughest was not of applying the drive to the front wheel, but how to make it work while at the same time steering it. “As our base bike we used a Kawasaki Bajaj 100 RTZ. On this we modified the nut securing the driving sprocket in order to fix a selector mechanism obtained from a Jeep’s transfer case,” says Arpit.
“We chose Jeep parts due to the unavailability of any other transfer case for our selector mechanism. The process used here is a dog clutch that pulls and pushes the selector on a splined shaft. This selector engages or disengages the connection between the two shafts,” explains Pawan.
This is then used to drive a propeller shaft with two integrated ‘Birfield type’ CV joints. The gear on the end of this shaft gives power to another mounted on a bearing and along the turning axis of the steering mechanism of the bike. “We used a Maruti half axle shaft as it was the lightest available and the most suited to our application as it had the necessary CV joints,” says Rachit. This was selected because it has two Constant Velocity joints in-built thereby reducing the problem of fixing two CV joints on two separate shafts and aligning them to transfer power smoothly.
After numerous attempts of different sorts and a lot of brainstorming, the foursome decided to fix the transfer case shaft onto the gear output shaft by first cutting the shaft to shorten it, then welding the securing nut of the driving sprocket onto the shaft. After this, the Maruti 800 half axle shaft was mounted longitudinally along the axis of the bike.
“On one end we had a differential sun gear welded on, which meshes with the planet gear. On the other end the shaft had to be extended in order to reach the full length. We did this by welding another shaft to the end of the half axle. On the end of this shaft another planet gear was welded.
In order to accommodate the mechanism without disturbing the steering mechanism we mounted another sun gear onto the axis of the steering mechanism. This is basically an idler gear mounted on the steering axis on a bearing to let the steering handle turn smoothly without being disturbed by the power transmission. We did this by mounting a bearing onto the frame on the underside of the triple clamp mounting and fixing the gear onto this. We could now take the drive from the other side without disturbing the steering. This was secured using a single bolt in the centre which had to be fabricated to suit our purpose,” says Arpit. This is one of the most important aspects of their designs as it allows the drive to be transferred to the other side, essentially the driving sprocket for the front wheel, without interfering with the steering mechanism.
“In order to provide the final drive without disturbing a lot of the existing mechanism, we decided to use a chain drive. To obtain power for this, we had to weld a driving sprocket onto a planet gear. This was secured onto a bracket and takes drive from the sun gear mounted between the triple clamps. This sprocket drives the chain which then drives the front wheel sprocket which has been bolted onto the wheel hub,” explains Pawan. But, they had a problem getting the chain to drive the sprocket, as it would slacken under situations like turning and shock absorber action. “We could not rectify this in time so we decided to cease the suspension action,” says Rachit. (The reader must remember that the quartet was undertaking this job as part of their final year assignment and therefore, had limited time and money.)
“Finally we have been able to successfully drive the front wheel of the Kawasaki Bajaj KB 100 with hundred percent mechanical linkages. The steering works properly while running the front wheel. Our idea of having a two wheel drive motorcycle for the pure purpose of off-roading has been successfully transformed into a practically working model with some scope for improvement,” choruses the foursome.
The design they worked on incorporating chain and shaft drive gave them a system that is selective and can therefore be efficient. If refined properly the entire assembly won’t have to be heavy or rough at all. The system devised also ensures minimal losses in terms of friction. “Given a chance, a lot of improvement can be made to make it lighter and ready for road and off-road use. It’ll surely make life easier for people living in extreme weather conditions,” says Rachit.
How it benefits
Here is an example of how two wheel drive utilizes traction better than single wheel drive. Each of the two tyres on a vehicle has traction (the friction between rubber and ground). Let’s assume that each tyre on dry surface has a traction value of 100; hence, a total of 200. In a single wheel drive, only the traction of one tyre is used (100) to create a forward movement. The torque of the engine is using the resistance (traction) of two tyres to get you moving. Let’s say a torque value of 60 is needed to move the vehicle. The traction value 100 is used up by 60 torque units. A margin of safety of 40 units remains.
Let’s say due to slippery ground the traction value drops to 50 per tyre. That gives you only 50 usable units on the one tyre. But with 60 torque units your traction account is overdrawn by 10. This results in spinning tyres and you cant get the vehicle moving.
In a two wheel drive system the engines power is not sent to one tyre; the power is sent to both the tyres. Therefore on a dry surface with 200 traction value and 60 torque withdrawal, a safety margin of 140 units remains. On slippery ground with a traction of 100 and torque of 60, a safety margin of 40 remains. The tyre do not spin and forward movement is guaranteed. As you see, in a two wheel drive, the traction account is twice as high as in a single wheel drive.
The foursome feels that there is great scope in the development of two-wheel drive motorcycles not only for off-roading and motorsports but also for regular commuters. “As was proved by Yamaha using their 2-trac system in a road bike on a race track, it was demonstrated that the bike had better grip and traction under wet conditions and didn’t lose traction. Our design is therefore viable provided the infrastructure for fabrication and production is proper. We have done the best we could, and honestly, owing to limitations of time and finance, this is not the best possible two-wheel drive,” admits the four of them. Nevertheless, a great achievement from four just-passed graduates.
END
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
J K Tyre National Racing Championship 2008
Story: Nikhil Raghavan
New formats, juggled categories, fresh events…all carefully planned to draw in more participants and hopefully, better crowds. Also, one supposes, to gain better visibility for the sponsors – not just for the main event itself, but also for the numerous corporate logos on the cars and racing suits of drivers and riders.
Consequently, events like endurance and superbike races were held over a packed weekend at the Madras Motor Race Track at Irungattukottai, near Chennai as part of the J K Tyre National Racing Championship 2008.
On Saturday, February 9, the opening event – Endurance Race for LGB Formula Hyundai single seater cars was marred by non-seasonal showers which reduced the stipulated 90 minute run to 65 minutes. But, the rains helped in the event becoming a spectacular display of racing skills and speed in wet conditions.
The change of drivers was effected every fifteen minutes. And in full cry were the two young sensations, Ashwin Sunder and Saran Vikram of Rams Racing, as they raced away to a comfortable win by completing 29 laps with a timing of 66:46:09. In 2nd place was the duo of Narain Shankar and Karthik Shankar also from Team Rams Racing who completed 29 laps in a timing of 68:18:391. The brothers, Sudanand Rajan and Prithveen Rajan from Team WSRF with Leela took the third place completing 27 laps in a timing of 67:06:766.
On Sunday, February 10, the trio of Chennai youngsters Ashwin Sundar, Saran Vikram and Dilip Rogger delighted the weekend crowd with their spectacular performances resulting in double wins for all of them in their respective categories. Ashwin and Saran won one each in both Formula Swift and Formula Rolon classes while Dilip Rogger won both the races in the Super Bikes 600cc class.
After a wet and disruptive first day of racing, the weather gods were kind enough to light up the track with the sun blazing down brightly. The scenario at the Madras Motor Racing Track was reminiscent of yesteryear racing days in Sholavaram. The racing enthusiasts turned up in good numbers to witness one of the best ever race days in recent history. From the saloon cars to the Super Bikes to the Formula racing cars, it was a blend of exhilarating speed and excellent driving skills with the cream of Indian racers - national and international - exhibiting their talents.
Formula LGB Swift
Pole leader and last year’s champion Ashwin Sundar of Team TVS Girling Racing continued from where he had left off last year. Race 1 saw Ashwin getting off to a very good start and zooming ahead to register a comfortable lead and held on to the same to register his first win of the season. Finishing a close second was teammate and Delhi lad Karthik Shankar. Finishing in third place after starting in 5th place was another Chennai youngster Saran Vikram of Team WSRF with Leela who put in a great effort. With the grid reversed for Race 2, it was the racer from Team WSRF with Leela, Saran Vikram’s turn to display his racing abilities. Starting in 5th place Saran moved up the grid to grab the lead and win in style. Karthik Shankar came up with an impressive performance to finish in 2nd place once again. Saran’s teammate Sudanand Rajan finished third.
Formula Rolon Chevrolet
Ashwin Sundar’s roller coaster ride continued as the youngster from Team Rams Racing notched up his second successive win of the day by taking the chequered flag in Race 1. Starting on pole, Ashwin was in full command right from the start and gave no opportunity to his nearest rivals. Finishing in second and third places were Mumbai lad Saahil Shelar of team Speed NK Racing and Chennai racer M. Gaurav of Team Red Rooster Racing. Race 2 saw Saran Vikram of Team Speed NK Racing start from pole on a reversed grid. And Saran made the best of the opportunity given to launch himself into a very comfortable lead and had no problems in notching up his second win of the day. M. Gaurav improved on his first race standings to finish in second place, while winner of Race 1, Ashwin Sunder finished in 3rd place after starting 6th on grid.
Super Bikes
Stealing the thunder this weekend was ace bike racer and India’s first Asian GP participant 23 year old Dilip Rogger of Chennai. He displayed his championship qualities with some aggressive racing in the 600 cc Super Bikes category. Riding a Yamaha R 6 bike, Dilip proved his superiority in no uncertain terms as he blazed away to commanding victories in both races. In Race 1, starting on pole, Dilip built up a huge lead to record a significant victory. His nearest competitor - national champion of champions 2007 and international racer Preetham Dev Moses - finished 12.625 seconds behind. And a long way behind in third place was Praveen Keerthi.
It was yet another dominating performance from Dilip in the expert class of Race 2 as he continued his demolition drive to wrap up another outstanding victory. Finishing in second place was once again Preetham Dev Moses, while K. Rajini came in third.
In the 1000 cc category it was national champion K. Rajini creating waves as he coasted to a very comfortable win on his Yamaha in Race 1 with a margin of almost 15 seconds. Vikram and Deepak finished in second and third places respectively. Race 2 saw a great effort from Deepak which enabled him to take the chequered flag. Mazdar Ahmed finished second.
New formats, juggled categories, fresh events…all carefully planned to draw in more participants and hopefully, better crowds. Also, one supposes, to gain better visibility for the sponsors – not just for the main event itself, but also for the numerous corporate logos on the cars and racing suits of drivers and riders.
Consequently, events like endurance and superbike races were held over a packed weekend at the Madras Motor Race Track at Irungattukottai, near Chennai as part of the J K Tyre National Racing Championship 2008.
On Saturday, February 9, the opening event – Endurance Race for LGB Formula Hyundai single seater cars was marred by non-seasonal showers which reduced the stipulated 90 minute run to 65 minutes. But, the rains helped in the event becoming a spectacular display of racing skills and speed in wet conditions.
The change of drivers was effected every fifteen minutes. And in full cry were the two young sensations, Ashwin Sunder and Saran Vikram of Rams Racing, as they raced away to a comfortable win by completing 29 laps with a timing of 66:46:09. In 2nd place was the duo of Narain Shankar and Karthik Shankar also from Team Rams Racing who completed 29 laps in a timing of 68:18:391. The brothers, Sudanand Rajan and Prithveen Rajan from Team WSRF with Leela took the third place completing 27 laps in a timing of 67:06:766.
On Sunday, February 10, the trio of Chennai youngsters Ashwin Sundar, Saran Vikram and Dilip Rogger delighted the weekend crowd with their spectacular performances resulting in double wins for all of them in their respective categories. Ashwin and Saran won one each in both Formula Swift and Formula Rolon classes while Dilip Rogger won both the races in the Super Bikes 600cc class.
After a wet and disruptive first day of racing, the weather gods were kind enough to light up the track with the sun blazing down brightly. The scenario at the Madras Motor Racing Track was reminiscent of yesteryear racing days in Sholavaram. The racing enthusiasts turned up in good numbers to witness one of the best ever race days in recent history. From the saloon cars to the Super Bikes to the Formula racing cars, it was a blend of exhilarating speed and excellent driving skills with the cream of Indian racers - national and international - exhibiting their talents.
Formula LGB Swift
Pole leader and last year’s champion Ashwin Sundar of Team TVS Girling Racing continued from where he had left off last year. Race 1 saw Ashwin getting off to a very good start and zooming ahead to register a comfortable lead and held on to the same to register his first win of the season. Finishing a close second was teammate and Delhi lad Karthik Shankar. Finishing in third place after starting in 5th place was another Chennai youngster Saran Vikram of Team WSRF with Leela who put in a great effort. With the grid reversed for Race 2, it was the racer from Team WSRF with Leela, Saran Vikram’s turn to display his racing abilities. Starting in 5th place Saran moved up the grid to grab the lead and win in style. Karthik Shankar came up with an impressive performance to finish in 2nd place once again. Saran’s teammate Sudanand Rajan finished third.
Formula Rolon Chevrolet
Ashwin Sundar’s roller coaster ride continued as the youngster from Team Rams Racing notched up his second successive win of the day by taking the chequered flag in Race 1. Starting on pole, Ashwin was in full command right from the start and gave no opportunity to his nearest rivals. Finishing in second and third places were Mumbai lad Saahil Shelar of team Speed NK Racing and Chennai racer M. Gaurav of Team Red Rooster Racing. Race 2 saw Saran Vikram of Team Speed NK Racing start from pole on a reversed grid. And Saran made the best of the opportunity given to launch himself into a very comfortable lead and had no problems in notching up his second win of the day. M. Gaurav improved on his first race standings to finish in second place, while winner of Race 1, Ashwin Sunder finished in 3rd place after starting 6th on grid.
Super Bikes
Stealing the thunder this weekend was ace bike racer and India’s first Asian GP participant 23 year old Dilip Rogger of Chennai. He displayed his championship qualities with some aggressive racing in the 600 cc Super Bikes category. Riding a Yamaha R 6 bike, Dilip proved his superiority in no uncertain terms as he blazed away to commanding victories in both races. In Race 1, starting on pole, Dilip built up a huge lead to record a significant victory. His nearest competitor - national champion of champions 2007 and international racer Preetham Dev Moses - finished 12.625 seconds behind. And a long way behind in third place was Praveen Keerthi.
It was yet another dominating performance from Dilip in the expert class of Race 2 as he continued his demolition drive to wrap up another outstanding victory. Finishing in second place was once again Preetham Dev Moses, while K. Rajini came in third.
In the 1000 cc category it was national champion K. Rajini creating waves as he coasted to a very comfortable win on his Yamaha in Race 1 with a margin of almost 15 seconds. Vikram and Deepak finished in second and third places respectively. Race 2 saw a great effort from Deepak which enabled him to take the chequered flag. Mazdar Ahmed finished second.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The fabulous Fantabulus
Story: Nikhil Raghavan
If there ever was an ugly duckling from the Royal Enfield stable, it was the Fantabulus. When the contraption was unleashed on the unsuspecting public in the late 60’s, scooterists and motorcyclists alike did double and triple takes, scratched their heads and wondered – is it a bike? Is it a scooter? Close your eyes and it sounded like a bike. Open you eyes and…well…it looked like a steel trunk on two wheels!
A couple of years ago, I was dead keen on tracking one of these machines. Not much info was available on the Net (strangely) on the Fantabulus. Folks at Enfield had no clue either.
Then, out of the blue I got this call from a Sarangan, a bike collector (especially of 350 cc bikes – more of him in later issues), informing me that he had just procured a 1970 (1971 registered) model Fantabulus. So, off I went to his house to check out the contraption, which many moons ago I had struggled to ride – and, I’ll tell you why.
The Fantabulus is built like a scooter, but uses a Villiers 2 stroke, single cylinder, fan cooled engine. Being from the Enfield household, the gears are on the wrong side…er…I mean, on the right side er…never mind. Therefore, the floor board-cum-foot rest had two pedals protruding from it. For engaging the first gear, you stomped the forward pedal down. For the remaining three gears, the rear pedal was stomped down in sequence. The brake pedal was on the left foot – another pedal to stomp down! The clutch was on the left handle and the front brake on the right, thank god! Atleast here, the norm was maintained.
The 1970 model came with a kick starter on the right hand side and did not have an ignition switch. If you wanted to start the engine, just kick start. There was an engine kill switch, though.
The 175cc scooter was chain driven and its suspension consisted of a dual link, pivoted fork with hydraulic dampers in front (very similar to the Rajdoot bikes) and a single swing arm pivoted fork with large hydraulic damper at the back. The exhaust had twin pipes emanating from the silencer box. The ignition was through a Villiers Magneto with built-in ignition coil – no points! The 15.2cm dia headlamp with visor fitted is a 6V direct lighting system. The manual says that fuel consumption was 38.5 km/litre approx! The fuel tank had a capacity of 8 litres with another 1 litre plus in reserve.
The Fantabulus at hand was originally owned by Shamrao Baparao Jadhav in Kolhapur. Now 68 years old, Shamrao had maintained the scooter in almost mint condition. Almost everything was in original condition – he had even repainted the body in the original white – a tad pale, though.
The RC book showed that Shamrao had paid an annual tax of Rs. 48 in 1971. He had given Sarangan a photograph of himself with his 4-year-old son standing on the scooter, taken in 1975. Today, the son has a daughter of the same age!
Says Sarangan on how he spotted the scooter and managed to buy it. “I came to know through certain sources which I can’t disclose, about the Fantabulus at Kolhapur. I managed to track the owner after a lot of effort and started my subdued badgering. Shamrao was quite reluctant to sell it to a stranger. He probably wanted the company, Enfield, to buy it back so that they could preserve it for posterity, or to a museum. Considering that he had taken so much care and had not even allowed his son to ride it all these years, I knew it would be difficult to persuade him. But, fortunately, neither the company nor any museum was forthcoming to his expectations; this solved half my problems.
I then had to convince him that I was indeed a bike collector and that I had seven Enfield bikes at hand. I had to impress upon him that I was not out to make money out of the transaction. After six months of telephonic conversations (I must have blown close to 5Kon telephone bills!), I got a slight nod from him – he would consider….! The next thing I did was to hop, skip and jump to Kolhapur and land on his doorstep.
A surprised Shamrao still hummed and hawed and was not yet convinced why he should sell it in the first place. I told him, ‘listen, if I was not that crazy about old bikes and scooters (this is my first scooter), why would I spend time, money and energy to be in Kolhapur? He eased a bit, allowed me to inspect and ride the scooter and go through the documents. Imagine, he had the original RC, the receipt for an installment he paid, the original maintenance manual….et al.
The speedometer was not tampered at all and read 51000 kms. Shamrao, a building contractor, had done extensive riding on the Fantabulus. He remembered a trip he made from Kolhapur to Goa when he did an average of 70 kmph, without a murmur from the scooter.”
Transaction done, papers exchanged and formalities completed, Sarangan did not stay a day longer at Kolhapur, lest Shamrao changed his mind. The Fantabulus was lovingly packed and transported by train all the way to Chennai. It now sits proudly parked amidst his collection of Bullets, Fury 175, Jawa 350, Thunderbird and Yamaha RD 350.
Sarangan, an aviation maintenance engineer dabbles in hi-tech aircraft during his official working hours and when he is not taking care of airplanes, finds himself comfortable astride his stable of powerful bikes.
Amidst the several 350cc bikes he owns, Sarangan considers the Fantabulus his prized catch, for he firmly believes that there are only a very few around in the country.
END
If there ever was an ugly duckling from the Royal Enfield stable, it was the Fantabulus. When the contraption was unleashed on the unsuspecting public in the late 60’s, scooterists and motorcyclists alike did double and triple takes, scratched their heads and wondered – is it a bike? Is it a scooter? Close your eyes and it sounded like a bike. Open you eyes and…well…it looked like a steel trunk on two wheels!
A couple of years ago, I was dead keen on tracking one of these machines. Not much info was available on the Net (strangely) on the Fantabulus. Folks at Enfield had no clue either.
Then, out of the blue I got this call from a Sarangan, a bike collector (especially of 350 cc bikes – more of him in later issues), informing me that he had just procured a 1970 (1971 registered) model Fantabulus. So, off I went to his house to check out the contraption, which many moons ago I had struggled to ride – and, I’ll tell you why.
The Fantabulus is built like a scooter, but uses a Villiers 2 stroke, single cylinder, fan cooled engine. Being from the Enfield household, the gears are on the wrong side…er…I mean, on the right side er…never mind. Therefore, the floor board-cum-foot rest had two pedals protruding from it. For engaging the first gear, you stomped the forward pedal down. For the remaining three gears, the rear pedal was stomped down in sequence. The brake pedal was on the left foot – another pedal to stomp down! The clutch was on the left handle and the front brake on the right, thank god! Atleast here, the norm was maintained.
The 1970 model came with a kick starter on the right hand side and did not have an ignition switch. If you wanted to start the engine, just kick start. There was an engine kill switch, though.
The 175cc scooter was chain driven and its suspension consisted of a dual link, pivoted fork with hydraulic dampers in front (very similar to the Rajdoot bikes) and a single swing arm pivoted fork with large hydraulic damper at the back. The exhaust had twin pipes emanating from the silencer box. The ignition was through a Villiers Magneto with built-in ignition coil – no points! The 15.2cm dia headlamp with visor fitted is a 6V direct lighting system. The manual says that fuel consumption was 38.5 km/litre approx! The fuel tank had a capacity of 8 litres with another 1 litre plus in reserve.
The Fantabulus at hand was originally owned by Shamrao Baparao Jadhav in Kolhapur. Now 68 years old, Shamrao had maintained the scooter in almost mint condition. Almost everything was in original condition – he had even repainted the body in the original white – a tad pale, though.
The RC book showed that Shamrao had paid an annual tax of Rs. 48 in 1971. He had given Sarangan a photograph of himself with his 4-year-old son standing on the scooter, taken in 1975. Today, the son has a daughter of the same age!
Says Sarangan on how he spotted the scooter and managed to buy it. “I came to know through certain sources which I can’t disclose, about the Fantabulus at Kolhapur. I managed to track the owner after a lot of effort and started my subdued badgering. Shamrao was quite reluctant to sell it to a stranger. He probably wanted the company, Enfield, to buy it back so that they could preserve it for posterity, or to a museum. Considering that he had taken so much care and had not even allowed his son to ride it all these years, I knew it would be difficult to persuade him. But, fortunately, neither the company nor any museum was forthcoming to his expectations; this solved half my problems.
I then had to convince him that I was indeed a bike collector and that I had seven Enfield bikes at hand. I had to impress upon him that I was not out to make money out of the transaction. After six months of telephonic conversations (I must have blown close to 5Kon telephone bills!), I got a slight nod from him – he would consider….! The next thing I did was to hop, skip and jump to Kolhapur and land on his doorstep.
A surprised Shamrao still hummed and hawed and was not yet convinced why he should sell it in the first place. I told him, ‘listen, if I was not that crazy about old bikes and scooters (this is my first scooter), why would I spend time, money and energy to be in Kolhapur? He eased a bit, allowed me to inspect and ride the scooter and go through the documents. Imagine, he had the original RC, the receipt for an installment he paid, the original maintenance manual….et al.
The speedometer was not tampered at all and read 51000 kms. Shamrao, a building contractor, had done extensive riding on the Fantabulus. He remembered a trip he made from Kolhapur to Goa when he did an average of 70 kmph, without a murmur from the scooter.”
Transaction done, papers exchanged and formalities completed, Sarangan did not stay a day longer at Kolhapur, lest Shamrao changed his mind. The Fantabulus was lovingly packed and transported by train all the way to Chennai. It now sits proudly parked amidst his collection of Bullets, Fury 175, Jawa 350, Thunderbird and Yamaha RD 350.
Sarangan, an aviation maintenance engineer dabbles in hi-tech aircraft during his official working hours and when he is not taking care of airplanes, finds himself comfortable astride his stable of powerful bikes.
Amidst the several 350cc bikes he owns, Sarangan considers the Fantabulus his prized catch, for he firmly believes that there are only a very few around in the country.
END
Taking theatre to the masses
Story: Nikhil Raghavan / Original manuscript of final edited version published in The Week
Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X and President John F Kennedy belonged to an era when a war was ‘fought with prayer and song. And bodies put in the way of danger’. The play, My Soul Is A Witness is a vivid retelling of such dramatic and historic times dealing with the civil right’s movement set in Birmingham, Alabama. It resurrects these leaders but it also talks of quiet heroes and incredible courage, young people who stood up to the police during the march for freedom.
“It is relevant even today and more so in India where such freedom marches and resistance movements have happened prior to the country’s independence,” says Alex Levy, Director of the play and Artistic Director of Pegasus Players, a Chicago based theatre group, currently touring India. “This is a rousing look at people and events that still resound today. And its message will always be universal: If we don't know, if we ignore, if we forget our history - we'll be condemned to repeat it.”
Pegasus Players is a not-for-profit theatre company located in Chicago’s Uptown area, one of the city’s most ethnically diverse neighborhoods. For the past 30 years, Pegasus has nurtured many new artists for the stage. Pegasus strives to present audiences with a range of fresh perspectives.
Says Alex, “Pegasus Players Theatre has a two-fold mission: to produce the highest quality artistic work, and to expand access to exemplary theatre, entertainment and arts education for underserved audiences.”
When The Hindu MetroPlus Theatre Festival’s third edition was planned, the Pegasus Players, through the Cultural Affairs department of US Consulate, decided to do an India Tour and premiere this play in Chennai. The original production written by playwright David Barr III was staged by Jena Company of New York, for over sixty times in Chicago and neighbouring localities. The Pegasus Players have also focussed on providing entertainment primarily to Chicago residents. Their only foreign tour was in 2005 when they went to Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. The India tour covers Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkotta.
“In the thirty years of our existence we have staged over 200 performances. The biggest successes have been August Wilson’s Two Train Running and Steven Sondheim’s Frogs,” informs Alex, who has been with the group for the last nine years. Pegasus Players’ Founder Director Arlene Crewdson, Alex and four others manage the group on meagre financial assistance from the US Government and ticket sales of staged plays. “Most often our actors don’t take home any money. Many of them work elsewhere and devote as much time as possible for the performances. We do it for the love of theatre and to spread the medium to people who cannot afford any other form of entertainment. For instance, we have taken theatre to many homes for the aged – to folks who cannot go out due to age or disability,” says Alex.
Alex Levy has directed several productions including Still Life, The Upper Room (winner of the Joseph Jefferson Citation for “Best New Work”), Broadway Bound (Jeff nominated for four citations including “Best Production” and winner of the After Dark Award for “Best Ensemble”), The One-Eyed Man is King, Waking Up, Portrait of an Exile, Insert Title Here and Free Will. He has also directed several of the Young Playwrights Festival touring productions. Since joining Pegasus, the theatre has won ten Joseph Jefferson Citations, seven After Dark Awards, and Pegasus became the first arts organization to win The Chicago Community Trust’s “James Brown IV” award (which included a $50,000 grant) and the City of Chicago’s “Human Relations Award.”
Arlene Crewdson founded Pegasus in 1978 and has directed numerous productions for the theatre. She has taught classic theatre on PBS station Channel 11 in Chicago and has published A Study to Classic Theatre. She taught for many years as a professor in the Communications Department at Truman College. The Chicago Tribune has twice named Arlene one of the twenty Chicagoans who annually are singled out for having made memorable contributions to the arts.
The Pegasus Players are committed to nurturing artists for the American stage, and therefore hire guest directors, new technicians, and hold completely open auditions for each production. “Through our productions we strive to present a range of perspectives to the audiences. Our multifaceted outreach program provides the performing arts and theatre education for Chicago’s underserved and disadvantaged from the very young to the elderly, and Pegasus brings programs to patrons as well as providing free access for qualified groups to our mainstage productions,” says Alex.
The US Consulate, realising the intense mission of Pegasus Players of spreading the message of strong, socially relevant theatrical stories, have asked them to do fund-raisers in Kolkotta for the flood-affected people. The play, My Soul Is A Witness celebrates the power of theatre as a storytelling medium, and uses music - from soaring gospel to pulsating protest songs —to soothe the heart and raise the spirit.
Says Ragini Gupta, Consul, Cultural Affairs, US Consulate General’s office in Chennai, “
Pegasus Players began in June 1978, growing out of original student writings performed by both faculty and students at the City Colleges. Touring began in order to fill the need of the Uptown area and of groups, which had no access to live theatre. After becoming incorporated in 1979, the group found a home in a rented space in the Edgewater Presbyterian Church, allowing it to continue its commitment to residents of the community. In 1984, the theatre relocated to the O’Rourke Center for the Performing Arts on the Truman College campus, located in the heart of the Uptown community. In recognition of Pegasus’ commitment to the community, the City College system is making this modern well-equipped facility, which previously stood largely unused, available at no charge. Pegasus is, however, an independent, autonomous theatre company.
The move from a 90 seat house to a 250 seat, four million dollar, modern facility led to an amazing growth for Pegasus, permitting the theatre to serve larger groups than ever before. Since beginning its residency at the O’Rourke Center, over 310,000 people have seen Pegasus’ shows. This has created a unique partnership between a not-for-profit, community based theatre and a public institution, each using the other’s individual resources for the betterment of the community and contributing significantly to a positive image of the Uptown area.
Recognition for artistic excellence has prevailed throughout Pegasus’ thirty-year history. The company has received seventy-four Joseph Jefferson Citations, more than any other Chicago theatre in this category. The experience Pegasus provides for Chicago artists is invaluable. Last season the theatre employed over 200 actors, musicians, designers and technicians, much of this new talent.
The Joseph Jefferson Committee awarded the first-ever Jeff Citation to an outreach program to Pegasus for its “extraordinary success in serving Chicago’s disenfranchised bringing the arts to the young, the elderly, the disabled, and the disenfranchised. The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs recognized the Young Playwrights Festival by a special cash award for “outstanding contribution to the arts and outreach efforts to expand the accessibility of high quality arts experiences” .
My Soul Is A Witness brought to stage four black and one white American, who collectivley portrayed various characters during the Civil Rights Movement, displaying the sufferings, trauma and tensions of that era. Players at different stages of the play also portrayed Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr and John F Kennedy. Through the use of powerful lyrics sung in gospel style and dialogues interwoven with the story narration of the traumatic times, the quintet brought to the audience an era quite alien to most Indians but very relevant to our own Independence – primarily that of non-violent protests and peaceful resistance.
Says Jason Wilson who played John F Kennedy, “For me this play is an eye-opener, being in a generation not much aware of the struggles of racism, of class oppression, of discrimination experienced by the blacks and whites of a bygone era.”
But, whether the play served to convey a message or not is debatable considering that racism, discrimination and opression still flourish in many countries, both developed and developing!
Martin Luther King Jr, Malcom X and President John F Kennedy belonged to an era when a war was ‘fought with prayer and song. And bodies put in the way of danger’. The play, My Soul Is A Witness is a vivid retelling of such dramatic and historic times dealing with the civil right’s movement set in Birmingham, Alabama. It resurrects these leaders but it also talks of quiet heroes and incredible courage, young people who stood up to the police during the march for freedom.
“It is relevant even today and more so in India where such freedom marches and resistance movements have happened prior to the country’s independence,” says Alex Levy, Director of the play and Artistic Director of Pegasus Players, a Chicago based theatre group, currently touring India. “This is a rousing look at people and events that still resound today. And its message will always be universal: If we don't know, if we ignore, if we forget our history - we'll be condemned to repeat it.”
Pegasus Players is a not-for-profit theatre company located in Chicago’s Uptown area, one of the city’s most ethnically diverse neighborhoods. For the past 30 years, Pegasus has nurtured many new artists for the stage. Pegasus strives to present audiences with a range of fresh perspectives.
Says Alex, “Pegasus Players Theatre has a two-fold mission: to produce the highest quality artistic work, and to expand access to exemplary theatre, entertainment and arts education for underserved audiences.”
When The Hindu MetroPlus Theatre Festival’s third edition was planned, the Pegasus Players, through the Cultural Affairs department of US Consulate, decided to do an India Tour and premiere this play in Chennai. The original production written by playwright David Barr III was staged by Jena Company of New York, for over sixty times in Chicago and neighbouring localities. The Pegasus Players have also focussed on providing entertainment primarily to Chicago residents. Their only foreign tour was in 2005 when they went to Egypt, Morocco and Turkey. The India tour covers Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkotta.
“In the thirty years of our existence we have staged over 200 performances. The biggest successes have been August Wilson’s Two Train Running and Steven Sondheim’s Frogs,” informs Alex, who has been with the group for the last nine years. Pegasus Players’ Founder Director Arlene Crewdson, Alex and four others manage the group on meagre financial assistance from the US Government and ticket sales of staged plays. “Most often our actors don’t take home any money. Many of them work elsewhere and devote as much time as possible for the performances. We do it for the love of theatre and to spread the medium to people who cannot afford any other form of entertainment. For instance, we have taken theatre to many homes for the aged – to folks who cannot go out due to age or disability,” says Alex.
Alex Levy has directed several productions including Still Life, The Upper Room (winner of the Joseph Jefferson Citation for “Best New Work”), Broadway Bound (Jeff nominated for four citations including “Best Production” and winner of the After Dark Award for “Best Ensemble”), The One-Eyed Man is King, Waking Up, Portrait of an Exile, Insert Title Here and Free Will. He has also directed several of the Young Playwrights Festival touring productions. Since joining Pegasus, the theatre has won ten Joseph Jefferson Citations, seven After Dark Awards, and Pegasus became the first arts organization to win The Chicago Community Trust’s “James Brown IV” award (which included a $50,000 grant) and the City of Chicago’s “Human Relations Award.”
Arlene Crewdson founded Pegasus in 1978 and has directed numerous productions for the theatre. She has taught classic theatre on PBS station Channel 11 in Chicago and has published A Study to Classic Theatre. She taught for many years as a professor in the Communications Department at Truman College. The Chicago Tribune has twice named Arlene one of the twenty Chicagoans who annually are singled out for having made memorable contributions to the arts.
The Pegasus Players are committed to nurturing artists for the American stage, and therefore hire guest directors, new technicians, and hold completely open auditions for each production. “Through our productions we strive to present a range of perspectives to the audiences. Our multifaceted outreach program provides the performing arts and theatre education for Chicago’s underserved and disadvantaged from the very young to the elderly, and Pegasus brings programs to patrons as well as providing free access for qualified groups to our mainstage productions,” says Alex.
The US Consulate, realising the intense mission of Pegasus Players of spreading the message of strong, socially relevant theatrical stories, have asked them to do fund-raisers in Kolkotta for the flood-affected people. The play, My Soul Is A Witness celebrates the power of theatre as a storytelling medium, and uses music - from soaring gospel to pulsating protest songs —to soothe the heart and raise the spirit.
Says Ragini Gupta, Consul, Cultural Affairs, US Consulate General’s office in Chennai, “
Pegasus Players began in June 1978, growing out of original student writings performed by both faculty and students at the City Colleges. Touring began in order to fill the need of the Uptown area and of groups, which had no access to live theatre. After becoming incorporated in 1979, the group found a home in a rented space in the Edgewater Presbyterian Church, allowing it to continue its commitment to residents of the community. In 1984, the theatre relocated to the O’Rourke Center for the Performing Arts on the Truman College campus, located in the heart of the Uptown community. In recognition of Pegasus’ commitment to the community, the City College system is making this modern well-equipped facility, which previously stood largely unused, available at no charge. Pegasus is, however, an independent, autonomous theatre company.
The move from a 90 seat house to a 250 seat, four million dollar, modern facility led to an amazing growth for Pegasus, permitting the theatre to serve larger groups than ever before. Since beginning its residency at the O’Rourke Center, over 310,000 people have seen Pegasus’ shows. This has created a unique partnership between a not-for-profit, community based theatre and a public institution, each using the other’s individual resources for the betterment of the community and contributing significantly to a positive image of the Uptown area.
Recognition for artistic excellence has prevailed throughout Pegasus’ thirty-year history. The company has received seventy-four Joseph Jefferson Citations, more than any other Chicago theatre in this category. The experience Pegasus provides for Chicago artists is invaluable. Last season the theatre employed over 200 actors, musicians, designers and technicians, much of this new talent.
The Joseph Jefferson Committee awarded the first-ever Jeff Citation to an outreach program to Pegasus for its “extraordinary success in serving Chicago’s disenfranchised bringing the arts to the young, the elderly, the disabled, and the disenfranchised. The Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs recognized the Young Playwrights Festival by a special cash award for “outstanding contribution to the arts and outreach efforts to expand the accessibility of high quality arts experiences” .
My Soul Is A Witness brought to stage four black and one white American, who collectivley portrayed various characters during the Civil Rights Movement, displaying the sufferings, trauma and tensions of that era. Players at different stages of the play also portrayed Malcom X, Martin Luther King Jr and John F Kennedy. Through the use of powerful lyrics sung in gospel style and dialogues interwoven with the story narration of the traumatic times, the quintet brought to the audience an era quite alien to most Indians but very relevant to our own Independence – primarily that of non-violent protests and peaceful resistance.
Says Jason Wilson who played John F Kennedy, “For me this play is an eye-opener, being in a generation not much aware of the struggles of racism, of class oppression, of discrimination experienced by the blacks and whites of a bygone era.”
But, whether the play served to convey a message or not is debatable considering that racism, discrimination and opression still flourish in many countries, both developed and developing!
Will the real comedian please stand up?
Story: Nikhil Raghavan / Original manuscript of final published version in The Week
Home to Carnatic Music, Chennai has also been known for different varieties of performing arts. Carnatic musicians, Bharatanatyam dancers, Tamil theatre actors and folk artists rub shoulders with western musicians, ballet and modern dancers, English theatre artists and light music performers. Quite comfortably, too. No wonder Chennai has been the birth place of the fusion style in both music and dance.
Apart from the various ‘Sabhas’ and music and dance associations, the vast variety of television channels also helped nurture and expose talents in different fields of art. Comedy was one such art which thrived, albeit in a totally different format. With films being the provider of staple entertainment to the multitudes, most comedy shows on television consisted of comedy scenes, song and dance shows, contests and what have you. While soaps did very well on television there were hardly any sitcoms worth their name.
Of course, one-man comedy shows did spring up now and then, but most bordered on films and its loud, comic fare like mimicry. The real thing, a Stand-Up Comedy show, was neither available live nor on television, except for someone like Ash Chandler from Bombay. It took a person of Indian origin, Russell Peters from Canada to regale Bangalore audiences recently with a series of sold-out shows.
What is Stand-Up Comedy?
It is a style of comedy which allows the performer to address the audience directly, unlike in a theatre or a mono-act where the performer is seemingly enclosed in an invisible wall between him and the audience. In a Stand-Up Comedy, the performer stands on stage, or paces around; he does not sit – hence the name. Normally, Stand-Up Comedy shows consist of just one performer. The content of his address to the audience consists of fast-paced succession of humourous anecdotes, short jokes, one-liners and barbs. It takes a lot of hardwork to prepare for a show which normally runs to about an hour or so if it is of one performer.
It is not that we don’t have abundant talent in our country. It just needs to be packaged, produced and promoted in a more prefessional manner and presented to the audience in a classy way. When Taj Connemara took upon itself the onerous task of doing something about it, Raka Chakrawarti, Public Relations Manager, Taj Hotels shouldered the entire responsibility. And, she unearthed three very talented young men who were independently very popular Video Jockeys on Chennai’s own SS Music channel. Enter Cary, Craig and Shyam, Stand-Up Comedians in a show which was aptly called Stand-Up Connemara. And when one spotted the acknowledged master of stand-up comedy Ash Chandler at the event, one knew what to expect from the show.
The performers
Cary Edwards, while doing college in US moonlighted as a stand-up comedian at clubs and shows. When he returned to India he headed for Bombay where he met up with Ash Chandler who was already a known name in the circuit. Cary teamed up with Ash, opened shows for him, filled up the gaps and in the process learnt the nuances of being a stand-up comedian.
When he moved South to Chennai to take up a VeeJay’s job with SS Music, the stand-up comedy thing took a back seat for a while, although it would show through his TV presentations and live compering of various events. At SS Music, Cary met with another VJ, Craig Gallyot who was a funster personified. Craig didn’t have any exposure or experience in stand-up comedy but was dead keen on trying his hand at it. Says Cary, “I was quite amused at finding Craig interested in this as I was sure that Chennai did not know what a Stand-Up Comedy act was. The very fact that Craig was talking about it made my hopes go up. Here was a like-minded guy.” From then onwards Craig and Cary hit it off well.
Around this time, thanks to a VJ Hunt, Shyam Kumar joined SS Music. He too showed a rare streak of humourous talent and was willing to try his hand at stand-up comedy. “A few years had passed by then and nothing concrete materialised despite sincere efforts by us to do a show,” says Cary, who meanwhile left SS Music and teamed up with another friend to do radio hosting. Simultaneously he got an offer to join an FM radio station in Bangalore; so he upped and left.
One evening when Craig and Shyam were dining with Taj Connemara’s Sales Manager Aamir Faisal, the topic veered around to the show which they had discussed earlier. Aamir was keen to do the show but despaired at Cary not being available in Chennai. Craig and Shyam hurriedly called Cary who, coincidentally was coming back to Chennai anyway.
Meanwhile Aamir was also leaving for Colombo on transfer but he ensured that the project was on and handed the trio over to Raka who was in charge of Public Relations at the hotel. With a missionary zeal, Raka went about the preparations for hosting a mega show, a first time event in Chennai. “It was a first time for the Taj Group which had never before done a Stand-Up Comedy act,” says Raka. Fortunately Dinaz Madhukar who had just moved in to Taj Connemara as General Manager, had no reservations. “Raka seemed so convinced and the trio portrayed so much enthusiasm that I just could not hesitate even for a second,” says Dinaz. Thus came about Stand-up Connemara, a two and a half hour show which launched the brilliantly talented Cary, Craig and Shyam to instant stardom.
What went in their favour, to a large extent was that they were all known faces having been on SS Music shows and at various events and parties. Add to this that all of them were individually very talented people. A full month of scripting and stage preparations went on. Raka says, “A lot of censoring had to be done, not necessarily for the language, but more for the content. We were not sure how the Chennai audience would take to blatant references to community, language, religion, etc. So we watered it all down a bit.”
When the project was finalised, it was Cary who the other two depended on largely to finalise their script and presentation. While Craig and Shyam were quite adept at hosting shows and facing audiences, they knew it was imperative that in a comedy show, the trick was to hold the audience’s attention. And, the jokes had to be contemporary and current. The pace had to be just right to fill the required duration. Lapse of memory was sacrilege.
But, when the show started, there was no holding them back. Nor was there any let up on audience response who was at their rip-roaring best. “Connemara had spared no efforts in making the show a super success. The stage setting, the décor, the food and beverages and the choice of invited audience lived up to the exclusive event,” says Cary. You would have thought that these were established performers in the league of Ash Chandler and Russell Peters.
And, in a show where the performers were coming on stage one after the other, the last one was bound to get the least attention. To make it worse, Shyam was scheduled last and he was the least experienced of the trio. Cary notes that the audience attention was waning just a little when Shyam would have noticed it too for he quickly launched into a local language accent and brought it all back under control. Such timely corrective measures are the requirement of stand-up comedians. “But,” says Raka, “Shyam was really the underdog. He took everyone by surprise with his flawless delivery and timely execution of jokes.”
Mr Ashok Aiyar, a guest at Taj Connemara who had attended "Stand Up Connemara" said that it was a delightful event and that he had not laughed so much in a long time. He said that Taj Connemara should make this event a regular at Distil to attract the young crowd and also to change the perception of the hotel. “Hats off to the team who had come up with the idea and organised this event. It was indeed an unforgettable experience. People will definitely speak about it for days to come,” said Ashok.
Said Madhav Das, Editor of Southside, a movie magazine, “I stood at the rear watching Cary, Craig and Shyam do their thing. They had the audience falling off their chairs with their clever take offs on auto drivers, cops and assorted Chennai characters. Couple of women next to me was going ballistic at the more risqué parts. It's amazing how many women love to hear comedians talk dirty but will call the cops if you drop a f**k by mistake. Finally let me say it was not just the free beer that kept me there longer than I intended, but a very funny, punny time.”
Talented trio
That the trio were a talented lot can be gauged from the multi tasking they indulge in in their professional lives. Cary hosts Internet-based Radio NRI. He is also going to do a weekly English music night show on Hello FM. He comperes numerous live shows in the city and elsewhere. To add to all this he is a good musician, too.
Craig starts his day very early as he hosts the breakfast show on Radio City FM. After his four hours on air, he grabs a few hours of rest and is off to SS Music to record his capsule for the day. By evening he is busy researching for the next day.
Till recently Shyam also worked for SS Music. When he is not partying hard, Shyam hosts live shows. He is also headed for one of the numerous FM radio stations to try his hand at Radio Jockeying. An aspirant for filmdom having done one role in P C Sriram’s Vaanam Vasapadum, Shyam has consciously decided that stand-up comedy is one profession that he would like to pursue very seriously. “Since my school days, I have always been an entertainer. I bloom into full colours when amidst friends and launch into funny monologues and impersonations, especially in different languages,” says Shyam, whose inspiration is Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy.
Where once a music performer was mandatory at most parties, or a supper theatre was part of the corporate get together, performers like Ash Chandler are increasingly being hired to lend a touch of humour to a normally dry and boring session. Thanks to its fast changing work culture and super cosmopolitan lifestyle, Stand-Up Comedians are bound to be in demand. With a clear march over others in the field or those proposing to enter this genre, Cary, Craig and Shyam are bound to go places in their new-found expression of creativity.
END
Home to Carnatic Music, Chennai has also been known for different varieties of performing arts. Carnatic musicians, Bharatanatyam dancers, Tamil theatre actors and folk artists rub shoulders with western musicians, ballet and modern dancers, English theatre artists and light music performers. Quite comfortably, too. No wonder Chennai has been the birth place of the fusion style in both music and dance.
Apart from the various ‘Sabhas’ and music and dance associations, the vast variety of television channels also helped nurture and expose talents in different fields of art. Comedy was one such art which thrived, albeit in a totally different format. With films being the provider of staple entertainment to the multitudes, most comedy shows on television consisted of comedy scenes, song and dance shows, contests and what have you. While soaps did very well on television there were hardly any sitcoms worth their name.
Of course, one-man comedy shows did spring up now and then, but most bordered on films and its loud, comic fare like mimicry. The real thing, a Stand-Up Comedy show, was neither available live nor on television, except for someone like Ash Chandler from Bombay. It took a person of Indian origin, Russell Peters from Canada to regale Bangalore audiences recently with a series of sold-out shows.
What is Stand-Up Comedy?
It is a style of comedy which allows the performer to address the audience directly, unlike in a theatre or a mono-act where the performer is seemingly enclosed in an invisible wall between him and the audience. In a Stand-Up Comedy, the performer stands on stage, or paces around; he does not sit – hence the name. Normally, Stand-Up Comedy shows consist of just one performer. The content of his address to the audience consists of fast-paced succession of humourous anecdotes, short jokes, one-liners and barbs. It takes a lot of hardwork to prepare for a show which normally runs to about an hour or so if it is of one performer.
It is not that we don’t have abundant talent in our country. It just needs to be packaged, produced and promoted in a more prefessional manner and presented to the audience in a classy way. When Taj Connemara took upon itself the onerous task of doing something about it, Raka Chakrawarti, Public Relations Manager, Taj Hotels shouldered the entire responsibility. And, she unearthed three very talented young men who were independently very popular Video Jockeys on Chennai’s own SS Music channel. Enter Cary, Craig and Shyam, Stand-Up Comedians in a show which was aptly called Stand-Up Connemara. And when one spotted the acknowledged master of stand-up comedy Ash Chandler at the event, one knew what to expect from the show.
The performers
Cary Edwards, while doing college in US moonlighted as a stand-up comedian at clubs and shows. When he returned to India he headed for Bombay where he met up with Ash Chandler who was already a known name in the circuit. Cary teamed up with Ash, opened shows for him, filled up the gaps and in the process learnt the nuances of being a stand-up comedian.
When he moved South to Chennai to take up a VeeJay’s job with SS Music, the stand-up comedy thing took a back seat for a while, although it would show through his TV presentations and live compering of various events. At SS Music, Cary met with another VJ, Craig Gallyot who was a funster personified. Craig didn’t have any exposure or experience in stand-up comedy but was dead keen on trying his hand at it. Says Cary, “I was quite amused at finding Craig interested in this as I was sure that Chennai did not know what a Stand-Up Comedy act was. The very fact that Craig was talking about it made my hopes go up. Here was a like-minded guy.” From then onwards Craig and Cary hit it off well.
Around this time, thanks to a VJ Hunt, Shyam Kumar joined SS Music. He too showed a rare streak of humourous talent and was willing to try his hand at stand-up comedy. “A few years had passed by then and nothing concrete materialised despite sincere efforts by us to do a show,” says Cary, who meanwhile left SS Music and teamed up with another friend to do radio hosting. Simultaneously he got an offer to join an FM radio station in Bangalore; so he upped and left.
One evening when Craig and Shyam were dining with Taj Connemara’s Sales Manager Aamir Faisal, the topic veered around to the show which they had discussed earlier. Aamir was keen to do the show but despaired at Cary not being available in Chennai. Craig and Shyam hurriedly called Cary who, coincidentally was coming back to Chennai anyway.
Meanwhile Aamir was also leaving for Colombo on transfer but he ensured that the project was on and handed the trio over to Raka who was in charge of Public Relations at the hotel. With a missionary zeal, Raka went about the preparations for hosting a mega show, a first time event in Chennai. “It was a first time for the Taj Group which had never before done a Stand-Up Comedy act,” says Raka. Fortunately Dinaz Madhukar who had just moved in to Taj Connemara as General Manager, had no reservations. “Raka seemed so convinced and the trio portrayed so much enthusiasm that I just could not hesitate even for a second,” says Dinaz. Thus came about Stand-up Connemara, a two and a half hour show which launched the brilliantly talented Cary, Craig and Shyam to instant stardom.
What went in their favour, to a large extent was that they were all known faces having been on SS Music shows and at various events and parties. Add to this that all of them were individually very talented people. A full month of scripting and stage preparations went on. Raka says, “A lot of censoring had to be done, not necessarily for the language, but more for the content. We were not sure how the Chennai audience would take to blatant references to community, language, religion, etc. So we watered it all down a bit.”
When the project was finalised, it was Cary who the other two depended on largely to finalise their script and presentation. While Craig and Shyam were quite adept at hosting shows and facing audiences, they knew it was imperative that in a comedy show, the trick was to hold the audience’s attention. And, the jokes had to be contemporary and current. The pace had to be just right to fill the required duration. Lapse of memory was sacrilege.
But, when the show started, there was no holding them back. Nor was there any let up on audience response who was at their rip-roaring best. “Connemara had spared no efforts in making the show a super success. The stage setting, the décor, the food and beverages and the choice of invited audience lived up to the exclusive event,” says Cary. You would have thought that these were established performers in the league of Ash Chandler and Russell Peters.
And, in a show where the performers were coming on stage one after the other, the last one was bound to get the least attention. To make it worse, Shyam was scheduled last and he was the least experienced of the trio. Cary notes that the audience attention was waning just a little when Shyam would have noticed it too for he quickly launched into a local language accent and brought it all back under control. Such timely corrective measures are the requirement of stand-up comedians. “But,” says Raka, “Shyam was really the underdog. He took everyone by surprise with his flawless delivery and timely execution of jokes.”
Mr Ashok Aiyar, a guest at Taj Connemara who had attended "Stand Up Connemara" said that it was a delightful event and that he had not laughed so much in a long time. He said that Taj Connemara should make this event a regular at Distil to attract the young crowd and also to change the perception of the hotel. “Hats off to the team who had come up with the idea and organised this event. It was indeed an unforgettable experience. People will definitely speak about it for days to come,” said Ashok.
Said Madhav Das, Editor of Southside, a movie magazine, “I stood at the rear watching Cary, Craig and Shyam do their thing. They had the audience falling off their chairs with their clever take offs on auto drivers, cops and assorted Chennai characters. Couple of women next to me was going ballistic at the more risqué parts. It's amazing how many women love to hear comedians talk dirty but will call the cops if you drop a f**k by mistake. Finally let me say it was not just the free beer that kept me there longer than I intended, but a very funny, punny time.”
Talented trio
That the trio were a talented lot can be gauged from the multi tasking they indulge in in their professional lives. Cary hosts Internet-based Radio NRI. He is also going to do a weekly English music night show on Hello FM. He comperes numerous live shows in the city and elsewhere. To add to all this he is a good musician, too.
Craig starts his day very early as he hosts the breakfast show on Radio City FM. After his four hours on air, he grabs a few hours of rest and is off to SS Music to record his capsule for the day. By evening he is busy researching for the next day.
Till recently Shyam also worked for SS Music. When he is not partying hard, Shyam hosts live shows. He is also headed for one of the numerous FM radio stations to try his hand at Radio Jockeying. An aspirant for filmdom having done one role in P C Sriram’s Vaanam Vasapadum, Shyam has consciously decided that stand-up comedy is one profession that he would like to pursue very seriously. “Since my school days, I have always been an entertainer. I bloom into full colours when amidst friends and launch into funny monologues and impersonations, especially in different languages,” says Shyam, whose inspiration is Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy.
Where once a music performer was mandatory at most parties, or a supper theatre was part of the corporate get together, performers like Ash Chandler are increasingly being hired to lend a touch of humour to a normally dry and boring session. Thanks to its fast changing work culture and super cosmopolitan lifestyle, Stand-Up Comedians are bound to be in demand. With a clear march over others in the field or those proposing to enter this genre, Cary, Craig and Shyam are bound to go places in their new-found expression of creativity.
END
The Buck Stops Here...
Story: Nikhil Raghavan / Original manuscript of final edited version published in The Week
The buck also starts from here. At least, in the film industry, it does seem so. The talented director may have an award winning script ready. The creative art director may have sketched out all the scenes. The ‘eye-for-detail’ cinematographer may have every angle and shot conceived. The list could go on in respect of every individual involved in the creation of a celluloid masterpiece – right down to the distributor and theatre owner.
But, where would the movie itself be if the all-important Producer had not decided to make it in the first place? Without them how would you ever get to see a movie in a theatre?
This year, in the Tamil film industry, there have been both big and small producers whose respectively big or small budget movies have scored hits at the box office. Some of this year’s big grossers are Sivaji from AVM Productions, Pokkiri from Kanakarathna Movies, Chennai 600028 from Capital Film Works, Paruthiveeran from Studio Green, Mozhi from Duet Films and Unnale Unnale from Oscar Films. Of this Chennai 600028, Paruthiveeran and Unnale Unnale have absolutely new actors. Even Mozhi had just Jyotika as an established star and that was not the main reason for the movie to become a hit.
Scripts reign supreme
In most instances, the decision to go ahead with a project largely depends on the script. In short, the script reigns supreme. Just as how a Producer is paramount in the making of a film, for him, a script is paramount for the Producer. Unless you are Prakash Raj. Actor and Producer Prakash Raj launched Duet Films a few years ago to make good quality entertaining films at reasonable cost and with not so well known actors. “For me it all starts with an idea. And more so, the person from whom the idea comes. I am a people person; people excite me. I will says that in most instances my decision to go ahead with a movie depends on the person who brings up the idea. Of course, the script is very important. I never start a film without a full-fledged bound script,” says Prakash Raj.
Not so with AVM Productions. Says M. Saravanan, Producer and owner of AVM, “Every ten years or so the system overhauls itself and changes. This is my 50th year in film production and I have seen numerous changes. Decades ago, we would have a script either from an independent source or from a director. We would then decide on who should direct the movies and then discuss who would fit in the roles. Everything else would follow automatically. Nowadays, we first decide on a saleable hero. We then look for a director with a suitable script. If we find these two suitable for us to produce, then all else would follow one by one.”
M. Saravanan’s son M. S. Guhan has been involved in the family business of film production for 28 years “This is the Centenary year of our Founder, A V Meiyappan. This is also the 60th year of AVM Productions. The dates also coincide with the 100 days of our biggest blockbuster to date, Sivaji. When we planned this film, we took all this into consideration. I wanted this to be a really big film that would be a gift to my father (M. Saravanan). Therefore I left no stones unturned and broke all traditions and conventional production practices just to ensure that Sivaji would become a landmark in Tamil films,” says Guhan.
So what did Guhan do? To start with, he was intent on getting Director Shankar and Rajnikant together, a fact that had not happened till Sivaji. Once this was achieved after negotiating with other producers for both their dates and juggling them around to suit each other’s conveniences, the third and equally important ingredient – music had to be built in. Guhan insisted on A. R. Rahman who was busy with numerous Indian and International projects. It was only after all these were sewed up, the script was decided upon! Shankar came up with a winning script, Rahman composed some incredible tunes and Rajnikant outdid himself. Sivaji became a roaring success not just in India but also in many parts of the world. AVM scored their biggest success with Rajnikanth’s Sivaji, their 168th film.
Prakash Raj, on the other hand is very systematic in his approach to making films. While his last movie, Mozhi has been a runaway success, he is already onto his next production, Velli Therai. Among the seven movies that he has produced only two – Poi and Naan – have been failures at the box office.
When a script is ready, Prakash assembles his entire cast and crew to discuss the story and for the various players to understand their roles. They then go into a few days of rehearsals. It is only after all this the shooting starts and the script is followed to the T. Aside of his role as a Producer, Prakash Raj is a multifaceted, multilingual actor who also dabbles in theatre. He is both impulsive and corporate in his outlook while planning a production.
Oscar Films’ V. Ravichandran is very ‘script-minded’, too. “There was a time couple of decades ago when a big time hero would call the shots right from selling a script/idea to a producer, choosing his director, music director, co-star down to the distributor and theatre. Not anymore, at least not with Oscar Films. When a director comes to me with a script, if it convinces me, then I go into the next step of finding which hero/heroine would fit the roles and only then will I move onto the other segments of the movie,” says Ravichandran, whose mega budget Kamal Hassan movie Dasavatharam directed by K S Ravikumar is fast nearing completion. His recent hit Unnale Unnale with an entire new cast became a runaway success largely thanks to a superb script and a talented director, Jeeva.
“When we have such a powerful script from as involved a director as Ravikumar, I will not leave any stone unturned to make a Kamal movie a super success. I can assure you that, with the kind of involvement from Kamal and his dedication to the making of this film, Dasavathram is sure to make a mark in film history,” says Ravichandran. Kamal in ten different characters maybe a novelty factor, but the computer graphics implemented to make the multiple imagery in many of the scenes possible is mind-boggling and very, very realistic. In some of the characters, Kamal is virtually unrecognisable.
Ravichandran learnt the ropes of film production after being in film distribution for 27 years along with his father. Of this, the last ten years have been in full-fledged production. “I don’t know any other trade. I live and breathe films. If my waking hours are filled with production planning, my sleeping hours are filled with dreams of making better and more movies,” says Ravichandran.
Not every producer has pleasant experiences in the course of a film’s journey from start to finish. In fact some have uniquely terrifying experiences. Like K E Gnanavel, Producer of Paruthiveeran. Being a second cousin to actor Surya, Gnanavel was attracted by the film industry; he left an agrarian background in Coimbatore and plunged headlong into films. After a short internship in the industry where he learnt the ropes of film production he started his own production company Studio Green to launch Surya’s brother Karthi. Scouting around for a good script he found one with talented director Ameer, in the form of a rustic village story Paruthiveeran.
Says Gnanavel, “Paruthiveeran took a long time in the making and with virtually unknown stars it was draining my resources, although I knew I had a winner on my hands. To balance the monetary equation I launched the Surya-Jyothika starrer Jillunnu Oru Kaadhal and completed Paruthiveeran. Jillunnu…released first and did well at the box office. Meanwhile Paruthiveeran released and became an instant hit. Karthi became a hero overnight and Ameer turned into an established director who could command a good price. Sadly, the production did not make much money as I had overshot the budget; we just broke even.” Thanks to a loose script which kept changing as the course of the film progressed. Gnanavel was still learning the ropes; the hard lesson was learnt that without a strong script and a director who stuck to it, the film could flounder. Luckily for Karthi, he had a good editor who knitted up the film in a very tight manner.
Then there are producers who play it very safe. Ramesh Babu and his father have been film financiers for over 40 years. While his father always considered the finance business a safer bet than producing a film, Ramesh was smitten by the thought of making it big, establishing a banner and being recognized amongst the film fraternity. But he had to wait long till his father retired from active business and handed over the reins to him. In 2003, Ramesh Babu’s Kanakarathna Movies produced Ramachandra with Satyaraj as hero. Unfortunately it sank without a whimper. “Thereafter I waited for almost four years before I picked up enough courage to produce another film,” says Ramesh. This time he was very careful and chose a hit Telugu film and remade it in Tamil, Pokkiri with Vijay as the hero. The film was an instant hit and continues to jingle the cash registers at the box office.
Ramesh’s strategy was very clear. Take a hit film from any other language and remake it in Tamil. Since he was in the film finance business, he was in any case funding quite a few South Indian films. “If there is a winner, all I have to do is buy the rights, select a hit pair, rope in a well-known director and, voila! A hit is made,” says Ramesh. He has just launched Nam Naadu in Tamil with Sharatkumar in the lead, a remake of hit Malayalam film Lion. An Andhra-ite by birth, Ramesh feels quite comfortable in Chennai, doing business here and “will mostly produce Tamil films. I like the work culture here and the respect and recognition one gets, as compared to other states,” says Ramesh.
A different kettle of fish is S P B Charan, son of leading playback singer S P Balasubramaniam. Charan tried his hand at acting in his home production Unnai Charan Adainthain with a whole lot of new faces, including himself, some years ago. But, a discerning and indifferent Tamil audience was not yet ready for films like that. Unnai…and his next production, Mazhai sank without a trace. But Charan braved on; he was adamant and wanted to produce out of the ordinary films and make it big. “I strongly believed in the power of a water-tight script. If a story moves me, I am all for it. That’s how it happened when Venkat Prabhu narrated the story of Chennai 600028 to me. It was the germination of a seed I had planted many years ago when all of us were neighbourhood cricket players. And, when he came up with the idea, I insisted that he would be the best person to direct it even though he had no experience. So we roped in our friends from the past, some new acquaintances and plunged headlong into the production,” says Charan whose banner Capital Film Works became established overnight when Chennai 600028 became a runaway hit.
Fixing the cost
Budgeting becomes a nightmare in most productions. Guhan’s style of working is quite hands on. Despite doing projects with established directors, carefully selected script and popular stars, he is quite involved and keeps tabs of production costs at every stage. Productions are well planned and budgeted right down to the last detail. In fact, almost every film of theirs has been pre-sold even before the first frame is shot. “Except in the case if Sivaji where we did not even have a budget fixed. Quite frankly, we didn’t know how much it would eventually cost. Therefore, we didn’t make an attempt to sell various regions and distribution till almost the very end. The budget was revised three times during the process of shooting the film and we put in all that we had. Also, this was the first film of ours financed to a large extent by bankers,” says Guhan. As a commemorative film to celebrate the achievements of AVM Productions, Sivaji surpassed all expectations and broke all records in Tamil film history.
‘Oscar’ Ravichandran’s last big budget film was Anniyan starring Vikram. Anniyan was the first film in South India to get institutional finance of Rs. 9.5 crores from the IDBI, the first Tamil film to be insured for Rs. 29.5 crores and above all, the accounting during the film making was done the corporate way. “With banks coming in to finance movies, companies like ours have attained a corporate look. We have introduced systems at every stage of production,” says Ravichandran, who is known to be very media shy and even keeps away from the sets. Unlike other producers, Ravichandran does not like media attention and is the only producer in Chennai who never attends even his own `muhurats' or filmi functions. He is extremely low profile and refuses to be photographed.
With his short experience of producing two films Gnanavel is now firm in his mind as to how to go about his next project. “I will insist on a full-fledged script to start with. I would prefer the story and script to be from an independent source and then select a director who can do justice to it. Jointly, we would then choose the artistes for the different characters. This way, I am sure we cannot go wrong,” says Gnanavel.
Organised financing
While Ravichandran feels that big corporate houses coming into film production will only push up the costs and effect the plans of smaller production houses who may not be able to afford most stars, Prakash Raj feels that such corporatisation is good for the industry. “With corporatisation will come proper planning, budgeting and marketing of the film. If properly packaged, any well-made film can be a success. But, unusually big budget mega productions which will demand the cornering of distributors and theatre circuits will effect the release of a smaller film.”
In today’s scenario, with banks coming in funds are not too much of a problem. Says Ravichandran, “Today I can launch a film with Rs.1000. The rest will all come from institutions, sponsors, distributors, theatre owners, etc. If I am confident of my production and its outcome, I will stick my neck out and take the money because I am sure that at the release, everyone will make profits. After all, film making is a business like any other and whoever invests money is surely looking for gains.”
Gnanavel too has built up a fair track record in film production, which will stand him in good stead when he launches his third production. Getting banks to finance his next film will not be difficult. And, from the lessons he has learnt from his two films, Gnanavel will be more careful while planning his next production.
S P B Charan is already thinking big. His next production already has an international outlook with an impressive cast which will automatically bring in the finance. A joint production between his Capital Film Works and Om Cinemas USA Ltd, the suspense thriller Achamundu Achamundu will be directed by US-based film maker Arun Vaidyanathan and shot entirely in the US.
The times are a-changing; the new mantra is to run a production company like a well-managed corporate house. With well-thought out plans and a clear-cut strategy, a tightly controlled production can never go wrong, if all the ingredients are chosen well. That’s why, in Tamil filmdom, more hits are happening, even with unconventional story lines and new actors.
END
The Balancing Equation
By Nikhil Raghavan / Original manuscript of edited version published in The Week
For a mathematics professor, normally living in a world of formulae and equations, dealing with human figures and emotions is uniquely strange. Nevertheless, Manil Suri seems to be excelling in his endeavour of painting vivid canvasses of human emotions, story telling and flowing narratives.
Personally, I always judge a book by the pages within its covers and the story in isolation, without being influenced by the author’s previous works or his persona. A story is a story and how best it unfolds and progresses from the first page to the last, is the crux of the matter – the success or failure of the book, and not because a great writer has decided to write another tome. “I had to have a release from the world of Algebra and equations. I decided to be a professor by day and a writer by night,” says Manil Suri, Professor of Mathematics at University of Maryland. Maintaining equilibrium of thought, I wonder? But, the Jekyl and Hyde switch of his personality is probably the reason for the success of his narration.
Manil Suri, incidentally, has just one book to his credit, as an author – The Death of Vishnu, which won the McKittrick Prize, was long-listed for the Booker Prize and the IMPAC prize. Many other nominations did not result in a win. But, that is beside the point, as we are now dealing with a book, which has been in the writing for seven years (seven year itch?) and just released in India – The Age of Shiva.
Manil’s second novel is a sweeping epic that traces the fortunes of a family in the aftermath of Indian independence. The Age of Shiva is the powerful story of an ancient society in transition and an extraordinary portrait of maternal love.
In the midst of a whirlwind tour of Indian Metros, Manil Suri spoke to The Week about his life as a writer.
What led you to writing novels, starting with The Death of Vishnu?
I had started writing a novel even before finalising The Death of Vishnu. That did not materialise and I attempted a few short stories. Somewhere along the way, the first book happened and before I knew it, an epic manuscript was emerging. It finally turned out as The Death of Vishnu.
Why did you take about 7 years to publish the second book?
After the first novel, I sort of became a bit disoriented. For about a year or so, I didn’t do anything. I was letting myself drift along to another novel. When you write your first novel, you give it all you have got. You are not even sure if it will get published. And, when that happens and the book becomes a critically acclaimed novel, you wonder, how you are going to write another one. You have a benchmark to be judged against. You have to re-think on story construction, character build-ups, length of narrative…so many aspects which were not there when the first one was being written.
As a Mathematics Professor, do you construct your book in a precise, calculating manner?
With the first book it was like that. Everything was planned along set outlines and frames. When The Age of Shiva was being conceived, the character of the son, Ashvin was supposed to be the central one. Somewhere along the way, the story got sidetracked by the powerful character of Meera. In that context, it is woman-centric novel.
Why did you base your novel during the post partition days?
It is not as much the partition or post-partition that forms the basis. In the fifties, India was waking up from orthodoxy to modernism. Religious fundamentalism was becoming a political power. The scenario of those days was the right basis for story telling. The Age of Shiva is set in 1955 when the ugly scars of Partition are just beginning to heal. It is more a post colonial novel than a post partition.
What is the 3rd book in the trilogy titled as?
The working title is The Birth of Brahmma. But, as the story develops and the book is completed, it may change.
Apart from India, which other country has had a better acceptance of the first book? Europe or US?
The US, of course. And, the book has sold well in Sweden and Holland. (The Death of Vishnu has been translated into 22 languages).
Apart from teaching Mathematics and writing novels, what are your other passions / past times – which help you to unwind?
Cooking is an obsession. I love to cook for any and everybody. Small, family gatherings to large parties. My favourite cuisine is Vietnamese. Cooking allows me to take a look at life from a totally different perspective. I take on a different dimension from the world of mathematics and writing.
What about your short stories? Are you planning to publish them?
I have published one recently. But, the earlier ones, which were all written before my first book was published, are not really worth publishing. They are mostly random ramblings, which every author experiments with for some kind of artistic release from the serious business of writing a novel.
What kind of readership / audience did you keep in mind when conceiving the second novel?
Actually, no audience. It is difficult, though. Before the first one was published, I didn’t have any audience. Then, post release, the book became popular and a definite readership emerged. This becomes a problem when you are working on the second novel, because you have to keep the already developed audience in mind. But, I shut them out from my mind when I wrote The Age of Shiva. Maybe that’s why it took almost seven years to complete.
While The Death of Vishnu was set in Bombay, The Age of Shiva is set in Rawalpindi, Delhi and Bombay. Which city is the setting for the third?
I wanted the story to be set in the US and India. But, it soon transpired that the whole story is centred around Bombay or, Mumbai as it is called now. The Age of Shiva was set in what was then called Bombay.
You said that the book was written from a woman’s point of view. Therefore, would you expect a majority of readers to be women? Is it deliberate, because, there is a perceptible and increasing number of women who are taking to reading?
It is a fact that in most of the western world, women form the majority of book readers. In India, too, this scenario is emerging.
How do you manage the two identities – one of a professor and another of an author?
I think I took to writing as an escape from the closed world of Mathematics. Probably, I wanted to maintain my sanity. I would sometimes watch a colleague of mine, so immersed in his profession, not concerned about his looks or mannerisms as long as his core activity of furthering his professional cause, was indulged in. I didn’t want to become like that. Writing is a release from the hardcore profession that I am in, of teaching Mathematics. And, it helps in honing my creative instincts. I wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of doing something else other than teaching mathematics.
Title: The Age of Shiva
Author: Manil Suri
Publisher: Penguin Books India - Bloomsbury
Price: Rs. 495
By Nikhil Raghavan / Precious Features Syndicate
For a mathematics professor, normally living in a world of formulae and equations, dealing with human figures and emotions is uniquely strange. Nevertheless, Manil Suri seems to be excelling in his endeavour of painting vivid canvasses of human emotions, story telling and flowing narratives.
Personally, I always judge a book by the pages within its covers and the story in isolation, without being influenced by the author’s previous works or his persona. A story is a story and how best it unfolds and progresses from the first page to the last, is the crux of the matter – the success or failure of the book, and not because a great writer has decided to write another tome. “I had to have a release from the world of Algebra and equations. I decided to be a professor by day and a writer by night,” says Manil Suri, Professor of Mathematics at University of Maryland. Maintaining equilibrium of thought, I wonder? But, the Jekyl and Hyde switch of his personality is probably the reason for the success of his narration.
Manil Suri, incidentally, has just one book to his credit, as an author – The Death of Vishnu, which won the McKittrick Prize, was long-listed for the Booker Prize and the IMPAC prize. Many other nominations did not result in a win. But, that is beside the point, as we are now dealing with a book, which has been in the writing for seven years (seven year itch?) and just released in India – The Age of Shiva.
Manil’s second novel is a sweeping epic that traces the fortunes of a family in the aftermath of Indian independence. The Age of Shiva is the powerful story of an ancient society in transition and an extraordinary portrait of maternal love.
In the midst of a whirlwind tour of Indian Metros, Manil Suri spoke to The Week about his life as a writer.
What led you to writing novels, starting with The Death of Vishnu?
I had started writing a novel even before finalising The Death of Vishnu. That did not materialise and I attempted a few short stories. Somewhere along the way, the first book happened and before I knew it, an epic manuscript was emerging. It finally turned out as The Death of Vishnu.
Why did you take about 7 years to publish the second book?
After the first novel, I sort of became a bit disoriented. For about a year or so, I didn’t do anything. I was letting myself drift along to another novel. When you write your first novel, you give it all you have got. You are not even sure if it will get published. And, when that happens and the book becomes a critically acclaimed novel, you wonder, how you are going to write another one. You have a benchmark to be judged against. You have to re-think on story construction, character build-ups, length of narrative…so many aspects which were not there when the first one was being written.
As a Mathematics Professor, do you construct your book in a precise, calculating manner?
With the first book it was like that. Everything was planned along set outlines and frames. When The Age of Shiva was being conceived, the character of the son, Ashvin was supposed to be the central one. Somewhere along the way, the story got sidetracked by the powerful character of Meera. In that context, it is woman-centric novel.
Why did you base your novel during the post partition days?
It is not as much the partition or post-partition that forms the basis. In the fifties, India was waking up from orthodoxy to modernism. Religious fundamentalism was becoming a political power. The scenario of those days was the right basis for story telling. The Age of Shiva is set in 1955 when the ugly scars of Partition are just beginning to heal. It is more a post colonial novel than a post partition.
What is the 3rd book in the trilogy titled as?
The working title is The Birth of Brahmma. But, as the story develops and the book is completed, it may change.
Apart from India, which other country has had a better acceptance of the first book? Europe or US?
The US, of course. And, the book has sold well in Sweden and Holland. (The Death of Vishnu has been translated into 22 languages).
Apart from teaching Mathematics and writing novels, what are your other passions / past times – which help you to unwind?
Cooking is an obsession. I love to cook for any and everybody. Small, family gatherings to large parties. My favourite cuisine is Vietnamese. Cooking allows me to take a look at life from a totally different perspective. I take on a different dimension from the world of mathematics and writing.
What about your short stories? Are you planning to publish them?
I have published one recently. But, the earlier ones, which were all written before my first book was published, are not really worth publishing. They are mostly random ramblings, which every author experiments with for some kind of artistic release from the serious business of writing a novel.
What kind of readership / audience did you keep in mind when conceiving the second novel?
Actually, no audience. It is difficult, though. Before the first one was published, I didn’t have any audience. Then, post release, the book became popular and a definite readership emerged. This becomes a problem when you are working on the second novel, because you have to keep the already developed audience in mind. But, I shut them out from my mind when I wrote The Age of Shiva. Maybe that’s why it took almost seven years to complete.
While The Death of Vishnu was set in Bombay, The Age of Shiva is set in Rawalpindi, Delhi and Bombay. Which city is the setting for the third?
I wanted the story to be set in the US and India. But, it soon transpired that the whole story is centred around Bombay or, Mumbai as it is called now. The Age of Shiva was set in what was then called Bombay.
You said that the book was written from a woman’s point of view. Therefore, would you expect a majority of readers to be women? Is it deliberate, because, there is a perceptible and increasing number of women who are taking to reading?
It is a fact that in most of the western world, women form the majority of book readers. In India, too, this scenario is emerging.
How do you manage the two identities – one of a professor and another of an author?
I think I took to writing as an escape from the closed world of Mathematics. Probably, I wanted to maintain my sanity. I would sometimes watch a colleague of mine, so immersed in his profession, not concerned about his looks or mannerisms as long as his core activity of furthering his professional cause, was indulged in. I didn’t want to become like that. Writing is a release from the hardcore profession that I am in, of teaching Mathematics. And, it helps in honing my creative instincts. I wanted to prove to myself that I was capable of doing something else other than teaching mathematics.
Title: The Age of Shiva
Author: Manil Suri
Publisher: Penguin Books India - Bloomsbury
Price: Rs. 495
By Nikhil Raghavan / Precious Features Syndicate
Future One
Story: Nikhil Raghavan
The qualifying line-up looks very impressive indeed. For the first time in ten years, the grid will boast of 24 cars. Special invitee Lewis Hamilton will be at the start button to ‘flag off’ the Special Tenth Anniversary Indian Formula One Grand Prix of the Asia Pacific and Middle/Far East region.
It is year 2022. Fifteen years since I said that I will write this article if things work out the way I had envisaged. Work out it did, and how! India has long shed its colonial hang-ups and become more Westernised. A little bit American, I must say, because, America itself has adopted a pro-European stance. Globalisation has had its toll even on America, once considered a super power. India is close to becoming one, China willing!
Our Ministers are now known as Senators and the President is numero uno in the political scheme of things. The Prime Minister has…well…who? Prime Minister?
From an agrarian economy, the nation has transformed into an industrial super power with a majority leaning towards the automotive business. The Asia-Pacific and Middle East/Far East are now the automotive jurisdiction of India-based automobile manufacturers.
Amongst the world’s leading brands now being made in India, the old warhorse Ambassador still ploughs on as private taxis, call taxis, tourist taxis and such public transport needs.
Cricket, hockey and football have almost vanished from the Indian sports horizon giving way to motorsports, baseball and golf. These are the new national favourite sports with motorsports clearly leading the way.
The architect of motorsports in India, Vijay Mallya, having made his fortunes from selling Indian made Scotch Whisky to the Scottish and letting his favourite bird Kingfisher fly over his vast kingdom, oversees the fortunes of five F1 tracks in the country – Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Madras and Bangalore (please note that these original names have been restored to the cities by more progressive thinking Senators and Presidents).
Vijay’s son, Siddarth owns all five tracks. His father’s liquor business was not his cup of tea. He gets his kicks from racing cars and the lucrative business of motorsports. He is aiming to be the next generation Bernie Ecclestone. The long-retired Narain Karthikeyan who for many years retained the tag of being the fastest and the first Indian in F1 and his immediate followers Karun Chandok and Armaan Ebrahim are now team owners.
NK Racing’s Mahindra-powered Team NK-Mahindra was the 2021 Champion. Karun’s Chandok-Tata Team is close behind and Armaan’s Team Meco Mercedes is a close third. In the constructor’s Championship, Chandok-Tata pipped the NK-Mahindra to the winning post with just one point. With extensive globalisation, engine manufacturers like Mahindra and Tata have surpassed the quality standards of even Ferrari and Mercedes. Racing teams from the rest of the world make up the remaining line-up! Would you have believed this fifteen years ago?
India and Asia in general, Far East and Middle East make up an independent racing region, in close competition with the European F1 Championships. With five tracks in India, two in China, two in the Middle East and two in Singapore and Malaysia, the annual jamboree now boasts of 22 races (two in each circuit) spread over the year.
The Driver’s Championship is named after Bernie Ecclestone who is considered as the father of F1 racing movement. The Constructor’s Championship is named after Max Mosley, formerly chief of FIA.
The new line-up for the three Indian teams has just been announced for the 2022 season. The country having a history of dynastic rule in every sphere of activity – politics, films, industry, business, etc., the racing teams have also adopted a similar strategy.
The NK-Mahindra team has Narain’s son Vikram (named so because he is perceived as a winner) and Aditya Patel’s younger brother, Akshay. The Chandok-Tata team has Karun Jr (yes, Karun’s son!) and Roy Banajee, yesteryear champ Rayomand’s son. Meco Mercedes has Akbar (Armaan’s son, named in memory of his illustrious dad, Akbar ‘Akku’ Ebrahim, the first Indian to have driven in F3, some decades ago) and Mika Akkineni (Aditya Akkineni infuses racing tradition into his filmi family, by naming his son after Mika Hakkinen). The genes of India’s founding fathers in racing, Vicky Chandok, Akbar Ebrahim and Karthikeyan lives on in the third generation of drivers.
The kick-off inaugural race is at the by-now-famous street circuit in Delhi, the India Gate Speedway. Indian President Rahul Gandhi along with Noel Tata (who, now heads the Tata organisation) are the Chief Guests. Among the super veterans who are special invitees are Michael and Ralf Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, Mika Hakkinen and others from yesteryear F1 races.
The adjoining private airfield owned by Richard ‘Virgin’ Branson is choc-a-block with private jets. Old-timer actor-aviator John Travolta, a friend of both Branson and Mallya, has already parked his A300 in its reserved spot. Vijay Mallya preferred his custom-built Lear. Michael and brother Ralf flew in together from their favourite nesting islands off Goa. Their yachts along with that of Vijay’s are moored at Goa’s private harbour; so they flew in on their super-powered chopper. The entire celebrity crowd at F1 will fly back to Vijay’s private island Kingfisher’s Nest, after the Sunday’s races, for a night of wild partying. It has been often reported that ‘wild’ is an understatement.
Being a private island, it is not governed by any country’s laws. Everything goes, here. India has indeed changed, for the island is declared as a tax haven. For the last ten years of the existence of the region’s F1 circuit, after every inaugural race in Delhi, the who’s who of motorsports converge at the island and let their hair down. Till date, not one has spoken about what goes on there. Every invitee is sworn to secrecy and every employee on the island is under oath of confidentiality. Understandably, the press is not invited.
With such restrictions on the Press, what else can one write about the glamour side of India’s F1 races? Nothing! I will keep you abreast of happening and developments on the tracks after each race. That will include details about umbrella-girls and cheer leaders. Suffice it to say, there will be plenty of action on and off the track, T-boning included. A tradition has to be kept up, you see. Bye for now; qualifying has just started and I am off to trackside.
The qualifying line-up looks very impressive indeed. For the first time in ten years, the grid will boast of 24 cars. Special invitee Lewis Hamilton will be at the start button to ‘flag off’ the Special Tenth Anniversary Indian Formula One Grand Prix of the Asia Pacific and Middle/Far East region.
It is year 2022. Fifteen years since I said that I will write this article if things work out the way I had envisaged. Work out it did, and how! India has long shed its colonial hang-ups and become more Westernised. A little bit American, I must say, because, America itself has adopted a pro-European stance. Globalisation has had its toll even on America, once considered a super power. India is close to becoming one, China willing!
Our Ministers are now known as Senators and the President is numero uno in the political scheme of things. The Prime Minister has…well…who? Prime Minister?
From an agrarian economy, the nation has transformed into an industrial super power with a majority leaning towards the automotive business. The Asia-Pacific and Middle East/Far East are now the automotive jurisdiction of India-based automobile manufacturers.
Amongst the world’s leading brands now being made in India, the old warhorse Ambassador still ploughs on as private taxis, call taxis, tourist taxis and such public transport needs.
Cricket, hockey and football have almost vanished from the Indian sports horizon giving way to motorsports, baseball and golf. These are the new national favourite sports with motorsports clearly leading the way.
The architect of motorsports in India, Vijay Mallya, having made his fortunes from selling Indian made Scotch Whisky to the Scottish and letting his favourite bird Kingfisher fly over his vast kingdom, oversees the fortunes of five F1 tracks in the country – Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Madras and Bangalore (please note that these original names have been restored to the cities by more progressive thinking Senators and Presidents).
Vijay’s son, Siddarth owns all five tracks. His father’s liquor business was not his cup of tea. He gets his kicks from racing cars and the lucrative business of motorsports. He is aiming to be the next generation Bernie Ecclestone. The long-retired Narain Karthikeyan who for many years retained the tag of being the fastest and the first Indian in F1 and his immediate followers Karun Chandok and Armaan Ebrahim are now team owners.
NK Racing’s Mahindra-powered Team NK-Mahindra was the 2021 Champion. Karun’s Chandok-Tata Team is close behind and Armaan’s Team Meco Mercedes is a close third. In the constructor’s Championship, Chandok-Tata pipped the NK-Mahindra to the winning post with just one point. With extensive globalisation, engine manufacturers like Mahindra and Tata have surpassed the quality standards of even Ferrari and Mercedes. Racing teams from the rest of the world make up the remaining line-up! Would you have believed this fifteen years ago?
India and Asia in general, Far East and Middle East make up an independent racing region, in close competition with the European F1 Championships. With five tracks in India, two in China, two in the Middle East and two in Singapore and Malaysia, the annual jamboree now boasts of 22 races (two in each circuit) spread over the year.
The Driver’s Championship is named after Bernie Ecclestone who is considered as the father of F1 racing movement. The Constructor’s Championship is named after Max Mosley, formerly chief of FIA.
The new line-up for the three Indian teams has just been announced for the 2022 season. The country having a history of dynastic rule in every sphere of activity – politics, films, industry, business, etc., the racing teams have also adopted a similar strategy.
The NK-Mahindra team has Narain’s son Vikram (named so because he is perceived as a winner) and Aditya Patel’s younger brother, Akshay. The Chandok-Tata team has Karun Jr (yes, Karun’s son!) and Roy Banajee, yesteryear champ Rayomand’s son. Meco Mercedes has Akbar (Armaan’s son, named in memory of his illustrious dad, Akbar ‘Akku’ Ebrahim, the first Indian to have driven in F3, some decades ago) and Mika Akkineni (Aditya Akkineni infuses racing tradition into his filmi family, by naming his son after Mika Hakkinen). The genes of India’s founding fathers in racing, Vicky Chandok, Akbar Ebrahim and Karthikeyan lives on in the third generation of drivers.
The kick-off inaugural race is at the by-now-famous street circuit in Delhi, the India Gate Speedway. Indian President Rahul Gandhi along with Noel Tata (who, now heads the Tata organisation) are the Chief Guests. Among the super veterans who are special invitees are Michael and Ralf Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen, Mika Hakkinen and others from yesteryear F1 races.
The adjoining private airfield owned by Richard ‘Virgin’ Branson is choc-a-block with private jets. Old-timer actor-aviator John Travolta, a friend of both Branson and Mallya, has already parked his A300 in its reserved spot. Vijay Mallya preferred his custom-built Lear. Michael and brother Ralf flew in together from their favourite nesting islands off Goa. Their yachts along with that of Vijay’s are moored at Goa’s private harbour; so they flew in on their super-powered chopper. The entire celebrity crowd at F1 will fly back to Vijay’s private island Kingfisher’s Nest, after the Sunday’s races, for a night of wild partying. It has been often reported that ‘wild’ is an understatement.
Being a private island, it is not governed by any country’s laws. Everything goes, here. India has indeed changed, for the island is declared as a tax haven. For the last ten years of the existence of the region’s F1 circuit, after every inaugural race in Delhi, the who’s who of motorsports converge at the island and let their hair down. Till date, not one has spoken about what goes on there. Every invitee is sworn to secrecy and every employee on the island is under oath of confidentiality. Understandably, the press is not invited.
With such restrictions on the Press, what else can one write about the glamour side of India’s F1 races? Nothing! I will keep you abreast of happening and developments on the tracks after each race. That will include details about umbrella-girls and cheer leaders. Suffice it to say, there will be plenty of action on and off the track, T-boning included. A tradition has to be kept up, you see. Bye for now; qualifying has just started and I am off to trackside.
Tackling sand dunes
Story: Nikhil Raghavan
The sheer power of 4-wheel drive. The grit and determination of a bunch of adventurers. The never-say-die Jeeps. The treacherous sand bed of the mighty Palar River. Hot, blazing Chennai sun.
This combination of guts and glory exemplified the second edition of the annual event, The Palar Challenge organized by Jeep Thrills. Jeep Thrills is India ’s first and only Internet forum dedicated to Jeeps, 4WDs and Off-Road Events. Established in March 2005 the forum brings together 4WD lovers, collectors and enthusiasts from across the country, and the members hold monthly off-road events, where they take their 4WDs off the road and challenge their vehicles and themselves to the maximum.
“We have a strength of 400 members, covering a variety of 4WDs imported, assembled and manufactured in India. Every year during the 2nd Weekend of August, we organize a 100kms drive for 4WDs (with 2 speed transfer case) on the Palar Riverbed in Tamil Nadu. This event spans over 2 days,” says Arkaprava Datta, one of the founding members of Jeep Thrills and a keen and enthusiastic off-roader.
The Palar River which rises in Karnataka and courses through parts of Andhra Pradesh before winding across Tamil Nadu on its way to the Bay of Bengal is partly dry during most parts of the year. The riverbed forms an ideal hunting ground for both legal and illegal sand quarrying. Consequently, with its undulating and constantly changing topography, the Palar River bed attracts the adventurous Jeep Thrills members very often for their Off Roading activities. In fact, last year Jeep Thrills launched their inaugural annual event The Palar Challenge and found that the challenges encountered on the river bed was like none other terrains in the wilderness. Says Arkaprava, “Every time we go to the Palar River-bed, the terrain is different. Each occasion is a new experience for Jeep Thrills members. Compared to the granite quarry runs, the sand dunes are treacherous and punishes boht man and machine.”
The Palar Challenge is a team based competitive Trial Event where participants are divided into random teams and compete with each other. Jeep Thrills would like to emphasise the fact that the Palar Challenge is different from Cross Country and Raid-Rallies. The Palar Challenge promotes ecologically friendly driving techniques and encourages team based outdoor activities.
The 2007 event
This year, The Palar Challenge was held in late August under still hot Madras skies. Day One started with a Lec-Dem of Sand Driving Techniques and Ascending and Descending Techniques.
The participating vehicles included MG410, 1992 Toyota Land Cruiser FZJ80, CJ3B –Petrol (F4-134), MM540X4, CJ3B –Diesel (CJ340DP & CL340DP), MM540s and CJ3B –Diesels and CJ3B –Petrol, CJ500D, Nissan patrol, MG413W, CJ3B –Diesel (CJ340DP & CL340DP).
The two teams were allocated a sand quarry each to practice for 15 minutes and then they progressed into the Event. The first two sand quarries were scored for technical driving skills and errors were penalized.
The next obstacle was a 3 storey sand wall followed by a water obstacle through which participants demonstrated fording and driving in deep water (500mm-700mm).
Day Two started with a brief sand drive and then a Winching and Recovery Techniques Demo. Then they proceeded to a cross-country section of rapid short to medium climbs.
This was followed by two team events:
The ‘Tyre Changing without a Jack’ (or any lifting device for that matter) was won by Delhi JEEPers on a MG410 - Sudheer Kashyap, Laxman Vishwanath, Adhiraaj Singh, Vidhyun Singh & Sarvinder Singh.
The ‘Vehicle Recovery’ with two rear heels dug in was won by Uday Bhan Singh (UBS), Rajamohan, Rajkumar, Rajesh and Srinath. Each team picked up three vehicles from a lot and had to use two 4WDs to pull out one 4WD.
The Grand Finale to The Palar Challenge 2007 was a timed run through a sand quarry consisting of 2 major Descents and 2 major Climbs, the final climb had an approach filled with about 500mm water; this slowed down all the vehicles.
Since most of the participating vehicles were from Mahindra & Mahindra, the company had sent one of their senior managers, Mr. Sudheer Kashyap as an observer for this event. M&M also sponsored the Trophies for this year’s Challenge.
The sheer power of 4-wheel drive. The grit and determination of a bunch of adventurers. The never-say-die Jeeps. The treacherous sand bed of the mighty Palar River. Hot, blazing Chennai sun.
This combination of guts and glory exemplified the second edition of the annual event, The Palar Challenge organized by Jeep Thrills. Jeep Thrills is India ’s first and only Internet forum dedicated to Jeeps, 4WDs and Off-Road Events. Established in March 2005 the forum brings together 4WD lovers, collectors and enthusiasts from across the country, and the members hold monthly off-road events, where they take their 4WDs off the road and challenge their vehicles and themselves to the maximum.
“We have a strength of 400 members, covering a variety of 4WDs imported, assembled and manufactured in India. Every year during the 2nd Weekend of August, we organize a 100kms drive for 4WDs (with 2 speed transfer case) on the Palar Riverbed in Tamil Nadu. This event spans over 2 days,” says Arkaprava Datta, one of the founding members of Jeep Thrills and a keen and enthusiastic off-roader.
The Palar River which rises in Karnataka and courses through parts of Andhra Pradesh before winding across Tamil Nadu on its way to the Bay of Bengal is partly dry during most parts of the year. The riverbed forms an ideal hunting ground for both legal and illegal sand quarrying. Consequently, with its undulating and constantly changing topography, the Palar River bed attracts the adventurous Jeep Thrills members very often for their Off Roading activities. In fact, last year Jeep Thrills launched their inaugural annual event The Palar Challenge and found that the challenges encountered on the river bed was like none other terrains in the wilderness. Says Arkaprava, “Every time we go to the Palar River-bed, the terrain is different. Each occasion is a new experience for Jeep Thrills members. Compared to the granite quarry runs, the sand dunes are treacherous and punishes boht man and machine.”
The Palar Challenge is a team based competitive Trial Event where participants are divided into random teams and compete with each other. Jeep Thrills would like to emphasise the fact that the Palar Challenge is different from Cross Country and Raid-Rallies. The Palar Challenge promotes ecologically friendly driving techniques and encourages team based outdoor activities.
The 2007 event
This year, The Palar Challenge was held in late August under still hot Madras skies. Day One started with a Lec-Dem of Sand Driving Techniques and Ascending and Descending Techniques.
The participating vehicles included MG410, 1992 Toyota Land Cruiser FZJ80, CJ3B –Petrol (F4-134), MM540X4, CJ3B –Diesel (CJ340DP & CL340DP), MM540s and CJ3B –Diesels and CJ3B –Petrol, CJ500D, Nissan patrol, MG413W, CJ3B –Diesel (CJ340DP & CL340DP).
The two teams were allocated a sand quarry each to practice for 15 minutes and then they progressed into the Event. The first two sand quarries were scored for technical driving skills and errors were penalized.
The next obstacle was a 3 storey sand wall followed by a water obstacle through which participants demonstrated fording and driving in deep water (500mm-700mm).
Day Two started with a brief sand drive and then a Winching and Recovery Techniques Demo. Then they proceeded to a cross-country section of rapid short to medium climbs.
This was followed by two team events:
The ‘Tyre Changing without a Jack’ (or any lifting device for that matter) was won by Delhi JEEPers on a MG410 - Sudheer Kashyap, Laxman Vishwanath, Adhiraaj Singh, Vidhyun Singh & Sarvinder Singh.
The ‘Vehicle Recovery’ with two rear heels dug in was won by Uday Bhan Singh (UBS), Rajamohan, Rajkumar, Rajesh and Srinath. Each team picked up three vehicles from a lot and had to use two 4WDs to pull out one 4WD.
The Grand Finale to The Palar Challenge 2007 was a timed run through a sand quarry consisting of 2 major Descents and 2 major Climbs, the final climb had an approach filled with about 500mm water; this slowed down all the vehicles.
Since most of the participating vehicles were from Mahindra & Mahindra, the company had sent one of their senior managers, Mr. Sudheer Kashyap as an observer for this event. M&M also sponsored the Trophies for this year’s Challenge.
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