True to its name, Pollachi (pozhil vaichi) exhibits immense natural wealth and prosperity , from the lush green paddy fields to farm lands with red and black soil set against the majestic blue mountains , engulfed by streams , lakes , rivers and dams. These elements, complimented with a salubrious climate throughout the year, makes Pollachi a “Nature’s holy-grail” where film-makers flock to.
A green town, it has all that it takes to make an ideal location for a village-themed movie and song sequences.
Industry sources estimate around 1,500 movies must have been shot in Pollachi taluk. The number would be as high as 5,000 if songs or village scenes are considered. In addition to regional movies, the taluk also attract Bollywood, Bengali and Sinhalese film-makers.In the past years , the town saw a flurry of activities with Shankar’s most anticiapted up-coming film “Ai” – with a song sequence, Karthi and Santhanam’s “All in all Alaguraja” and Ranbir Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra’s “barfi”.
In 2009, the climax scene of ‘Kuselan’ was shot at Amaravathy Sainik School in Pollachi. Tamil super star, Rajnikanth stayed for four days and 3,000 junior artists and 1,500 school children were mobilised for the movie. A portion of its Hindi-remake —’Billu Barber’, has also been shot at a matriculation school here. The presence of actor Shah Rukh Khan was a visual treat for the locals.
“Big directors, including Manirathnam and Shankar, find this a very lucky place and they schedule at least two days of shooting here for all their films,” said a location manager.
Even Malayalam superstar Mammooty has a special attachment to Pollachi. In 2008, two of his movies — Maya Bazaar and Annan Thampi — were shot here.
Starting from MGR’s ‘Malai Kallan’ in 1956, the town had seen shootings of various movies that include Bhagha Pirivinai (Sivaji), Murattu Kaalai (Rajnikanth), Kizhakku Vaasal (Karthik), Chinna Gounder (Vijayakanth), Devar Magan (Kamal) and Bombay (Arvind Swamy). A landmark movie in Tamil Cinema, Kaadhalikka Neramillai , the biggest grosser of the year 1964, starring Balaiya, Muthuraman and Nagesh was also shot in the region.
“Earlier, studios were mainly present in Coimbatore (Central & Patchi Raja) and Salem (Modern). Even leading play writers including Karunanidhi travelled to Pollachi and wrote scripts here,” said a source.
Ad film-directors and television serial makers too have started making a beeline to Pollachi. Aircel, Airtel, Hutch, Chennai Silks, Three Roses, Brooke Bond, Air Deccan, Tata Indicom, Chandrika Soap, Pepsi are some of the commercials shot here. “There are two to three commercial shootings every month,” said a source.
Among the leading actors, the region has seen the likes of Anil Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, Manisha Koirala, Ajay Devgan, Kajol, Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Mahesh Babu, Siddharth, Balakrishna, Junior NTR, Mohanlal, Aiswarya Rai, Anupam Kher.
