Nine days and a killer wave: the story behind Ajith’s ‘Prema Pusthakam’

The year was 1992, and a young handsome boy from Madras called Ajith Kumar was cast in the leading role of producer Poorna Chandra Rao’s Telugu film. The film was titled Prema Pusthakam (Book of Love) and was to be directed by newcomer Gollapudi Srinivas.

The shoot started at Vizag amid much fanfare. Gollapudi Maruti Rao, Srinivas’ father, was present during the occasion and remembers that phase vividly. “The first few days of the shoot went on smoothly. I remember observing that my son had a mental picture of the story, and that the actor was responding to it well. The film was coming out well,” recalls Maruti Rao, in a telephonic chat.

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Most film buffs in Andhra Pradesh knew about the film thanks to the producer’s promotional campaign. “People were talking about it,” he recalls, “Each day, a strip used to appear in a newspaper about the happenings on set.”

Prema Pusthakam was turning out well till the ninth day of shoot, when Srinivas had set up a shot in the harbour. “He was standing on a stone trying to envision a scene when a giant wave came and hit him.”

The next day’s strip in the paper carried news of the director’s death.

It shattered Maruti Rao and the entire project went for a toss. There was a lull for 30 to 40 days, after which Maruti decided to take over the film. “In order to keep my son’s dream alive, I had to complete the picture,” he says.

It was the most emotional decision that Maruti had ever made. “That’s a big story. The film was a 26-year-old’s vision of a romantic story and I, 55 then, had to complete it. I was still grieving but I had to stand at the very same place he had envisioned for the script and complete his vision, with the same hero and heroine. It was a romantic film, but it turned out to be tragic for me as a parent,” says Maruti, his voice quivering.

Maruti’s challenge was two-fold: he had to complete his son’s project with a debut actor, who was still learning the tricks of the trade. “It is very easy to talk about Ajith now, but back in 1992, I could see that he was just doing what was asked of him. He was a nervous boy, but he had all the makings of a good artiste, thanks to his body language and dialogue delivery. I never thought Ajith would become a big star.”

Much later, the film released. “I was just completing the world that my son had created. The film came out reasonably well, I’d say, and was a reasonable success,” he says.

Subsequently, Maruti Rao has seen the nine-day work of his son and Ajith more than a hundred times. “I could see how Srinivas was moulding Ajith into the character. But alas, nine days is a very short time in the filmmaking process, especially for a debut director.”

Prema Pusthakam was Maruti’s first and only directorial. “I am essentially a writer. I never wanted to direct a movie; it was too late for me at that point. How can I think about directing again when the first step itself began with a tragedy?”