More than sixty years before the multilingual blockbuster ‘Baahubali happened, a film producer from Coimbatore made a masterpiece in six different languages. In addition to its box office records in all the languages that it was remade into, the film also gave MGR his superstar status.

The movie moghul of South India, S.M. Sriramulu Naidu, was one of those rare achievers who built the Central and Pakshiraja Studios in Coimbatore, and also converting an old palace into the Chamundeswari Studios in Bengaluru. Circa 1954, Sriramulu Naidu decided to produce the movie ‘Malai Kallan’ in more languages than one. Initially, he produced the movie starring M.G. Ramachandran and Bhanumathi in Tamil, while also simultaneously filming it in Telugu with N.T. Rama Rao in the lead. He then produced it in Malayalam with Sathyan in the lead. A Kannada version was also made at the same time.

The movie was a blockbuster hit, catapulting MGR to superstardom in Tamil cinema. The film’s success motivated Sriramulu Naidu to produce the same story in Sinhalese and Hindi as well. The Sinhalese version was named ‘Surasena,’ while the Hindi one was called ‘Azad.’

When Sriramulu Naidu made his mind up about shooting the film in Hindi, he decided to do the filming in Coimbatore itself. He shortlisted Dilip Kumar and Meena Kumari for the film even before proceeding to Bombay. Sriramulu Naidu stayed at the Taj in Bombay and sought the callsheet from Dilip Kumar, with an assurance that the movie shoot would not exceed a month. Dilip Kumar was convinced that the Coimbatorean filmmaker will stick to his word and agreed to work at the Pakshiraja Studios in Puliyakulam.

Sriramulu Naidu returned to Coimbatore and created a schedule that would have won the accolade of any Operations Research specialist in the world. The film crew arrived at Puliyakulam from Bombay and the entire movie was shot in just 20 days. It was a record in those days, when movies took a long time to finish. Hindi movies were especially notorious for the time they took to make. ‘Azad’ was a bit hit and it ran for over 100 days. Sriramulu Naidu was felicitated in Bombay, the first Coimbatorean to be honoured in Bollywood. All the versions of this movie received excellent reviews and won awards.

The house where a part of the film was shot, was known as ‘Sivan Illam,’ and it continues to be a jewel on the beautiful Trichy Road. The six language multilingual work of art, made by a Coimbatore-based film producer, is now part of the history of Indian cinema.