'He wanted people to know the truth' Ram Kumar on father Sivaji Ganesan's autobiography, what he calls his 'will'

Ram Kumar

Ram Kumar, eldest son of thespian Sivaji Ganesan, recently released the autobiography of the late Tamil actor called Enathu Suya Sarithai.

He speaks about the genesis of the book:

The idea for a book on our father dawned on us with All India Radio taping his autobiography in his own words. I think they have done the same thing with [singers] Lata Mangeshkar and M S Subbulakshmi. We thought we should do the same. Narayana Swamy was already working on a project then.

We wanted to release the book on his 75th birthday. Unfortunately, we could not do that while he was alive.

The project started five or six years ago. We had shot many aspects of his life, like his birthdays and other functions without him knowing it. We wanted him sit in front of the camera and talk about himself. Somehow, at that time, he did not want to sit down and talk.

So we were happy when he agreed to talk for the All India Radio, three years ago. After that, Narayana Swamy persuaded him to talk more for the book.

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After his death, we started working on the book in earnest. It was very emotional and touching for me to listen to him talk about his life. Whenever we sat down and listened to his tapes, we would break down.

A number of sections will touch you. An actor friend of ours, Y G Mahendran called us and said, 'I finished reading the book the first time. I am going through it a second time. Some of the places were so overwhelming that I want to live those moments again.'

Some other friends said that reading the book brought tears to their eyes --- especially his early life, how he grew up, how much he suffered, etc. The amazing thing about him is that he never felt bad talking about his suffering. He just told it as it was. Though the language is very simple Tamil, his words are very emotional and powerful.

We feel the book is full and satisfying. We have compiled as much as we could in 300 pages. He did not want some answers cut or edited; he wanted all his words in the book. That is why he said, 'This is not only my autobiography but also my will.'

He wanted people to know the truth.

We had collected more than 2,000 photographs, but we could use only 200 in the book. Thanks to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa who has given land to put up a museum cum memorial for Sivaji, all the photographs will find place there.

We, the Sivaji-Prabhu Charities Trust, have published the book. Whatever royalty we get from the book will go to our charitable trust. We plan to tie up with Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan to found a school. Sivaji was denied education when he was young; he was fond of studying and wanted to build a school in his native place so that no poor child is denied education.

Only the Tamil version of the book has come out now. We will bring out the English, Malayalam and Hindi translations soon. I want more people to read about him.

Ram Kumar spoke to Shobha Warrier
Photographs: Sreeram Selvaraj