Many movies come and go in the never ending path of time. But only some movies stay in the viewer’s mind forever making them enthralled for an inexplicable duration. One such movie named 'Sagara Sangamam' directed by K.Vishwanath garu was released exactly 30 years ago on this day. The movie is termed as a milestone for most of them who worked for it in various departments. It redefined the word Classy in Telugu Cinema.
The story of an aspiring dancer Balu (Kamal Hassan) , his struggles, his passion for dance, his relationships, and his determination to make the art eternal comprises of the basic storyline. It was K.Vishwanath, the director and Jandhyala, in the dialogues department who made this simple story appear like a visual masterpiece in every respect. It is also a movie which did not showcase the female lead Madhavi (Jayaprada) as just a glamorous person but with a pivotal role in helping out Balu to make his Art eternal. The movie even speaks about the wonderful friendship Balu shares with Raghupathi (Sharath Babu) till his last breath- in short, speaking about the value one should give for their friends! To sum up, Sagara Sangamam is one eternal epic which never fails to amaze the audience even after countless times of viewing- one perfect definition of a Masterpiece.
On the eve of three decades getting completed for the Masterpiece, Here are some interesting facts about the film:
- The movie fetched Maestro Ilaiyaraaja his first national award for best music in Telugu during the year 1983.
- It was listed in CNN-IBN’s list of top 100 landmark Indian films of all time.
- The movie earned appreciation even in the international arena such as Asia Pacific Film Festival and International Film Festival of India.
- The funny photographer kid named Chakri in the film later became a filmmaker who directed Kamal Hassan for the film Eenadu in the year 2009.
- Kamal Hassan’s costumes for the film were designed by Vani Ganapathi, his first wife and a phenomenal classical dancer.
- Sagara Sangamam ran in Bangalore city for duration of 575 days.
- The film was made on a budget of 30 Lakhs and the filming was finished in 70 days.
- The movie was dubbed into Tamil named “Salangai Oli” and Malayalam later. Kamal Hassan dubbed his own voice for all the versions- including the original. It was also dubbed in Russian language.
- The song “Kinnerasani” was composed initially for this movie but was used later in the same production movie Sitara.
- K.Vishwanath was convinced by Producer Edidha Nageshwara Rao about taking Ilaiyaraja as music director as the producer already worked with Ilaiyaraaja before for Sitakoka Chiluka.
- Initially Jayasudha was selected for the role of female lead, but due to dates problem Jayaprada was selected for the role.
- For the song situation of “Mounamelanoyi” K.Vishwanath requested Ilaiyaraaja to give a tune which would remind him of old Hindi songs of Geetha Dutt. That was how one of the most influential songs of all time came into picture!
All in all, Sagara Sangamam is one movie which reminded the Telugu Audience about the greatness in Classical Dance, along with giving value to relationships and the importance of mutual respect towards the opposite person.
