The story of Dungan Ayya

An American filmmaker in Madras 1935-1950

A few days back, after Dr Swati Mohan’s involvement with the Perseverance landing on Mars, our President Biden congratulating her, said – what an incredible honor this is - you Indian descent Americans have taken over the country…you, my vice president, my speechwriter Vinay, I tell you what, thank you, you guys are incredible… But this is not about them, I am going to take you back to a time when an American ruled the directorial roost in erstwhile Madras, a bloke named Ellis R Dungan…

The first world war remained a memory and the world was healing at large, though the scene in Europe was still volatile during the early 1930’s.  In turbulent India, the anti-British civil disobedience movement had been launched with vigor and Gandhiji had arrived. In 1939, it went topsy turvy as Britain announced India’s entry into the Second World war and Jinnah persuaded the Muslims to adopt the two-nation theory. The British Indian Army became the largest volunteer force, numbering 2,500,000 men during the war. Later, in 1942, the quit India movement was launched just as the war clouds loomed low in the Eastern horizon with the Japanese and INA forces were zooming to the Assam borders.

Madras however remained calm during the 1930’s and was still far away from the eyes of the many storms. The presidency as it was called then was facing an Anti-Brahmin movement after the terrible 1921 Moplah rebellion in Malabar. Following the appointment of C Rajagopalachari in 1937 as the chief minister, Congress gained strength and the public were wresting with the unpopular imposition of Hindi. Nevertheless, Madras continued to bustle with activity, as industry thrived, reforms were enacted, the railways were being extended and literacy was improving. The All-India Radio had by now established a station in Madras and commenced a radio service in 1938.

Cinemas became popular in the 1930s and 1940s well after the first South Indian silent film, Keechaka Vadham, was released in 1916. The first regional sound films were made in 1931 and the first Malayalam talkie Balan was canned in 1938. There were film studios at Coimbatore, Salem, Madras and Karaikudi. Most early films were made in Coimbatore and Salem but from the 1940s onwards, Madras began to emerge as the epicenter of film production.

The scene changed in 1934 when Madras got its first sound studio when Srinivasa Cinetone was founded by Narayanan. The second sound studio to come up in Madras was Vel Pictures, started by M. D. Rajan on Eldams Road in the Dunmore bungalow, which belonged to the Raja of Pithapuram.  The era of sound talkies had started. It all took off with the arrival of an American, who actually strayed into the veritable mix and stayed. In the end it is just a story of his discipline, common sense and professionalism which he cultivated into the haphazard ways of the south which were hitherto based on simply conducting and filming stage dramas. This is his tale, his tribulations and a study of his gung-ho (unthinkingly enthusiastic and eager), attitude at work, finding a solution to most problems and innovating as he went along. Come to think of it, he was perhaps one of the earliest practitioners of the Indian Jugad.

That was Ellis R. Dungan from Ohio, whose love affair with Cinema started when he bought his first box camera to take pictures for his school yearbook. Wanderlust took a hold of him even before college when he drifted on to Spain and Paris, getting exposed to the intrigues of photography in Paris and finally deciding that education is a better path. Back in the US, he enrolled at the University of Southern California in 1932 in the newly established Cinema Department. After deciding that a pathway to the glitz and glamor of Hollywood was a reasonable aim, he made Los Angles his home. His buddy at that time was another up-and-coming movie cinematographer Mike Omalev.

It was at this juncture, that the two youngsters met a very interesting man who was at USC learning cinematography and somewhat well set in Hollywood doing bit parts in South Asian themed movies. That was Munnay or Manik Lal Tandon. Munnay introduced Mike and Ellis to other Hollywood producers and directors, got them short job stints and collaborated with them in some film projects, becoming thick friends, along the way. In 1934, as their course was winding up, Munnay decided to return home to India. The Tandon family had agreed to finance a studio for the ‘Hollywood returned’ son and the youngster wanted to make proper Indian movies for export, showcasing the real India.

Munnay asked his two friends if they would be interested in tagging along. They agreed having nothing better to do and so, the three friends went around shopping for gadgets and stuff to do their filming in India. Well-meaning friends asked the two boys to make sure they collected a lot of diverse scenery and live footage from India, which they could later license or supply for future Hollywood films. The two Yankees planned to make it out in India for six months. Though Omalev returned quickly, Ellis Dungan perhaps found his calling in India and went on to stay for all of fifteen years. There are plenty of short articles about Duggan, and there is a nice documentary by Karan Bali too on the public domain, but I wanted the readers and those film buffs out there to know a little bit more. This is Duggan’s story.

As I mentioned, Tandon had proceeded ahead and was supposed to get the tracks set for the arrival of his friends. The Americans however had to spend a few months in London and somewhere in Yugoslavia (where Mike was originally from) before they could get a passage and the visas to Bombay. Finally, they arrived in Feb 1935, and disembarked at the Bombay docks, only to note that they had customs issues. Tandon was nowhere to be seen, but he had sent a friend Sunny who helped them out, and the youngsters had to fork out an astronomical $35 as customs duties for the photographic equipment they carried (a hand-cranked camera and some lighting accessories). Left with just $15 between them, they roomed at the Victoria Terminus in Bombay, and got bitten by mosquitoes for the very first time. As they wandered around Bombay taking in the various sights, getting alarmed at blood on the streets only to be told laughingly by Sonny that it was betel juice, and wondering about their bleak future, Tandon’s wire arrived asking them to stay put. He too was broke and bereft of any plans, but assured them that money was soon going to arrive, into his coffers.

Sunny explained to Dungan that the Tandon studio project had collapsed and Tandon had no other go than to take the first project which was offered, from distant Madras. Tandon had rushed Southbound, to take on the direction of two Tamil films! One of them was Bhakta Nandanar starring Sundarambal. Tandon had been busy selecting actors and setting things up, and was making a trip to Calcutta for the filming, but he assured the two boys that he would send them money and train tickets to Calcutta! After spending a while mulling about the hopelessness of the situation, Dungan and Omalev decided to take the plunge and help their friend Tandon out. Meanwhile, the stay in Bombay introduced them to tropical life, rats, more mosquitoes and of course super spicy Goan Vindhaloos.

At long last, some money and two 3^rd class tickets to Calcutta arrived. A clickety clackety ride in a jampacked train followed, and the two guys were soon disembarking at the Howrah station in steamy Calcutta. Tandon and his team met them, due apologies were tendered and the very next day, they all started working on Bhakta Nandanar, it being an auspicious day! That was how Dungan Ayya started with his first Tamil film for the Asanda film company.

Sundarambal proved to be quite adept and her two burly uncles made sure she was guarded at all times, for ‘the days were bad’ and her stellar reputation had to be guarded! The film was completed in Calcutta, launched with great fanfare in Madras and proved to be a great hit. Tandon had also learned that some of the well-heeled at Madras wanted to set up film studios, so he decided to hang around Madras and encouraged his two American friends to do likewise. Madras was a bustling cosmopolitan metropolis even then, with 750,000 people.

In fact, Tandon had previously directed Bama Vijayam in 1934, had now completed Bhakta Nandanar and also had an offer to direct Sati Leelavathi, but as he also obtained an offer to do a Hindi film “Shame of the Nation’, he suggested to the producer that his Hollywood returned pal Ellis Dungan to direct the Tamil movie. Since Tandon had by then picked up a solid reputation, and the director had Hollywood experience, the suggestion was accepted by the producer. Mike Omalev meanwhile, became a production manager for Asandas, and also took on the direction of some parts of the movie Modern Youth, in London. While there, he heard that his mother was unwell in the US and decided to return home. That was the end of Mike’s short sojourn in India, and he went back and joined the Ford Motor Company.

Dungan’s stay and work at Madras is replete with many tales, some funny, some hair-raising and some incredibly interesting. He was to see and experience all kinds of new and alien methods, like how Ramamurthi the studio manager cleaned all 15,000 feet of exposed film by hand, inch by inch, or how the sets became a big family lodge, with people taking eating and napping as filming went on, or his entering a temple clad in a dhoti and sans upper garments, dark makeup etc passing off as a local cinematographer (the Pujari figured it out and a shudhhi kalasham had to be arranged to clean up the pollution created by the low-class firangi!). Outdoor shooting was also something he pioneered.

The Sati Leelavathi experience was to place Dungan among the top echelon of directors in those days and as you can imagine, he went on to direct some 17 movies and a number of documentaries. Now a clever guy might jump up and shout – That was MGR’s first movie! Indeed, it was, and MGR debuted under Duggan’s direction as Inspector Rangaiah! MGR, who according to Dungan, did not initially understand the nuances of film acting, performed aggressively as though he was on stage until Dungan convinced him to deliver his lines naturally.

Tandon, his friend, was not one to lead a charmed life though, and soon enough, the busy schedule caught up with Munnay, so also debilitating multiple sclerosis. Illness forced Tandon to move back home to Kanpur and before long, he was lost to the film world. Now there was just one person left in that group of three friends, just Ellis Duggan, alone and lonesome in Madras. Anyway, as we saw, Sati Leelavathi had attained cult status and Dungan became an in-demand director.

Several new filmmaking techniques introduced by Dungan such as the dancing girl as seen by the inebriated protagonist, the character’s inner fear depicted by his twitching fingers and feet were all techniques which not only helped the actors to emote, but also showcased Dungan's talent. He was perhaps the first to introduce the concept of rehearsals before the shot and also the method of using  written scripts with dialog on one side and the corresponding action on the other!

Dungan purchased an old Dodge which became the first camera car, and we can see that he introduced rails for the movement of cameras and nets to soften the lighting of the character or object. Just imagine, a director who knew no Tamil, managing his team with simply gestures and actions, assisted by a few bad translators, those were the days. Over time, he did pick up a smattering of working Tamil! Dungan then directed Seemanthini and took a trip to Burma, only to catch Malaria and amoebic dysentery, and get bedridden for weeks.

Back in Madras, Iru Sahodargal followed, shot at Bombay, which became another hit film. Margaret his stepsister came visiting and this was when Duggan traveled all around India, taking in the sights and sounds of Delhi, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Himalayas, and Calcutta. His third movie Ambikapathi was shot in Calcutta, which also became a blockbuster. Some years later, he directed MS Subbulakshmi for Sakunthalai and had many a fascinating story to recount as well as his deep admiration and respect for MS. That film had 24 songs; can you believe it?

An interesting story is about Kalki Sadasivam, her husband, whose daughter from his previous marriage and this girl (not sure if it was Radha or Vijaya) used to bring along to the film sets the lion cub, which had originally been purchased for a film scene from the Madras Zoo and thereafter became a member of MS’s household. After the filming had been completed, the Zoo would not take it back and so it became Dungan’s pet eventually, and was housed at the Spencer’s hotel, where he stayed! In the beginning, the little cub was like a small kitten, but as it grew, it started to chase people around Spencer’s and eventually the police intervened. A local raja apparently came to the rescue and took it to his summer estate at Bangalore. So much for MS’s lion cub!

The interplay between MS and Dungan can take a whole article, but they got along well. In fact, Dungan once had to provoke her and puncture her ego to get her to provide a rousing performance! That was another hit movie and one where he introduced scantily clad cabaret dancers from the Connemara hotel to do a scene for which the press lambasted him. The dance of the angels, in Sakunthalai was performed by Anglo Indian girls. The picturization of the angels emerging from the lake was shot in reverse, i.e. making them gracefully enter the waters and then reversing it so that it looked as though they were emerging from the water, yet another innovation of that era!

By then the busy director hired an assistant, Bill Moylan and moved out from Spencer’s to a house in Kilpauk. All this took place in the years leading up to the WWII, and as you can imagine, things changed a lot as the war clouds over Europe darkened and films which were being imported, got rationed.

Moylan went to work for Delhi to make documentaries while Duggan remained in Madras to do just the same at Madras. Film rationing was in place and most production work was halted. Many a documentary such as the one on Madras Guards was filmed by him, based on the Anglo-Indian regiment at Madras, which became a training film for all British and American troops coming to India. Interestingly, his assistant in those days was the very person I had once written about, the eminent Markus Bartley, the cinematographer of Chemeen!

Dungan was also involved in shooting documentaries of Gandhiji and his ashram, spinning yarn and the making of Khadi. And believe it or not, he was on assignment to make a movie covering the Jewish community in Cochin. The war dragged on, Madras went into panic mode when the Japanese planes buzzed through and created some nuisance, another story which I had narrated some months ago. The port was busy with ships coming in from Singapore and Burma and returning, an American rest camp had been established in Madras, and whatnot. Film production was at snail’s pace though Meera was on the floors and the American troops and nurses often trooped into Newtone studios where it was being shot by Dungan (MGR also had a bit part in it), just to hear MS sing! Appears MS had by this time picked up a smattering of spoken English from Dungan. Dungan enthusiastically narrates the fascinating trip taken by the team to shoot Meera across India, Agra, the golden triangle, the fantastic person MS was and so on.

As the great war wound down, Moylan got back, and troubles started with Hindu Muslim unrest, quite a bit of which was captured on film (wonder where they are now!) by the team. Dungan also made films on Jinnah and Gandhi, the Mountbatten’s, the 1947 independence celebrations, a very famous still picture of Nehru and many other contemporary events (Dungan mentions Nehru had no problems with flashlights, but Gandhiji abhorred it). In 1947, Dungan went back to the US hearing his mother was ill, but she recovered and then visiting Los Angeles, he met and married Alice Quimby, his first wife, and brought her back to India.

Later he was invited to film the events following the assassination of Gandhiji and to direct the film Ponmudi which became infamous for the first onscreen embrace. Again, getting struck down with Malaria, he recuperated in Yercaud, a place Alice took to. Time went by and by 1950, as Dungan was working on his last film Mantri Kumari (Which featured MGR and a script by M Karunanidhi) at Salem, Alice then working in the US consulate, made her mind clear that she wanted to get back to the USA. She had enough of her husband who was gone native and demanded that if Dungan wanted to save their marriage, he should leave the film midway and travel back. He did so with a heavy heart and so we see him back in Hollywood, circa 1950.

But then again, for some, life offers happy twists too, for in Hollywood, a producer named Bill Berke wanted ‘The Jungle’, filmed in India and decided to entrust Dungan with the task. Dungan gleefully took the trip back to Salem with Sundaram (Modern Theatre studios) responsible for the Indian parts and spent close to a year working on this project, but upon his return to Hollywood found that Alice had packed up and gone, filing for divorce. Dungan flew back to India, this time to work on Gunga Ram a TV series. Trips continued on a regular basis, over the next 8 years, but there were mostly wildlife-related film shoots. Next was the Tarzan film in 1962.

Eventually Dungan settled in Wheeling West Virginia and married Elaine Runner in 1964. Age was catching up and with his traveling now to less distant parts, India soon drifted to a memory. Dungan kept himself busy thereafter advising film-makers shooting films in India and making docudramas, historical documentaries, building a strong reputation as a maker of industrial films and documentaries. He lived at Wheeling West Virginia, from 1958 until his death. Elaine and Dungan did make a short tourist visit to India in the early 70’s.

His last visit in 1994 was by invitation from Madras where the entire film fraternity assembled to felicitate him. MS and Sadasivam were there, of course, so also the chief minister and many other dignitaries. The horde that turned up amazed Dungan for he never knew he was so revered and popular. MS Subbulakshmi honored Dungan by singing impromptu, a song from “Meera.” Later, meeting CM Jayalalitha accompanied by Rochelle Shah, he said – “Madras is the only place I know where a person can come back after 43 years and be welcomed wholeheartedly”.

Randor Guy the film authority, the mystery buff and historian whom I had referred to earlier (Alavander Case) was one among those who interviewed him in 1994. Interestingly many chapters of Dungan autobiography co-written with Barbara Smik, and summarized here, were actually penned by Dungan at Randor Guys request! Unfortunately, that year was also a tragic one for Dungan as Elaine passed away, leaving the old man alone. Rochelle Shah and actress and writer, a close friend of Dungan from Madras, who visited him in 1996 mentions how lonely he was and how he finally passed away in an old age home, to be survived by Christopher, his stepson.

Highlighting some films to complete this epoch, I can mention that Dungan worked in the field of Tamil films between 1936-50 making B&W 35mm films. His first film Sati Leelavathi featured MGR on debut, and he directed MGR again in a few other movies such as Iru sahodarangal, Jothi malar, Meera, Manthri Kumari etc, whereas Sakunthalai and Meera featured MS. We saw that he worked with Karunanidhi in Ponmudi and surprisingly, I saw a mention that Kamal Hasan too did a bit part as a small boy in one of Dungan’s films. And well, VN Janaki, MGR’s wife was also directed by Dungan in Sakuntalai, she was a dancer in Dushyantha’s court! Just imagine, three Madras CM’s - MGR, Karunanidhi, and Janaki had associated with Dungan!

Karan Bali made a nice documentary on Dungan which you can view on youtube. He summarizes Dungan’s contributions succinctly in a NY times interview - “I definitely felt he played an important role in helping to technically develop the then fledgling Tamil film industry and that had to be acknowledged and documented,” says Mr. Bali. “For example, sequences like visually showing Ambikapathy’s life flashing before his eyes as he is about to be executed, or the transition of the young Meera to a grown-up Meera during the song ‘Nandabala,’ or even using the day-for-night technique to make the sun a moon in ‘Manthiri Kumari’ – all these were great technical achievements for their time.” Mr. Dungan’s visual treatment, mobility of his camera, his frequent use of outdoor locales, his proper blocking of scenes and his strong female characters also made his films stand out, Mr. Bali said, even if the plots were nothing new.

Born in 1909, Ellis Dungan passed away in 2001, and I doubt if he ever forgot those days in Madras, ever. The epitaph on his tombstone rightly ends with – May the film fraternity remember him for his creativity…

References

A guide to adventure – Ellis R Dungan with Barbara Smik.
What is Tamil about Tamil cinema? - Stephen Putnam Hughes
And many thanks to Randor Guy (Madabhushi Rangadorai) and his inputs through various news articles – Guy is a walking, living encyclopedia!
An American in Madras – Documentary by Karan Bali 

pics - Wikimedia, thanks to owners & uploaders

There were many other foreigners in Madras such as Iranian Dinshaw K. Tehrani (sound), American Arthur Bradburn (sound), and French Paul Briquet (camera), but the one person I tried very hard to track down, but have been unsuccessful so far is the German emigre who was associated with the 1949 Malayalam film Velli Nakshatram – a person named Felix JH Beyse. If anybody has more information on Beyse, please do comment/contact me.