Krishnamachari Kannan more popularly known as Bombay Kannan (74) is a multi-faceted theatre personality who has acted in more than 3,000 stage shows and written over 20 plays some of which he directed. He was also active in AIR and Doordarshan early in his stage career. He was running a regular stage troupe called Naadahakkaaran, staging plays first in Bombay and later in Chennai. After foraying into telefilms, he got into producing audiobooks in 2010.

I asked him how he got ‘Bombay’ prefixed to his name though he had spent only eight years there. His answer: “I went to Bombay on transfer at Central Bank of India which I had joined in 1972. When I came back to Madras in 1984, there were many Kannans in theatre and for easy identification I was called Kannan from Bombay. One morning I saw in The Hindu engagement column my name being referred to as Bombay Kannan. Since then, I have been known as Bombay Kannan. Nowadays even my close relatives identify me over the phone as Bombay Kannan.”

His life story is one of mad pursuit of a passion for the stage at the cost of a successful career as a banker. He was born the youngest of four siblings. His father was working with Parry & Co. Kannan had his schooling in Nagapattinam and went to Vivekananda College in Madras to get a degree in Botany.

“I was interested in acting right from my school days. My debut on stage took place at the age of eight when I danced with my sister as Lord Krishna. My full-fledged stage appearance happened inside a Perumal Koil in Nagapattinam when I was 12. Sadly my throat was choked and I could not utter a single word.”

The real break came when he took on the role of the heroine in a play staged by the Vivekananda team in an inter-collegiate drama competition held at College of Engineering Guindy. Kannan says, “At the end of the play, some of the students of CEG mistook me to be a girl and were hesitant to shake hands with me while appreciating my performance. That was the first reward for my acting.”

“Then came my first stage appearance in public at Puttaparthi before Sathya Sai Baba on his birthday in 1968. I owe this to T.S. Narayanaswamy of Doordarshan fame who had immense confidence in me to give the title role in his play Krishna Vijayam when I was only 17. He was my first mentor and guru” Since then, the stage has become his passion. He joined UAA, the famous troupe of YGP, in 1970. His debut play was Flight 172. His mentors there were YGP and ARS, the director. He acted in many plays for this troupe before he became a writer.

“My first script was for Doordarshan, Madras in 1977. The play was titled Kanavu Kanda Katchi. It was a suspense thriller in which ARS acted in the lead role and Shri Gopalie was the producer/director”

His first stage play script was Sakthi Pirakkuthu Moochiniley produced and directed by him and staged in Bombay in 1981. His hilarious play Iru Veedu Oru Vaasal written and directed by him was staged over 75 times. Kannan got the Best Director award for this play from the Mylapore Academy.

Kannan is also proud of his play Just A Second Please, which was fifty percent autobiographical and in which he portrayed God differently. This play was appreciated by many and won him the Best Play Award from the Mylapore Academy. Playing Sherlock Sharmaji in a teleserial won him the best all-rounder on stage award and Chakravayugam a play by the popular writer K.K. Raman, fetched him the best director award – both from Mylapore Academy.

While he was busy leading a double life as a banker and a stage artist, he got married to Subhadra in 1976. She was fresh out of college and had not taken up any job. Their first daughter was born in 1977 and the second in 1985.

After spending 24 years in the bank, where he was working as a branch manager, he took voluntary retirement at the age of 45 in 1996 and plunged full-time into the creative field hoping to make it big.

Kannan stopped acting on stage in 2005 and started producing teleplays based on his own and of other popular stories and sold them in the market in DVD/VCD formats. He claims to be the first person to produce teleplays exclusively for home video segment with popular artists like Delhi Ganesh, Achi Manorama, Kathadi Ramamurthy, Meera Krishnan, Vaiyapuri, Sonia, Kamlesh, Manager Cheena etc. He also converted into teleplays novels such as Bhagyam Ramasami’s Appusamiyum Africa Azhagiyum, Sujatha’s Mama Vijayam, Komal Swaminathan’s Atchi Maatram, etc..

Hearing about his teleplays Pooram Sathyamurthy, a literary writer requested him to make an audio version of his short stories as he had lost his vision and could not read his own stories. That was the beginning of his reputation as a pioneer in producing audiobooks in Tamil using multiple voices with music scores and surround sound effects.

“The appreciation I got for the three volumes of Pooram’s short stories was a catalyst for continuing my audiobook initiative. I decided to make Kalki’s Sivagamiyin Sabatham into an audiobook as my attempt to make it into a telefilm had failed “ says Kannan.

“Sivagamiyin Sabatham audiobook was a big hit and hearing it, C.K. Venkataraman of Bangalore, an ardent fan of Kalki, wanted me to produce Ponniyin Selvan in audiobook form and was willing to invest his money in the project. Later he joined me as a partner giving birth to the production house called Ponniyin Selvan and Friends.”

Ponniyin Selvan was a marathon project in which 60 popular artists lent their voices. Sathyaseelan was the music director who tuned 15 songs of Kalki as well as Ilango Adigal to suit the audio format. It took six months of hard work by Kannan. The audiobook was split into 293 chapters (episodes) so that the buyers could stop listening to the story after any chapter and resume later.

The Ponniyin Selvan audio book was launched at a mega function on June 14, 2013 at Narada Gana Sabha with Nalli Kuppuswamy Chetti as the chief guest, with many luminaries from the creative world in attendance. The hall was overflowing with enthusiastic readers of Kalki prompting the Chief Guest to comment “I have never seen this kind of crowd for any book launch” The complete set was priced at Rs 600. 150 sets were sold at the launch function. Since then, it has sold over 2,000 sets.

“Our major clients are visually challenged people, those who cannot read Tamil, and others who do not have time to read printed books”

Motivated by the phenomenal success of PS audiobooks, Kannan produced audiobooks based on stories of many other popular writers making him something of a legend in the Tamil audiobook industry.

“In recent years the audiobook industry has seen a downward trend. Besides, mine is a one-man show because of which I have no time or budget to promote the books aggressively. I discontinued producing audiobooks two years ago,” says Kannan.

Bombay Kannan being felicitated by advocate Vignesh at the screening of the documentary Arangayanam at Rasika Ranjana Sabha in Tiruchi. Writer J. Raman is at left. Photo Credit: The Hindu.

What made him produce his first documentary Arangayanam, which is receiving wide appreciation from invited ­audiences to which it is screened?

“When I produced the audiobook based on Sri Venugopalan’s Thiruvarangan Ula, the history behind the novel moved me. It talked about how thousands of people sacrificed their lives over 48 years to safeguard the idol of Ranganatha during the invasion of Srirangam by Khilji forces. I decided to make a full-fledged documentary based on this story and visited all the places where Ranganatha’s idol was taken to protect it from the invaders. Extensive research on the subject helped me come up with an interesting story for my documentary. I funded the entire cost of production from my savings. This documentary which took 18 months to produce runs for 2 hours and 45 minutes and is shown to invited audiences at Sabhas, Clubs, and other institutions that have members who are interested in the subject. The documentary is also available in pen drives which are sold at the venues of the shows.”

“It is interesting that though I visited Srirangam several times during the shooting of Aranagayanam, for some reason or the other I could not get the darshan of Lord Ranganatha, though my wife who accompanied me got the darshan every time,” says Kannan.

“When I quit my job to pursue a creative career, I was not sure if I was making the right decision. But my wife encouraged me and was a pillar of strength to me. Without her active support and tolerance, I would not have been able to face the ups and downs I went through and achieve whatever I did in the last three decades. I lost her two years ago and my confidence and enthusiasm for work were shaken. However, I am continuing to keep myself busy with new projects, Kannan’s next documentary project is on the life and preachings of Ramanuja, the much-revered social reformer, the shooting for which is almost complete. He is also planning to revisit the tele serial on Sivagamiyin Sabhatham, a project which he had abandoned earlier.

His two daughters, both brilliant students with successful careers are living with their families – one in the Australia and another in Chennai, and they provide the moral support he badly needs.

Let us wish Kannan all the best in his new projects.