Death of a heroine and the making of hit Tamil film ‘Bhadrakali’ with substitute actor
“I remembered a girl who had danced in the movie Pattikattu Raja. She bore some resemblance to Rani Chandra. I discussed it with cinematographer Viswanath Roy and we devised a plan to use her,” said actor Sivakumar.
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Actors Sivakumar and Rani Chandra in the Tamil movie Bhadrakali | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
An aeroplane crash in Bombay (now Mumbai) on October 11, 1976, shook the Tamil film industry and left ace director A.C. Thirulokchandar devastated.
At the time, he was directing the movie Bhadrakali, starring actors Sivakumar and Rani Chandra in the lead roles. Nearly 5,000 feet of the film had already been shot when tragedy struck. The air crash claimed the lives of Rani Chandra, her mother and her three sisters. According to Sivakumar, Thirulokachandar had entered into an agreement with Rani Chandra that she should neither leave the country nor commit herself to other film projects while Bhadrakali was under production.
“However, she participated in a cultural programme in Dubai. After the event, she arrived in Bombay. The flight scheduled to take her to Madras (now Chennai) was cancelled. But, she was reportedly keen to reach Chennai in time to board another flight to the United States,” he recalled.
In his book Thiraipadasolai, a collection of articles originally published in The Hindu Tamil Thisai, Sivakumar recounted that as stranded passengers argued with airline officials, an alternative aircraft that had reportedly been kept aside for repairs was pressed into service. The plane took off from Bombay airport but crashed shortly after reaching an altitude of about 1,000 metres. There were no survivors.
Rani Chandra in`Bhadrakali' | Photo Credit: The Hindu Archives
The accident not only cut short the life of a promising actress but also dealt a severe blow to the production of Bhadrakali and to Thirulokchandar personally. Despite having directed several successful films, he was already going through a difficult phase in his career.
“There is no hope for me. I am finished. She took revenge on me as the real Bhadrakali,” Sivakumar recalled Thirulokchandar lamenting in the aftermath of the tragedy.
Even before the accident, the production had been facing financial difficu
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