By Ayesha Khan 
Chennai, December 4: People in the Tamil film world woke up today to news they were hoping wouldn’t come so soon. A. V. M. Saravanan, the man who kept AVM Productions steady across several eras of cinema, died at 86. India Today confirmed it early in the morning. Not long after, the road outside AVM Studios in Vadapalani began filling up. Cars slowed down. People got out quietly. No urgency, just a kind of shared understanding that this was a day everyone would remember for a while.
Inside the studio, the usual hum of activity was missing. Posters of old films the ones that grandparents talk about and grandchildren rediscover much later hung along the walls. The place felt older than usual. Or perhaps people were looking at it differently today.
Suriya Arrives With His Family, Clearly Struggling
Suriya came in with his father Sivakumar and brother Karthi, and right from the entrance, you could see the strain on all three. Hindustan Times reported that Suriya broke down near Saravanan’s body. A photo showed him with folded hands, eyes wet, trying hard to focus. People around him didn’t stare. They simply stepped back and made space. It felt respectful, almost instinctive.
Some of the older technicians, the ones who worked at AVM long before Suriya even considered acting, said he spent time talking to them not as a star visiting a studio, but as someone trying to comfort people he had known for years. A few of them couldn’t hold their own tears back either. For them, this wasn’t about glamour or headlines. It felt like family.
Rajinikanth’s Memories Carry A Different Kind Of Weight
When Rajinikanth walked in, the room shifted. Not with noise. Not with cameras. More like a quiet adjustment people make when someone who has lived through many chapters of the same story enters the room.
He later told reporters as Hindustan Times noted that he had acted in nine films under the AVM banner. More importantly, he said Saravanan had shown faith in him during difficult years, long before the idea of “Superstar” had settled into place. The way he spoke didn’t sound rehearsed. It sounded like someone recalling a person who gave him room to grow.
A couple of senior lighting assistants standing nearby nodded along. They remembered those sets. They remembered Saravanan’s routine of walking in early just to check if things were moving smoothly. His presence, they said, used to steady the crew.
Stalin And Other Leaders Pay Their Respects
By mid-morning, Chief Minister M. K. Stalin arrived. As India Today reported, he met Saravanan’s family and spent a quiet moment near the casket. He didn’t linger for long, but the message was clear. Saravanan wasn’t just a film producer. He was part of the cultural fabric of Tamil Nadu, and political leaders across parties acknowledged that by showing up through the day.
Other ministers and MPs also visited. They blended into the crowd of directors, character actors, music arrangers, editors and studio workers. It didn’t feel like a political procession, just people showing up because they felt they should.
A Legacy That Doesn’t Fit Into A Simple Tribute
AVM Productions is one of those rare institutions that almost shadows Tamil cinema itself. Under Saravanan’s watch, the studio survived generational shifts, new technologies, changing tastes and the rise of streaming platforms. The Times of India pointed out the sheer range of films AVM made, from early black-and-white dramas to modern family entertainers.
But what people spoke about most today were the smaller details Saravanan remembering a technician’s family situation, his insistence on professional discipline, his habit of noticing things others ignored. Those stories don’t usually make it to the front page, yet they seemed to be everywhere inside the studio this afternoon.
Colleagues, Veterans And Old Friends Keep Arriving
By lunchtime, the courtyard had turned into a small circle of people standing in groups, talking about shoot days from the 80s, the chaos of big festival releases, and the strange comfort of knowing Saravanan was always somewhere in the building.
A few veteran editors were seen sitting together, shaking their heads, not out of disbelief but out of the weight of memories. One of them told someone nearby that he had spent half his working life inside AVM’s editing rooms. He said he couldn’t really imagine those rooms without Saravanan dropping in occasionally to ask a simple “Everything okay?”
Even younger assistant directors, some barely into their thirties, waited quietly, because whether or not they had worked with Saravanan directly, they grew up learning his name alongside the basics of filmmaking.
Why This Loss Feels Larger Than One Man’s Passing
Part of the reason the grief feels heavy today is that Saravanan belonged to a generation of producers who built the scaffolding on which the industry stands. They believed in planning, rehearsals, respectful work environments and giving chances to young talent. That mindset is slowly fading in an industry now shaped by fast turnarounds and algorithm-driven decisions.
For actors like Suriya and Karthi, studios like AVM gave them grounding in their earliest years. For veterans like Rajinikanth, AVM represents a time when the industry had a different kind of rhythm slower, steadier, more people-driven. That overlap across generations is what made the crowd at the studio today feel almost like a family reunion under sad circumstances.
A Farewell That Leaves The Industry A Little Quieter
As evening settled in, the lights inside AVM Studios flickered on. People were still arriving, some staying just a few minutes, others lingering longer as if they weren’t ready to step away. The posters on the walls looked the same as always, yet the atmosphere around them felt heavier.
For now, Chennai is saying goodbye to someone who shaped far more than film sets. And inside the studio where so much of Tamil cinema was born, the quiet today felt deeper than words could capture.
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- Ayesha Khanhttps://hindustanherald.in/author/ayesha/
- Ayesha Khanhttps://hindustanherald.in/author/ayesha/
- Ayesha Khanhttps://hindustanherald.in/author/ayesha/
- Ayesha Khanhttps://hindustanherald.in/author/ayesha/
