It was 1965, and M Saravanan, dejected that his film ‘Kaakum Karangal’ had fared miserably at the box office, found himself wandering through the streets of Bengaluru. He noticed a little artefact in a store window inscribed with three simple words, “Efforts never fail”. The phrase had such an impact on him that it became the motto of his production house, and later, of the schools he founded. They became the words he lived by. AVM Saravanan died in Chennai on Thursday. He was 86. Few producers in Tamil cinema commanded respect the way AVM Saravanan did. The head of AVM Productions, he was soft-spoken; he never lost his cool even when tempers ran high on sets. Yet he was firm, so much so that even the biggest stars had no choice but to listen when he spoke. Dressed in all-white, wit

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