Mumbai: Like many others who came to Mumbai with a dream, he had no idea that he would help so many social and cultural enthusiasts in showcasing their talents to an urban audience in this city. Over the past 40 years, Gopkumar Pillai’s People’s Arts Centre organised over 1000 events, including his events in other parts of Maharashtra, including dance, drama, folk, magic, medical camps, seminars, and popular music concerts. His perseverance and diligence made all of these feasible.
Gopkumar, who passed away recently in Mumbai, was well-known for his unceasing contributions to the spheres of culture, society, and film. He was a face in the crowd. People come to Mumbai to work and accomplish their task, and one day vanish quietly and unknowingly. Similarly, Gopkumar was one among such people who silently and inadvertently disappeared one day.
Initially, like many organisations, he had several businessmen and industrialists, mainly veteran journalist P K Ravindranath, former municipal commissioner V Balachandran, and renowned hotelier, the late Capt. Krishnan Nair of Leela Hotels. With limited resources, he organised big or small shows, some ticketed and others free entry ones. Celebrity dance shows, whether it was Shobana or Manju Warrier, or music concerts of Mahendra Kapoor, Yesudas, Asha Bhosale, Amit Kumar, Ravindra Jain, Bhappi Da, he would get it organised, though he had a managing committee team which included P. Balakrishnan, Satheesan A, N. K. Devassy and others for his various events, working with him.
In 1999, Gopkumar organised a mammoth event, Mamangam 2000, attended by about 50,000 people at the Andheri Sports Complex. The event had Priyadarshan, Sabu Cyril, and Resul Pookutty on the advisory panel. Former Maharashtra governor P. C. Alexander not only appreciated the event but also gave one of his best speeches to the gathered public. About 1000 artists unfolded the history and heritage of Kerala with cutting-edge lighting and sound effects. The Malayali audience was amazed by this unseen extravaganza. Sadly, the Malayalam TV media, normally obsessed with local politics, did not realise the potential then. Even the recorded material of Mamangam could not showcase this once-in-a-lifetime show.
Gopkumar was popular for many of his star-studded events, whether it was Shanmukhananda Hall, Don Bosco Ground, Fine Arts Hall or any city auditorium or five-star hotel, for that matter. He did it grandly. One of his publicised week-long magic events made him even more famous, for the audience, after a couple of days, both Gopakumar and the magician disappeared, leaving the people confused with the Houdini act.
He had events with actor Madhu, noted Kathaprasagam artist Sambhasivan, and singers Balamurli Krishna, Jayachandran, and Brahmanandan. Film events with Priyadarshan, Mohanlal, besides felicitation functions, which included Goodknight Mohan’s Kaalapani and several shows involving Bollywood movies. Whether it was the Shahu Maharaj event or felicitating the literati in Nagpur or Pune. He did it with ease and style. He surprised everyone when he organised a snake show to create awareness of snakes. After a decade, he had a Paayasam festival in Bandra and got a chef who specialised in making varieties of Pradaman (a popular sweet dish in Kerala). What he would do next, no one had a clue; he had an amazing talent for thinking out of the box, which the Malayali organisations in Mumbai were not used to.
Gopkumar had challenging times, especially with finance, and this made him disappear from the city to only resurface with more surprising shows. Over a period of time, several of his well-wishers and team members kept him at bay, but that did not deter him a bit. He shocked his critics by proving he still can be active on the cultural scene without their support. Of course, disputes, allegations of manipulation and controversies remained, which he eclipsed by his periodic innovative public show.
He pioneered Kerala Piravi Day and later Maharashtra Formation Day, besides instituting an award in the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, which not only gained prestige but was also one of the only awards of its kind. Gopkumar did not give up; he started organising events in Marathi, and he started speaking in Marathi. His activities continued.
There were times when the chief guests or celebrities would not turn up, but ” show went on. He singularly handled situations with a few helping hands.
Gopkumar was married in 1986 to Kusum. His wife and their son died after a year. Their only daughter, Anita, a schoolteacher, used to help her father on and backstage for the last few years.
Gopkumar, besides entertainment shows, organised several seminars on culture, cinema, health and social issues. Among the prominent personalities whom he brought to Mumbai from Kerala was yesteryear movie legend Prem Nazir. His seminar on Malayalam cinema two decades ago had prominent filmmakers from Kerala and was widely reported in the local media. He was always concerned about social issues despite his tough personal life. Slowly, he networked through the political and cultural circles to establish his People’s Arts Centre.
In the eighties, he staged two important, controversial plays, Christuvinte Aaram Thirumurve (based on the Last Temptation of Christ) and Bhagawan Kal Marunnu (God Defects). Both these highly sensitive plays created uproar among a section of both Christian and Hindu communities in Mumbai. Controversies, challenges and financial issues only made Gopkumar stronger. His marketing strategies were good; for every new event, he would have a new set of people backing him and had the skills to get newer donors.
His event souvenirs had several donors and advertisers, besides many well-known people writing for the special issues. No doubt typographical and printing goof-ups would not mar the overall effort with which he brought it out periodically. He took a lot of effort in getting unusual thematic contents published, which may range from Jayalalitha’s achievement to a commemorative volume on national integration. His souvenirs had rich articles from experts like Madhav Gadgil, Sandhay Purecha, Krishnamachari Bose, Ramu Ramanathan and several others. Even trade unions advertised in his souvenir.
“Several people supported me for my shows, then they became my critics. Maybe they don’t like my functioning. But I have always thought about the larger good and continue my work. Non-Malayalis have been taking a lot of interest in my activities because I don’t discriminate based on religion, caste, sex, political leanings or region. Maharashtrians are very happy with the People’s Arts Centre, as I am one of the few organisations that is giving an award in the name of the great warrior king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Our people can’t think beyond limited regional culture, so I felt that being in Maharashtra, so many things can be explored which may interest people even at the national level,” Gopkumar once observed.
Gopkumar had not been keeping well since January this year, but he kept it a secret that he had prostate cancer. For the last few years, he was obsessed with a plan to build an old-age home near Mumbai. His social orientation kept him always thinking about shows which were for the public good. Politically, he had left-leaning but adapted Congress and NCP ideologies quickly.
In the last decade, he got closer to all shades of Shiv Sena and the BJP. He also made friends with RSS and VHP people. But on top of it all, he had underprivileged and poor people in mind. Hence, he wanted to help the poor, elderly, and helpless people. He was moving fast, yet his health did not permit him to further his dreams. Even with a critical illness, he organised a charity show for cancer patients before he signed off from his eventful life.
The last goodbye
When he was being treated for cancer, he organised a music concert for cancer patients. When the country is gripped by Kantara film fever, he had tried to contact actor-director Rishab Shetty last year to felicitate him. Unfortunately, Shetty was too busy shooting his latest film. Gopkumar ideated in advance; he organised a dance show by Manju Warrier at Shanmukhananda Hall as she was making a comeback in the film industry.
In fact, even after the chemotherapy session in June, he was chalking out the programmes for November 2025 and next year, when he wanted to felicitate and award V. Shankar, chairperson of Shannmukhananda Sangeetha Sabha, for his yeoman contribution in the field of arts, culture and health care.
Gopkumar, you have done enough for thousands of cultural, social, political and business people. He had willed that he would dedicate his body for medical research after his death. Finally, the curtain has come down for a man who lived between public events. Rest in Peace, Gopkumar. The show will go on.
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