Summary

Somu, Sohan Lal, and Sampath plan a lavish opening ceremony for the film. Although the district judge is late in arriving, they eventually start filming the first scene at the appointed time. Somu has hired a “committee of astrologers” (114) to determine the most auspicious moment to start filming. The judge arrives and Srinivas is annoyed to see how Sampath and the others turn all their attention to him. The judge them gives them his advice, in which he criticizes the film industry for featuring “too many mythological and ancient subjects” (116). They pull the judge aside and tell him the subject of their film, and the judge immediately recants, explaining that, “Our epics undoubtedly are a veritable storehouse of wisdom and spirituality” (117). This time there is applause.

Srinivas later works long hours on the script. Sampath announces that he has cast Shanti...