BEGINNING OF STUDIO IN TAMILNADU

HISTORY –

Movies became a major industry in Coimbatore when in 1905 a South Indian Railways employee

Samikannu Vincent purchased a film projector along with some silent films from a Frenchman

named Du Pont who had fallen ill on his touring exhibition. Samikannu Vincent then built a

business as film exhibitor first by traveling around the country and finally erecting tents theatres

for screening films. His tent cinema became popular as he traveled all over the state with his

mobile unit. In 1917, Samikannu Vincent built South India's first permanent cinema theatre,

Variety Hall Cinema, at TownHall; it is now called ad Delite theatre.

As Samikannu Vincent also generated his own electric power for his theatres, he built a series of

theatres in and around the city to screen silent films. He also became a distributor for the

French Pathé Frères movie projectors. In the early 1930s he launched the Variety Hall Talkies

banner to make sound film (a.k.a. talkies) and released a few movies which were mainly shot

in Calcutta. Feeling a need to have a movie studio, he was instrumental, along with other

industrialists and movie makers, in establishing a fully equipped studio in Coimbatore.

Also during the late 1920s, another firm under Sabapathy was involved in the distributorship of

an Italian movie projector company, eventually leading to the manufacture of their own brand of

movie projectors in Coimbatore. By the early thirties Coimbatore already had a studio named

Premier Cinetone Studio [3] (later renamed Pakshiraja Studios). In 1935 a London-educated

graduate, T. R. Sundaram, built a fully equipped movie studio, Modern Theatres, in Salem, and

the region became the central hub for movie activity.

Central Studio was founded by a group of prominent industrialists B. Rangaswamy Naidu, R. K.

Ramakrishnan Chettiar (brother of India's first Finance Minister R. K. Shanmukham

Chetty), Samikannu Vincent, and another new movie director S. M. Sriramulu Naidu (who joined

as a working partner). Studio commenced its operation in 1936 with their first release being

Thukkaram in 1937 directed by S. M. Sriramulu Naidu. By the early 1940s the Studio became the

central hub of Tamil Movie industry.

FIRST FILM INSTITUTE IN INDIA -

The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) was set up by the Government of India in

1960, in the premises of the erstwhile Prabhat Studios in Pune. The FTII Campus currently

stands on the grounds of the erstwhile Prabhat Studio.

IN 2023 –

Ramoji Film City is an integrated film studio facility located in Abdullahpurmet,

Hyderabad, India. Spread over 1,666 acres (674 ha), it is the largest film studio complex in

the world and as such has been certified by the Guinness World Records.

The MGR Film City is an integrated film studio complex in Taramani, Chennai. It was

established in 1994 mainly to attract filmmakers and tourists and originally named after former

chief minister of Tamil Nadu MG Ramachandran JJ Film City by the AIADMK government. When

DMK returned to power in 1996 it was renamed MGR Film City after the popular actor and
late Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran.[1] It also houses a film institute, known as MGR Film

and Television Institute.

Film City means an integrated studio complex spread over a minimum of ten acres area

that provides the physical facilities required for film making, including providing the flexibility

to use the outdoor spaces for shooting purposes.