RAGHUPATHI VENKAIH:FATHER OF SOUTH INDIAN CINEMA

Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu (b. unknown - d. 15 March 1941) was a pioneer in the Indian film industry. He was the first owner of movie theatres in Madras, and the producer and director of first few silent Indian movies and talkies.He is the Father of Telugu Film Industry and first person to get film industry to South India.
Contents[hide]
1 Biography
1.1 Early life
1.2 Photographer
1.3 Theatre owner
1.4 Film producer
1.5 Later career
2 See also
3 External links
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[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life
Venkaiah Naidu was the second son of an Indian Army official in Machilipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. At the age of 18, he moved to Chennai and started drawing pictures and carving sculptures and selling them. He then learned photography and started a photo studio.

[edit] Photographer
He ordered Chrono Mega phone, old equipment that relates sounds with pictures, from John Dickinson and Company in 1909. He lent out his photo studio for buying the equipment for Rs 30,000. He shot 12 short films and exhibited them in Victoria public Hall. He also toured to Bangalore, Vijayawada, Srilanka and Rangoon and Peg to exhibit his films.

[edit] Theatre owner
In 1910, he established Esplanade ten house to exhibit his films. In 1912, he constructed 'Gaiety Talkies' in Mount Road, the first cinema theatre in Chennai. He later constructed Crown Theater in Mint Street and Globe Theater in Parasuwakka, Chennai. He aso exhibited American and British films. Some of the first movies shown in his theatres were Million Dollar Mystery, Mysteries of Meera, Clutching Hand, Broken Coin, Raja's casket, Peral fish, and 'Great Bard'.

[edit] Film producer
In 1919, he started a production company called Star of East Films and a film studio called Glass Studio. He sent his son Raghupathi Surya Prakash Naidu to study in London. He was trained in cinematography in England and returned. Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu and his son Prakash made their maiden movie "Meenakshi Kalyanam" around actual locations of Madurai Meenakshi temple. Later, they produced films like Gajendra Moksham, Mathsyavatharam, Nandanaar, and Bhishma Pratigna, the first telugu mookie(with no playback voices) movie.

[edit] Later career
In 1929, he was forced to sell his properties and pay money to his lenders. The Andhra Pradesh state government honored him by establishing the Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu Award later changed to Raghupathi Venkaiah award for lifetime contributors to the Telugu movie industry.