Introduction

A visiting European exhibitor screened a bunch of silent short films at the Victoria Public Hall, Madras. The films all non-fiction and told no story. They were mostly photographed records of ordinary events. In Madras (Chennai) City, the “Electric Theatre” established where silent films were shown. It was the favourite haunt of the British community in Madras. The theatre was closed after few years. This building is now part of the Post Office Complex on Anna Salai.

Mr. Cohen built “Lyric Theatre” in Mount Road area (now Anna Salai). Here, plays in English, Western music concert and ball dances took place regularly and silent films were also shown as additional attraction. Samikannu Vincent an employee of South Indian Railway, Trichy purchased a film projector and silent films from Frenchman Du Pont and set up business as film exhibitor. He erected tents for screening films. The tent cinema became popular and he went all over with his mobile unit. In later years he produced talkie films and also built a cinema house in Coimbatore.

To commemorate the event of George V’s visit in 1909 a grand exhibition was organised in Madras. Its major attraction was the screening of short films with sound. A British company brought “Crone-megaphone”, made up of a film projector to which a gramophone with a disk containing pre-recorded sound was linked and both ran in unison producing picture and sound simultaneously. However, there was no lip-synch dialogue. Raghupathy Venkiah, a successful still photographer took over the equipment after the exhibition and set up a tent cinema near the Madras High Court.

R. Venkiah flushed with funds built in 1912 a permanent cinema house in Mount Road area named “Gaiety”. It was the first in Madras, to screen films on full time basis. This theatre happily functions though under different ownership. In tent cinemas there were usually three classes of tickets, the floor, bench and chair. The floor ticket purchaser sat on sand to watch the movie but he enjoyed certain advantages, which other patrons did not. He could sit as he pleased or even he could turnover and take a short sleep when it is boring him and again roll back when the screen shot upto his liking! Luxuries, the upper class could never indulge in. Surely those were the days!