AVM Productions

AVM Productions is an Indian film production studio founded by A. V. Meiyappan. It is the oldest film studio in India. The filming studios are located in Vadapalani, Chennai. It has produced over 300 films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi cinema. AVM has introduced numerous actors in Southern industries, some of the prominent actors such as Sivaji Ganesan, Dr. Rajkumar, S. S. Rajendran, Vyjayanthimala, Kamal Haasan and many more. The AVM Studios besides the shooting floors, has recording, dubbing and a preview theatre. The complex also houses facilities for production and post production processing.

Early history

Born on 28 July 1907, Avichi Meiyappan hailed from a Nattukottai Nagarathar family of Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu. Avichi Chettiar ran a mini-department store, named AV & Sons. It sold gramophone records. Meiyappan, who joined his father's shop as a teenager, and decided to produce gramophone records instead of just selling them. He came to Madras where, along with friends K. S. Narayana Iyengar, Subbaiah Chettiar and others promoted Saraswathi Stores.[citation needed]

Maiden venture

The dawn of the talkie era (1931) inspired Meiyappan to start Saraswathi Sound Productions and he launched his maiden film venture, Alli Arjuna a Hindu mythology based film. The film was shot in Calcutta and proved a total flop as the one that followed named Ratnavali. At this point, an aspiring amateur actor and college graduate A. T. Krishnaswamy joined the unit as assistant director who was associated with Meiyappan for nearly a decade and wrote and directed the early AVM productions.[citation needed]

The reverses forced Meiyappan to lie low but only for a while. In association with Jayanthilal, a cinema house owner based in Bangalore, he promoted a new company Pragati Pictures Limited. Grabbing an opportunity that came his way, AVM made Nandakumar, Tamil version of a Marathi film launching it as a Pragati production. The highlight of this film was the debut of T. R. Mahalingam in to Tamil film Industry.[citation needed]

The film was a landmark because for the first time playback singing was tried, with Lalitha Venkatraman singing for the actor who played Devaki. Meiyappan took the sprawling Club House off Mount Road on lease and shot scenes without going to studios and erecting sets. Soon after he shifted his unit to another sprawling edifice known as Admiralty House in Adyar.[citation needed]

Later history

In 1940, Meiyappan produced Bhoo Kailas, a Telugu mythological film which created history. Its lead players were from Telugu and Kannada cinema, and was directed by Sundar Rao Nadkarni, a Mangalorean who had his training in Bombay. The film turned out to be a big hit and also won critical acclaim. Meiyappan struck gold with comedy next. Sabapathy (1941) with the saucer-eyed T. R. Ramachandran in the lead, along with Kali N. Rathnam and K. Sarangapani was a runaway success. Then came a series of hits like En Manaivi, Harishchandra (1943), Sri Valli.

The city of Madras began to feel the strains of the World War II raging on elsewhere and to reduce the exposure from Japanese bombing, Meiyappan moved his facilities to Karaikudi. In the outskirts of the town karaikudi he occupied a drama auditorium with a large open area around it on long lease and erected a studio. Thus was born AVM Productions with AVM Studios.

Hits like Nam Iruvar (1947), Parasakthi (1952), Andha Naal (1954), and the National Award-winning Hum Panchhi Ek Daal Ke (1957) followed.

Meiyappan died on 12 August 1979, and after his demise his sons took over the mantle.

In 2007, AVM produced Sivaji which at ₹ 95 crore, was said to be the most expensive film ever made in the history of the Indian film industry at that time.

In 2013, AVM led by Aruna Guhan and Aparna Guhan started producing films to be screened only on the net. Their first such production was a 55-minute-film, titled Idhuvum Kadandhu Pogum.

AVM Productions ventured into streaming space by announcing Tamil Rockerz, a crime thriller series inspired from a real-life film piracy group, directed by Arivazhagan.

Filmography

Films

Serials

• Mohini Kalaignar

Web series

• Tamil Rockerz (Sony Liv)

Films Distributed

• Babu - (1971)

Awards

Notes

External links