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Unit I: Broadcasting in India (Colonial period)
a. Colonial Foundations in Inter-War Years

b. AIR Programming, Policies and Propaganda

c. Quit India Movement and Congress Radio

Unit II: Establishment and Expansion of Akashvani under Keskar

a. Classical vs. Popular

b. 'Ban' on Film Music; Radio Ceylon, VividhBharati

Unit III: Early Years of Indian Cinema

a. Silent era to Talkies: Social, Historical, Mythological and Action

b. Women enter Films

c. Studio Era: AVM and Gemini Studios

d. Colonial Censorship and Patriotic Creativity

Unit IV: Social Films of Nehruvian Era and its Aftermath
a. Angry Young Man, Melodrama
b. Music: song genres
 Through the course of this
lesson, we shall thus look at the
history of Indian cinema after
the advent of the talkies,
drawing particular attention to
three centers of film production,
and the films (and the
filmmakers) of these regions.
AVM studios
AVM Productions is an Indian film
production studio founded by A. V.
Meiyappan. It is the final oldest survived
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 are Sivaji Ganesan, 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
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 even

as a teenager, decided to produce
gramophone records instead of merely
marketing them.
The dawn of the talkie era (1931)
inspired Meiyappan to start Saraswathi
Sound Productions and he launched his
maiden movie venture, Alli Arjuna a
Hindu mythology based movie. 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.
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.
Gemini studios
• Gemini Studios was an Indian film studio
based in Madras, Tamil Nadu. It was launched
when S. S. Vasan, a businessman of many
ventures (including the ownership of Ananda
Vikatan) bought Motion Picture Producers'
Combines from Krishnaswamy Subrahmanyam
and renamed it.

• The studio re-opened under the name Gemini.

Despite the common beliefs about a lucky
racehorse or the astrological sign of his wife, it
was the logo Vasan chose that led to the
name.
subrahmanyam had
shown him a picture
of his very young
boys, blowing on toy
trumpets in the nude.
Vasan chose the pose
to craft the logo and
hence the name
Gemini—The Twins.
The new facade also
had statues of ‘The
Gemini Twins’,
blowing the bugle.
In 1937, the property was purchased by film
director K. Subrahmanyam who established a
studio there for his Motion Picture Producers
Combine (MPPC). It was here that some of his
famous films, Thyaga Bhoomi (1938) included,
were shot. On December 21, 1940, the studio
was burned to the ground necessitating a
distress sale of the land. It was bid for and
bought by S.S. Vasan of Ananda Vikatan.
Renamed Gemini Studios in 1941, the property
embarked on the most exciting phase of its
existence. Several hits, including Chandralekha
(1948), were made here, making Vasan a
movie moghul.

The studio was a cosmopolitan place with

people from all over the country and even
some foreigners working for The Boss as Vasan
was always referred to. It was also a ‘must
visit’ spot in the city
The golden era of Gemini was
undoubtedly the 1940s and the early
1950s. Thereafter, it did produce some
hits but the purple patch of the earlier
decade was never matched.

Decline set in in the 1960s.

The Boss died in 1969 after a painful bout
with cancer and with him much of the
Gemini magic too went. His family
decided to focus on his publishing
activities and preferred to sell Gemini to
developers. The bugles had blown, and
the show was over. But old memories die
hard – the flyover nearby is still Gemini to
most people.
Censorship