Madan Theatre

Madan Theatre Company, also known as Madan Theatres Limited or Madan Theatres in short, was a film production company founded by Jamshedji Framji Madan, one of the pioneers of Indian Cinema.

History

Madan, a young Parsi businessman, who had experience in Theatre shows from an early age, stepped into entertainment business in 1902, when he started bioscope shows of imported cinemas a tent in Maidan, Calcutta.

After World War I, Madan's Theatre business started growing rapidly. In 1919, his business became a joint stock company with the name of Madan Theatres Limited. Madan Theatres and its associates had a great control over theatre houses in India those days.

J J Madan, third son of Jamshedji Framji Madan, became managing director of Madan Theatres after the death of his father in 1923. Madan Theatres reached a peak in late 1920s when it owned 127 theatres and controlled half of the country's box office.[1] Madan Theatres produced a number of popular and landmark films till 1937.

List of films

  • Billwamangal (1919), Bengali feature film, screened in Cornwallis Theatre (now known as Sree Cinema).
  • Nala Damayanti (1920), directed by Eugenio de Liguoro.
  • Dhruva Charitra (1921), also directed by Eugenio de Liguoro.
  • Ratnavali (1922), directed by Camille Le Grand.
  • Savitri Satyavan (1923), directed by Georgio Mannini.
  • Bishabriksha (1922 and 1928).
  • Durgesh Nandini (1927) and Radharani (1930), both based on Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's works.
  • Giribala (1929), based on Rabindranath Tagore's work.
  • Jamai Shashthi (1931), Bengali short film as a talkie, was released on 11 April 1931.[2]
  • Indrasabha (1932), a musical with 72 songs.

References

  1. p 520, The SAGE Handbook of Media Studies, John H Downing et al., SAGE, 2004, ISBN 0-7619-2169-9
  2. IMDB page on Jamai Sasthi


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