Jupiter Pictures

Jupiter Pictures (Tamil: ஜுபிடர் பிக்ச்சர்ஸ்) was an Indian feature film production company founded in Coimbatore in 1934 by M. Somasundaram (popularly known as "Jupiter Somu") and S.K. Mohideen. Jupiter Pictures was a major production house with 46 releases with 36 films released in Tamil, 5 in Telugu, 2 each in Kannada and Hindi and one joint release in Tamil and Telugu. In the late 40s and early 50s, they operated out of Central Studios in Coimbatore. Following the closure of the studio, they relocated to Chennai and took over Neptune Studio in Adayar which would later become Sathya Studios. In Chennai, the Jupiter Pictures office operated from a leased historic and palatial building in Mylapore known as "Mangala Vilas".

A. S. A. Sami directed most of his films with Jupiter Pictures. In Chennai during the 50s and 60s, Jupiter produced many successful films, such as "Manohara" (1954, directed by L.V. Prasad), "Karpukkarasi" (1957, A. S. A. Sami), "Thangapathumai" (1959, Sami), "Ellorum Innattu Mannar"(1960, Tatineni Prakasha Rao), "Arasilankumari" (1961, Sami). Jupiter Pictures films made with other producers were sometimes less popular. In its later years the company was managed by S.K. Habibullah (son of S.K.Mohideen).[1]