Arts and Culture
Modern Theatres was started by T R Sundaram in 1937, soon after the era of silent films ended in the South Indian film industry. It was built on nearly nine acres of land at the foot of the picturesque Yercaud hills. Sundaram was able to access verdant and beautiful shooting sites for his films, all within a 50 km radius of his studios. He was also able to hire cheap and efficient labour in lightboys and cameramen to assist in the production of his films. He produced nearly 117 films in Tamil, Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Sinhalese and other languages. Most of them were box office hits and he is credited with bringing to stardom writer M Karunanidhi and actors such as M G Ramachandran, M N Nambiar and Jayashankar to films.
After Sundaram's death in the 1970s, his son continued his tradition, shooting cowboy remake films with actor Jayashankar in the lead roles. However by then, the focus of the south Indian movie industry had shifted to studios in Chennai. After the younger Sundaram died, his widow Kalavani gave the studios to building promoters in 2004. The studios were demolished entirely, save for a small signpost and the gigantic stone arch with the Modern Theatres sign. The arch serves as the entrance to a township of bungalows and small flats known as Sundaram Gardens.
Read more about this topic: Salem District
Famous quotes containing the words arts and, arts and/or culture:
“No doubt, to a man of sense, travel offers advantages. As many languages as he has, as many friends, as many arts and trades, so many times is he a man. A foreign country is a point of comparison, wherefrom to judge his own.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“No performance is worth loss of geniality. ‘Tis a cruel price we pay for certain fancy goods called fine arts and philosophy.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In society, in the best institutions of men, it is easy to detect a certain precocity. When we should still be growing children, we are already little men. Give me a culture which imports much muck from the meadows, and deepens the soil,—not that which trusts to heating manures, and improved implements, and modes of culture only!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)