The 1950s
The decade of 1950s was a honeymoon period for AVM Productions which turned out a series of hits. The early years were marked by AVM's attempts to conquer the Hindi film industry.
In 1952, AVM's Tamil film Parasakthi released in theatres all over Madras and was an instant success. With a powerful storyline and fiery dialogues by a future Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi, the film preached social revolution and questioned the authority of Hindu temple priests. Sivaji Ganesan, then a new-comer, was cast in the lead role. By the mid-1950s, he had emerged as one of the top-stars in Kollywood.
Sivaji also starred in AVM's next Tamil film Andha Naal (1954) directed by Sundaram Balachander. The film, the first film without any songs to be released in any Indian language, was about a radio engineer who intrigues with the invading Japanese during the Second World War and is eventually killed by his wife. The style of narration had been heavily borrowed from Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon.
In 1953, AVM produced the Kannada film Jatakaphala which was dubbed into Jatakaphalam in Tamil and Telugu. In 1958, AVM made Bhookailas in Telugu, which triggered the "golden age of Telugu cinema". It was subsequently remade as Bhakta Ravana in Tamil and Bhakti Mahima in Hindi.
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