Salem District - Arts and Culture

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.