Tamil Nadu Timeline

CinemaBritish Crown rule

R. Venkaiah opens the Gaiety cinema in Madras

· Chennai

R. Venkaiah opens the Gaiety cinema in Madras
రహ్మానుద్దీన్, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Film pioneer Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu built the Gaiety in 1912, one of the first permanent cinema theatres in Madras.

Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu came to Madras as a young man and took up photography and film. In 1910 he screened films with a Chrono Megaphone at Victoria Public Hall and set up the Esplanade Tent House to exhibit films. In 1912 he built The Gaiety, among the first permanent cinema theatres in Madras, followed by the Crown and Globe theatres. He showed American, European and Indian silent films, helping build a film-going public in the city.

Related events

  1. 1832

    1. 15 May 1832ChennaiCulture

      Madras Club founded

      Founded for Europeans only, the Madras Club is among the oldest gentlemen's clubs in India.

  2. 1913

    1. 1913ChennaiScience Technology

      Ramanujan writes to G. H. Hardy

      Srinivasa Ramanujan, a clerk at the Madras Port Trust, began corresponding with G. H. Hardy, who arranged for him to travel to Cambridge in 1914.

  3. 1914

    1. 1914ChennaiPolitics

      Congress session in Madras presided by Bhupendra Nath Bose

      The Indian National Congress held its 1914 annual session in Madras under Bhupendra Nath Bose, months after the First World War began.

  4. 1917

    1. 1917ChennaiCinema

      Keechaka Vadham, the first South Indian film

      R. Nataraja Mudaliar's silent film Keechaka Vadham, the first film made in South India, was released in 1917 or 1918.

  5. 1940

    1. 1940ChennaiCinema

      S. S. Vasan founds Gemini Studios

      S. S. Vasan acquired a studio in Madras and established Gemini Studios, which became one of India's major film studios.

  6. 1944

    1. 16 Oct 1944ChennaiCinema

      Haridas released

      Haridas, a Tamil film with M. K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar in the lead, played at one Madras theatre across three Diwalis in a row, a record that stood for years.

Open in the timeline explorer