The city of Madras was considered the capital of Southern Cinema and housed close to 20 studios, in which films in four major South Indian languages were made. Arguably, the most iconic amongst them is AVM Studios, which was started by A.V. Meyappa Chettiar in a temporary setting in 1945.
“It was a time when producers creatively got involved in filmmaking. It was a big establishment that employed hundreds of people,” says A.V.M. Saravanan, who manages the studios today.
Once a busy studio that made blockbuster movies with stalwarts of Tamil cinema, including M.G. Ramachandran, Vyjayanthimala, Sivaji Ganesan, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, it has now stepped away from film production.
“The business of cinema has changed. The salaries that heroes take home today are huge and we are unable to compete with producers who can afford to pay these stars. Most of our facilities are being used by television studios,” he says.
The liberalisation of economy in the early 1990s resulted in film studios being constructed in big cities across south India. “When Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada movies were made in the studios of their respective cities, the work reduced. We couldn’t afford to pay so many people and we gradually reduced our work force. Today, we are doing only 10 per cent of what we used to do during our heydays. Even the subsidised canteen has gone,” he says.
