From humble ‘Tent Kottai’ to ‘INOX’
Flashback of a glorious past
The heritage walk showed participants a glimpse of city's rollercoaster ride with cinema. File Photo
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Who would have thought that the first cathedral for celluloid in the South was but a humble tent kottai in Tiruchi? From a home-sick Frenchman eager to rid himself of projectors and film spools and return to his country, Swamikannu Vincent helped foster a theatre culture in South India, where, even today, movies are followed like a religion, and the stars, worshipped like Gods.
Tiruchi’s tent foreshadowed Madras’ initiation with films, when Vincent, the man who first brought movies to Madras, set up Edison Bioscope in Esplanade. This was just the beginning of the rollercoaster ride for cinema in Madras.
On Sunday, as part of Madras Week celebrations, actor and film historian Mohan V. Raman, on the heritage walk titled ‘The vanished and surviving theatres of Mount Road’, brewed and served a journey that elaborated Madras’ ties with celluloid.
Equipped with an arsenal of facts, anecdotes and personal experiences, he summoned a paling memory for the nostalgic, while concocting a history lesson for those who have been around long enough to know just Sathyam and Inox.
Read more at: https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/flashback-of-a-glorious-past/article3796307.ece