Madan Theatre Company, also known as Madan Theatres Limited or Madan Theatres in short, was a film production company founded by

Jamshedji Framji Madan Jamshedji Framji Madan (27 April 1857, Bombay – 28 June 1923), professionally known as J. F. Madan, was an Indian theatre and film magnate who was one of the pioneers of film production in India, an early exhibitor, distributor and producer of ...

, one of the pioneers of

Indian Cinema The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, ...

History

Madan, a young

Parsi Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...

businessman, who had experience in Theatre shows from an early age, stepped into entertainment business in 1902, when he started

bioscope show A Bioscope show was a music hall and fairground attraction consisting of a travelling cinema. The heyday of the Bioscope was from the late 1890s until World War I. History Bioscope shows were fronted by the largest fairground organs, and these f ...

s of imported cinemas a tent in Maidan, Calcutta. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, Madan's Theatre business started growing rapidly. In 1919, his business became a

joint stock company A joint-stock company is a business entity in which shares of the company's stock can be bought and sold by shareholders. Each shareholder owns company stock in proportion, evidenced by their shares (certificates of ownership). Shareholders a ...

with the name of Madan Theatres Limited. Madan Theatres and its associates had a great control over theatre houses in India those days. J J Madan, third son of

, became managing director of Madan Theatres after the death of his father in 1923. Madan Theatres reached a peak in late 1920s when it owned 127 theatres and controlled half of the country's box office. Madan Theatres produced a number of popular and landmark films till 1937.

List of films

*'' Billwamangal'' (1919), Bengali feature film, screened in Cornwallis Theatre (now known as Sree Cinema). *''Nala Damayanti'' (1920), directed by

Eugenio de Liguoro Eugenio de Liguoro (March 15, 1899 – June 30, 1952) was an Italian actor and film director. He was the son of Giuseppe de Liguoro, and acted in several of his films during the 1910s as well as some in the United States. He increasingly moved b ...

. *''Dhruva Charitra'' (1921), also directed by Eugenio de Liguoro. *''Ratnavali'' (1922), directed by

Camille Le Grand Camille may refer to: Fictional entities * a Power Rangers Jungle Fury character * Camille Wallaby, a character in Alfred Hedgehog * a character from ''League of Legends'' video game voiced by Emily O'Brien Films *'' Camille (1912 film)'', a ...

. *''Savitri Satyavan'' (1923), directed by

Georgio Mannini Georgio is a variant of George. It may refer to: Mononyms *Georgio (singer) (born 1966), full name Georgio Alentini, born George Allen. American singer, songwriter, and musician * Georgio (rapper) (born 1993), birth name Georges Édouard Nicolo, F ...

. *''Bishabriksha'' (1922 and 1928). *''Durgesh Nandini'' (1927) and ''Radharani'' (1930), both based on

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (also Chattopadhayay) CIE (26 or 27 June 1838 – 8 April 1894) was an Indian novelist, poet, Essayist and journalist. Staff writer"Bankim Chandra: The First Prominent Bengali Novelist" ''The Daily Star'', 30 June 201 ...

's works. *''Giribala'' (1929), based on

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

's work. *''

Jamai Shashthi ''Jamai Shashthi'' ( bn, জামাই ষষ্ঠী English: Son-in-law day) is a 1931 Bengali short film directed by Amar Choudhury and produced by Madan Theatre Limited. It is a milestone of Bengali cinema as it was the first Bengal ...

'' (1931), Bengali

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

as a

talkie A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades passed before ...

, was released on 11 April 1931.IMDB page on Jamai Sasthi
/ref> *''

Indrasabha ''Inder Sabha'' (Urdu: اِندر سبها) is an Urdu play and opera written by Agha Hasan Amanat, and first staged in 1853. It is regarded as the first complete Urdu stage play ever written. The play was translated into German in the 1880s as a ...

'' (1932), a musical with 72 songs.

References

External links

IMDB page on films produced by Madan Theatres Limited
Indian film studios Cinema of Bengal Film production companies based in Kolkata Indian companies established in 1919 {{film-company-stub