film studio
A film studio (also known as movie studio or simply studio) is a major entertainment company that makes films. Today, studios are mostly financing and distribution entities. In addition, they may have their own studio facility or facilities; how ...
and
production company
A production company, production house or production studio is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television show, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and video ...
which grew to prominence producing films for
Antonio Aguilar
José Pascual Antonio Aguilar Márquez Barraza (17 May 191919 June 2007), known as Antonio Aguilar, was a Mexican singer and actor. He recorded over 150 albums, which sold 25 million copies, and acted in more than 120 films. He was given t ...
,
Gaspar Henaine
Gaspar Henaine (6 January 1927 – 30 September 2011), more commonly known by his pseudonym Capulina, was a Mexican comedian, actor, singer, film producer, and screenwriter. He was best known for partnering with Marco Antonio Campos as the do ...
,
María Elena Velasco
María Elena Velasco Fragoso (17 December 1940 – 1 May 2015) was a Mexican actress, comedian, singer-songwriter and dancer. She is best known for creating and portraying La India María, a comical character based on indigenous Mexican women.
...
, and
Vicente Fernández
Vicente Fernández Gómez (17 February 1940 – 12 December 2021) was a Mexican mariachi singer, actor and film producer. Nicknamed "Chente" (short for Vicente), "El Charro de Huentitán" (The Charro from Huentitán), "El Ídolo de México" (Th ...
. It was one of the four main film studios of the classic
Mexican cinema
The cinema of Mexico dates to the late nineteenth century during the rule of President Porfirio Díaz. Seeing a demonstration of short films in 1896, Díaz immediately saw the importance of documenting his presidency in order to present an ...
along with
Estudios Churubusco
Estudios Churubusco is one of the oldest and largest movie studios in Mexico. It is located in the Churubusco neighborhood of Mexico City.
History
It was inaugurated in 1945 after a 1943 agreement between RKO and Emilio Azcárraga Vidaurreta ( ...
, Estudios San Ángel, and Estudios Tepeyac and one of the largest production companies in 1976.
The studio's sound stages appear in ''Duro pero seguro'', a 1978 film starring
María Elena Velasco
María Elena Velasco Fragoso (17 December 1940 – 1 May 2015) was a Mexican actress, comedian, singer-songwriter and dancer. She is best known for creating and portraying La India María, a comical character based on indigenous Mexican women.
...
as
La India María
"La India María" (born María Nicolasa Cruz) is a fictional character portrayed and created by actress María Elena Velasco. who became the studio's exclusive artist in the early 1980s after her contract with Diana Films ended.
In 1993, the studio was sold by the Mexican government as part of the sale of
Imevisión
The Instituto Mexicano de la Televisión (''Mexican Television Institute''), known commercially as Imevisión after 1985, was a state broadcaster and federal government agency of Mexico. At its height, Imevisión programmed two national networks ...
. Bought by
Ricardo Salinas Pliego
Ricardo Benjamín Salinas Pliego (born 19 October 1955) is a Mexican businessman, founder and chairman of Grupo Salinas, a corporate conglomerate with interests in telecommunications, media, financial services, and retail.
An outspoken suppor ...
, the studio shut down as a film company and in 1996 was converted into a
television studio
A television studio, also called a television production studio, is an installation room in which video productions take place, either for the production of live television and its recording onto video tape or other media such as SSDs, or for ...
for
TV Azteca
Televisión Azteca, S.A.B. de C.V., commonly known as TV Azteca, is a Mexican multimedia conglomerate owned by Grupo Salinas. It is the second-largest mass media company in Mexico after Televisa. It primarily competes with Televisa as well as so ...
, where their soap operas and other programming are taped. In 2012, the studio was expanded and currently consists of twelve soundstages.