Madan Theatre

Madan Theatre Company, also known as Madan Theatres Limited or Madan Theatres in short, was a film production company founded by Jamshedji Framji & his partner Kanhaiyalal Kaushik, one of the pioneers of Indian Cinema.

Madan Theatre

Founded	1919
Founder	Jamshedji Framji

History

A young Parsi businessman, who had experience in Theatre shows from an early age, stepped into entertainment business in 1902, when he started bioscope shows of imported cinemas a tent in Maidan, Calcutta.

After World War I, Madan's Theatre business started growing rapidly. In 1919 pt Kanhaiyalal Kaushik joint hands with Jamshedji, his business became a joint stock company with the name of Madan Theatres Limited. Madan Theatres and its associates had a great control over theatre houses in India those days.^{[citation needed]}

J. J, third son of Jamshedji Framji, 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.^[1] Madan Theatres produced a number of popular and landmark films till 1937.^[2]

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.
• Dhruva Charitra (1921), also directed by Eugenio de Liguoro.
• Ratnavali (1922), directed by Camille Le Grand.
• Savitri Satyavan (1923), directed by Georgio Mannini.
• Bishabriksha (1922 and 1928).
• Durgesh Nandini (1927) and Radharani (1930), both based on Bankim Chandra Chatterjee's works.
• Giribala (1929), based on Rabindranath Tagore's work.
• Jamai Shashthi (1931), Bengali short film as a talkie, was released on 11 April 1931.^[3]
• Indrasabha (1932), a musical with 72 songs.

References

1. p 520, The SAGE Handbook of Media Studies, John H Downing et al., SAGE, 2004, ISBN 0-7619-2169-9
2. "The life and works of the first Indian film magnate". Retrieved 16 June 2024.
3. IMDB page on Jamai Sasthi

External links

• IMDB page on films produced by Madan Theatres Limited