Pioneering film production in Tamil Nadu

Samikannu Vincent strove to put the State on the world cinema map

Film exhibition and production in Tamil Nadu has grown by leaps and bounds, and has had an outsized influence on popular culture since the silent era in the early 20th Century. But the man who pioneered it barely finds a mention in its history.

Samikannu Vincent, who was born on April 18, 1883 in Kottaimedu, Coimbatore, and worked as a draftsman-clerk in the South Indian Railway, transformed the exhibition business in the State. In just 10 years after famed French inventors and filmmakers, the Lumière brothers, presented their silent movie in public in the West, Samikannu decided to buy an expensive touring cinema set from French film exhibitor Du Pont in 1905, reportedly at a whopping ₹2,250, and took it to places as far away as Peshawar, Lahore, Afghanistan and Myanmar.

It is said that Samikannu used to pitch tents for his touring talkies to screen silent movies such as Ramayana, Birth of Hanuman and Pavazhakodi for a one-anna floor ticket. In the days of silent movies, a person with a microphone explained the sequences that unfolded on the screen, while people sat on the sand floor and watched in awe. Chairs were put up only for important people.

Samikannu set up Variety Hall Talkies in 1914, considered the then Madras State’s first cinema theatre, which mainly screened Tamil films and some English movies such as Tarzan The Fearless, Tarzan Finds a Mate, Tarzan The Ape Man and King Kong.

The interest and business around movies created by Samikannu resulted in the setting up of two studios – Central Studios (1937) and Pakshiraja Studios – in Coimbatore. Film production flourished in Coimbatore between 1937 and 1960. Well-known film historian Randor Guy noted that Samikannu also produced a number of films in association with other film studios.

He co-produced Valli Thirumanam with Pioneer Studios, Calcutta (Kolkata), which starred T.P. Rajalakshmi. The film was also hugely successful in Madras (Chennai), where it was screened at the New Elphinstone Cinema on Mount Road (Anna Salai).

After the roaring success of Valli Thirumanam, he co-produced Harishchandra (1935) with Pioneer Studios and Subhadra Parinayam under the banner of Variety Hall Talkies. Samikannu later joined Central Studios as one of its directors and was also reportedly interested in theatre management and equipment distribution.