Jamshedji Framji Madan

Jamshedji Framji Madan (1856–1923), born in a Parsi family in Bombay, was one of the pioneers of the Indian film industry. This article is about the Parsi community. ... This article or section should be merged with Mumbai Mumbai (previously known as Bombay) is the worlds most populous conurbation, and is the sixth most populous agglomeration in the world. ... The Indian film industry is the largest in the world in terms of ticket sales and number of films produced annually (877 feature films and 1177 short films were released in the year 2003 alone). ...

Early life

Madan's father suffered a huge monetary loss when Bombay Reclamation Bank, which was responsible for reclaiming land between the seven islands of Bombay, failed. JF Madan had to leave school, and he joined Elphinstone Dramatic Club as a prop boy in 1868. By 1875, this amateur club turned into a professional theatre company staging shows all over India.^[1] This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Entrepreneur

In 1882, Madan left the theatre company and had a short successful stint in business at Karachi. He moved to Calcutta in 1883. His success in a business of supplying goods to army cantonments enabled him to buy Corinthian Hall, where theatre shows used to be staged. Also, he took over the Elphinstone Theatre Company, where he started his career, from Cooverji Nazir, one of the founders of the theatre.^[1] Corinthian Hall was turned into Corinthian Theatre, and it became very popular for Parsi Theatre shows, which were full of grandeur and had women actors, a rarity in those days. Not to be confused with Karachay-Cherkessia. ... This article is on Calcutta/Kolkata, the city. ...

In 1902, he started bioscope shows in a tent in Maidan, Calcutta along with similar shows in Corinthian Theatre. The equipments used were procured from Pathé Frères of Paris. Most of the films shown in those shows were from Pathé Productions. These bioscope shows were organized under the banner of Elphinstone Bioscope Company.^[1] Elphinstone Bioscope Company produced a number of short films.^[2] He also started film shows in Alfred Theatre, which he bought in the same year. A Bioscope show was a fairground attaction consisting of a travelling cinema. ... Kolkata — the skyline across the Maidan The Maidan (open field) is the largest urban park in Kolkata (earlier known as Calcutta) in India. ... Pathé or Pathé Frères is the name of various businesses founded and originally run by the Pathé Brothers of France. ... This article is about the capital of France. ...

In 1907, he established Elphinstone Picture Palace (currently known as Chaplin Cinema), which was the first permanent show house in Calcutta. He also opened Madan Theatre and Palace of Varieties (now known as Elite Cinema).^[1]

After World War I, his business started growing rapidly. In 1919, his film production business became a joint stock company with the name of Madan Theatres Limited. Madan Theatres and its associates had great control over theatre houses in India during that period. In 1919, Madan produced the first Bengali feature film, Billwamangal. It was first screened in the Cornwallis Theatre (now known as the Sree Cinema). “The Great War ” redirects here. ... A joint stock company (JSC) is a type of business partnership in which the capital is formed by the individual contributions of a group of shareholders. ... The Madan Theatre Company has its roots in 1902 when Jamshedji Framji Madan, a wine merchant who came to Calcutta from Bombay as a child, started his entertainment business by acquiring two theatre companies in Calcutta and then beginning film exhibitions . ... Billwamangal (Pronounced Billomongol) was a 1919 Bengali silent film by Jyotish Banerjee. ...

The Electric Theatre (now known as Regal Cinema), Grand Opera House (currently known as Globe Cinema) and Crown Cinema (now known as Uttara Cinema) were all owned by Madan Theatres.

Strategies for success

His films were marked by a high degree of technical sophistication, facilitated by his employment of experienced foreign directors like Eugenio De Liguoro, Camille Le Grand and Georgio Mannini. Such expertise was complemented by grand sets and popular mythological storylines which ensured good returns. Many of these films were versions of earlier popular theatrical forms. Liguoro directed Nala Damayanti (1920) and Dhruva Charitra (1921), Le Grand directed Ratnavali (1922), and Mannini directed Savitri Satyavan (1923). Patience Cooper, one of the early stars of Indian Cinema, acted in many of the movies produced by Madan Theatres. Patience Cooper Patience Cooper (1905–1983) was an Indian film actress. ...

Madan also took the initiative in obtaining the film rights for works of stalwarts of Bengali literature like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Rabindranath Tagore. Madan Theatres produced films like Bishabriksha (1922 and 1928), Durgesh Nandini (1927) and Radharani (1930) based on Bankim Chandra's works. Giribala (1929) was based on Tagore's work. The first evidence of Bengali literature is known as Charyapada or Charyageeti, which were Buddhist hymns from the 8th century. ... Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (Chattopadhyay in the original Bengali; Chatterjee as spelt by the British) was an Indian poet and author, most famous as the composer of Vande Mataram. ... (Bengali: , IPA: ) (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), also known by the sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj philosopher, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. ...

Legacy

Madan and his relatives were involved in a variety of businesses including liquor imports, food, pharmaceutical products, real estate, insurance, etc. But among all these, Madan Theatre was the most well-known and most well-established. It spread over Burma and Ceylon, which were part of British India.^[3] The Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (ශ්රී ලංකා in Sinhala / இலங்கை in Tamil) (known as Ceylon before 1972) is a tropical island nation off the southeast coast of the Indian subcontinent. ... Anthem God Save The Queen/King British India, circa 1860 Capital Calcutta (1858-1912), New Delhi (1912-1947) Language(s) Hindi, Urdu, English and many others Government Monarchy Emperor of India  - 1877-1901 Victoria  - 1901-1910 Edward VII  - 1910-1936 George V  - January-December 1936 Edward VIII  - 1936-1947 George...

J J Madan, third son of J F Madan, became managing director of Madan Theatres after JF's death in 1923. Madan Theatres reached a peak in the late 1920s when it owned 127 theatres and controlled half of the country's box office.^[4] Madan Theatres produced a number of popular and landmark films until 1937.

American actor Erick Avari is a great-grandson of J J Madan.^[5] Erick Avari (Hindi: , Urdu: ; born April 13, 1952) is a British-Indian screen and television actor. ...

References

External links

• J F Madan at the Internet Movie Database
• Madan Theatres at the Internet Movie Database
• Bengali article on J F Madan at abasar.net