Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of Gemini Pictures

Timestamp:

May 28, 2012, 10:50:40 AM (12 years ago)

Author:

Parth

Comment:

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Gemini Pictures

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+
+== Gemini Pictures ==
+
+Aka Gemini Studios. Best-known Madras studio
+in the 40s for redefining the concept of mass
+entertainment with Chandralekha (1948), the
+first Madras film to break successfully into the
+Hindi cinema. S.S. Vasan started Gemini as a
+distribution agency, the Gemini Pics Circuit,
+distributing and partly financing films by K.
+Subramanyam’s Motion Pics Producers
+Combine. When the Combine went bankrupt,
+Vasan bought the studio in 1939 at public
+auction for a mere Rs 86,427-11 (Annas)-9
+(Paise) (according to Randor Guy). The studio’s
+début feature was probably Balkrishna
+Narayan Rao’s Madanakamarajan (1941),
+but it only took off when cameraman-scenarist
+K. Ramnoth joined it along with his Vauhini
+partner, art-director A.K. Sekhar. This team
+made most of Gemini’s early features:
+Mangamma Sapatham (1943), Kannamma En
+Kadhali (1945) and Miss Malini (1947) before
+the Chandralekha blitz catapulted it on to the
+national stage. In the early days, the most
+important event in the studio was Uday
+Shankar’s dance extravaganza Kalpana
+(released 1948) which also provided training
+for most of Gemini’s technicians as well as
+providing the model for an Orientalist dance
+idiom later associated with influential Tamil
+choreographers like Hiralal and Chopra Master.
+A few minor hits followed Chandralekha
+before the studio’s second major onslaught on
+the national box office with Apoorva
+Sahodarargal (1949), a trilingual that
+established the studio’s dominance in the genre
+of the costumed adventure movie. Although its
+Hindi version Nishan was not a major success,
+Vasan continued making Hindi films, often
+signing them himself: e.g. the Dilip Kumar
+and Dev Anand film Insaniyat (1955),
+Vyjayanthimala’s Raj Tilak (1958) and
+Paigham (1959) starring Dilip Kumar, Raaj
+Kumar and Vyjayanthimala. They also made
+the megabudget Tamil classic Avvaiyyar
+(1953). An important later production was
+Motor Sundaram Pillai (1966), Sivaji
+Ganesan’s only film at this studio. In 1958 the
+studio expanded into the Gemini Colour lab,
+licensed by Eastmancolor Kodak film. After
+Vasan’s death, his son S.S. Balasubramanyam
+produced the unsuccessful Ellorum Nallavare
+(1975). Gemini’s productions declined in the
+70s, although it remained successful as a studio
+and equipment rental business now taken over
+by the Anand Cine Services.