avm studio tour

Chennai’s AVM Studios: Behind the Scenes of the Silver Screen

Senjuti Mukherjee

Senjuti studied comparative literature and arts and aesthetics at Jadavpur University and Jawaharlal Nehru University respectively. Since 2013, she has catalogued and researched visual arts collections and related archives with organisations such as Osian's Connoisseurs of Art, Eka Cultural Resources and Research, and Delhi Art Gallery, focusing on film publicity memorabilia among other things. Lately, she has been exploring the material culture of the celluloid medium, studio systems, and cinematic and photographic apparatus, and has undergone training in celluloid preservation and conservation at workshops held by the International Federation of Film Archives and Film Heritage Foundation.

In cinema-crazed Chennai, every street has political graffiti with film stars and film posters. The billboards, flexes and cutouts of fabled film stars, often freshly garlanded, evoke open-air temples.

Cinematic references are inescapable around the city; signboards invoke memories of renowned studios after which several streets and institutions are named—Arunachalam Street, Forum Vijaya Mall, Vijaya Hospital, Bharani Apartments and others. People stream in and out of shops, apartments and hospitals, mostly impervious to the cinematic history that infuses these spaces. Like the memory of a dream, fragments of celluloid speck the contemporary film-watcher’s mind. An old security guard at Prasad Studios and an older man serving idlis in a café reminisce about a time when their lives were immersed in the celluloid industry.

The neighbourhood of Kodambakkam, where the famous AVM Studios—one of the earliest studios in the country, built in 1949—once stood, provides clues to and fragments of cinematic history. The contemporary flexes and banners bear testament to this obscured layer of history, otherwise unseen on these streets.

Kodambakkam became central to the film industry (colloquially dubbed ‘Kollywood’ after the neighbourhood) after numerous other studios imitated AVM’s formation. On Arcot Road, Vadapalani, one cannot miss the AVM Studios globe rotating squeakily while foregrounding a high-rise owned by part of the family.  

Mohan Raman, an actor and city historian working closely with the history of Chennai studios, claims that, contrary to popular belief, the first studio in Kodambakkam was Star Combines by A. Ramayya in 1946. Two years later, B.N. Reddy set up his Vijaya-Vauhini Studios in the neighbourhood. AVM came to the neighbourhood only in 1949.  But the story of AVM Studios starts long before studios came to this neighbourhood.

Birth of a Studio: From Gramophones to Moving Images A.V. Meiyappan (Fig. 1), the eponymous founder of AVM Studios, was from Karaikudi, 400 km southwest of Chennai. His father, Avichi Chettiar, had a shop called A.V. & Sons that sold utility items, where the first image-making apparatus made its entry when he started selling Kodak films. It was through gramophone records that the family steadily approached the world of recorded images. By the time A.V. Meiyappan took charge of this store, it was already selling gramophone records. It had begun distributing for HMV and Columbia, the major manufacturers of gramophone records for Madurai, Tiruchi, Ramanathapuram and Tirunelveli districts in the 1920s. Meiyappan, who had already realised the potential of the gramophone industry, was keen to get involved with the business.

In 1932, he visited Madras and partnered with Narayana Iyengar and Sivan Chettiar to set up Saraswathi Stores on Mount Road. Here the visionary businessman decided to produce recorded songs and plays, both highbrow and popular, in Tamil Nadu. Gramophone record companies at the time were, like other elitist cultural institutions, protected by a powerful Brahmin community that looked down upon folk and theatre music. Meiyappan, however, was astute enough to gauge the potential of recording the tremendously popular songs of theatre artists who were performing folk-inspired semi-classical forms of music. His decision to produce popular or folk songs alongside classical ones eventually led to his cinematic venture.      

In 1934, Saraswathi Stores started releasing records of songs from popular plays. Their unprecedented success led Meiyappan to release two ‘drama record sets’ of the Hindu epic Ramayana and ‘Kovalan’, a story from the Tamil epic Silappatikaram (Fig. 2). Meiyappan’s decision to enter into a contract with the German gramophone company Odeon brought about groundbreaking shifts in both technology and popular culture. Recorded sound on wax was exported to Germany from where multiple 78 RPM shellac records were imported to Madras, as Chennai was then known, for large-scale local distribution.

By this time, Meiyappan had started Saraswathi Sound Production, a new film-production company, later known as Saraswathi Talkie Producing Company. Madras did not have any studio facilities at the time, forcing Meiyappan to shoot his first film Alli Arjuna (1935) at New Theatres Studios in Calcutta. Meiyappan’s autobiography, My Experiences in Life , recounts how the first film landed them with huge losses; while screening it they realised that the actor had acted with his eyes almost entirely shut because of the bright lights of the film sets.

Rathnavali , Meiyappan’s second film, was also filmed in Calcutta. His third film, Nandakumar , was filmed in Pune, which was rapidly becoming renowned for its studios. Despite Nandakumar being a failure at the box office, it was through this film that the veteran of the gramophone industry and his crew introduced playback technology in Tamil cinema (a move that was decided upon because one of the actors could not sing). [1] The film’s recorded songs were hugely successful, and soon after Meiyappan and his crew would also bring about the first experiments in post-synchronisation and dubbing.

Notwithstanding the box office failures of his early films, Meiyappan set up Pragati Pictures Pvt. Ltd in Bangalore. His first studio was also set up in Bangalore during the Second World War, which delayed the imports of studio equipment from Europe. In the meantime, Meiyappan’s partnership with Narayana Iyengar for Saraswathi Stores had ended. Reluctant to abandon Saraswathi Stores and settle in Bangalore, Meiyappan decided to shift the studio close to Adyar in Madras, and chose the Vijayanagar Fort (later known as Admiralty House) as the new site. This studio had one floor and except for a new recording machine, Meiyappan only bought used equipment.

The Telugu film Boo Kailash (1941) became Meiyappans first big hit. Boo Kailash provides insights into the history of the studio and the history of Madras State (which, formed in 1950, included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu, coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of north Kerala and Bellary, and south Canara and Udupi districts of Karnataka). The movie illustrates the workings of the Tamil studio system in the 40s: the language of the film was Telugu, the producers were Tamil, the director was Marathi, and the actors were Kannadigas. Through the 1940s, 50s and early 60s, Madras was the centre of cinema for all southern Indian languages. Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films were all produced in the city.

After the States Re-organisation Act of 1956, Madras State was broken up along linguistic lines, and C.N. Annadurai’s government named it Tamil Nadu in 1968. This moment is seen to coincide with most of the other languages moving out of Chennai film industry and finding their own locus. This event delivered the first crack in the Chennai studio system.

Years of the War: Shortages and Regulations Lead to a Shift in Location After the success of his first directorial venture, Sabapathy (1942), Meiyappan had to return to Karaikudi as there was a severe threat of the Japanese bombing Madras during the Second World War. [2]

The war had a far-reaching impact on cinema as the movement of film equipment, electricity for studios and raw stock were strictly controlled. For example, Meiyappan’s Harishchandra in 1943 faced wartime regulation on raw stock, which was reserved for propaganda films. This resulted in the edited length of the film being restricted to 11,000 ft—half the usual length of Tamil films of the time, which, drawing directly from theatre, hosted around 50 songs as part of the narrative. The audience appreciated the concise format of Harishchandra . It was a huge success and inspired the sound department to experiment with dubbing (innovators in the industry dubbed the original Kannada film in Tamil), a decision that engendered yet another turning point in Tamil cinema.

The repercussions of the War had restricted power supplies, and the electricity department was unable to set up power at a new studio. In Karaikudi though, power supply was in the hands of a private company called the Meenatchi Sundareshwarar Corporation, and this caught Meiyappan’s attention.

Around the same time, Somanathan Chettiar, a zamindar of Devakottai, had laid a road from Devakottai to Karaikudi and opened a railway station there. To popularise this station, he also went on to build a drama theatre nearby. Meiyappan, already deeply involved in the associative correspondence between the mediums of theatre and cinema, could think of no better space to build his film studio. Tying together the railways, drama theatre and the studio system, Meiyappan set up close to 50 thatched sheds in this venue. The two big wooden posts of the drama theatre showed up in his films as part of the mise en scène as the mediums spoke fondly to and of each other. He named this space AVM Studios (Fig. 3).

In his autobiography,  A.V.M Speaks , Meiyappan uses the word ‘factory’ to describe the studio space and the filmmaking process—a revealing turn of phrase, because filmmaking followed a meticulous production process like any other factory and had a division of labour. Studios were industrial complexes with machines, buildings and salaried employees who oversaw every aspect of filmmaking, including pre-production, production, distribution and exhibition.

During the late 40s, theatre was independently changing towards a more social genre. Cinema was preparing to break out of the mythological and devotional genres as well. A social play called Naam Iruvar , staged by NSK Nataka Sabha, catered to the patriotic zeal of people around the time of Independence, with the wartime ‘black market’ forming its backdrop. The playwright P. Neelakantan sold the rights for Rs 3,000 to Meiyappan and agreed to come on board as an assistant director adapting his play for cinema.

Subramania Bharathy, famously known as Bharathiyar, was a fiery Tamil poet, independence activist and social reformer whose nationalist songs formed the backbone of the play. During the making of the film, the gramophone recording company Surajmal and Sons owned the copyright to many of Bharathiyar’s songs, which Meiyappan managed to buy for Rs 10,000. In a peculiar transaction, Meiyappan came to privately own Bharathiyar’s songs and restricted the use of them by others. Bharathiyar’s songs found a life of their own after Independence, and print media, radio and theatre were replete with lyrics from these songs; this led to Meiyappan handing over ownership of Bharathiyar’s songs to the government, and the songs were eventually made public property. Film songs in Tamil cinema went on to be a fiercely wielded political tool, and Bharathiyar’s songs in Naam Iruvar were among the earliest examples of songs in an Indian movie playing such a phenomenal role in uniting people for a sociopolitical cause. The dialogues of the film were interspersed with political slogans and visuals along with photographs of freedom fighters. Naam Iruvar was also the first film under the AVM banner. Meiyappan claims in his autobiography that this film brought a change in the audience in that they were now ready to witness social narratives in cinema. [3] The studio continued to prioritise songs as having a life independent of film, as concise narratives often critiquing or praising social and political changes.

The sweeping hits produced by AVM led the landlord to more than triple the rent for the studio, coupled with the lifting of the ban on electricity in Madras in late 1948 made Meiyappan consider shifting back to the city. By then, it was also proving difficult for him to send his canned films to Madras for processing. In 1949, AVM moved to the n eighbourhood of Kodambakkam, which would soon be populated with film studios. Meiyappan came upon a 10-acre plot that had belonged to a Muslim owner of a leather warehouse and was vacant after Partition. This time, he introduced two new things to the AVM Studios, a projection or preview theatre and a black-and-white cine lab, which was around till 2017.

The Rise and Fall of Studio Cinema—Arrival of Television, Colour Film Stock, Lighter Cameras Between the 50s and the 70s, a plethora of studios came up in Kodambakkam. In 1950, P.S. Ramakrishna Rao and Bhanumathi Ramakrishna, the only female studio owner in Chennai, set up Bharani Studios next to AVM Studios. Other studios in the area included Narasu Studios, owned by Narasu’s Coffee; Rohini Studios, now a warehouse for Food Corporation of India; and B.S. Ranga’s Vikram Studios. Producer K.S. Gopalakrishnan built Karpagam Studios from the profit he made from his film Karpagam . Different film scholars have quoted different numbers of studios in Chennai, ranging from 30 to 100. This incongruity is possibly due to the absence of a standardised definition of what constitutes a studio.

Parasakthi was an important film released under the AVM banner in 1952. The film, like most other films of the time, was also originally a play written by M.S. Balasundaram of Dravidar Kazhagam. Meiyappan, along with Dravidian movement activist Perumal, watched it and hired M. Karunanidhi, who later became chief minister of Tamil Nadu, to write the screenplay. Incidentally, both Karunanidhi and his political mentor Annadurai were working as screenplay writers with AVM Studios in the early 1950s. M.S.S. Pandian’s essay on Parasakthi talks about its anti-Brahmanical, anti-Congress, anti-Hindi imperialism and pro-Tamil nationalistic narrative. [4] This rebellious DMK film was released to the cultural elite, who were largely Congress party sympathisers and, unlike during the beginnings of cinema in Madras, also by now cinema patrons. Parasakthi , like Naam Iruvar , opened with a song, but in this instance, it was the Dravidian activist-poet Bharatidasan’s songs about sociopolitical issues in Madras State. Swarnavel E. Pillai in his book explores Parasakthi , shot almost entirely at the new studio in Kodambakkam, from the perspective of the economy of space. He writes,

AVM Studios complex, which had made its complete transition from Karaikkudi; the thatched cottages and the materials inside were transported from Karaikkudi by truck, and the cottages were transformed into concrete buildings in Madras. Therefore, the film innovatively uses various blocks of the studio space as a constructed stage, due to their enclosed and intimate quality, mainly for its protagonist Gunasekaran to deliver his monologues and for Kalyani to share her plight directly with the audience, either through her dialogues or songs. [5]

The arrival of television in the late 50s and early 60s was the first point of departure from the well-established business of studio-born cinema. Prasad Studios set up in 1956 would go on to make important inroads in similar infrastructure building after the death of its founder L.V. Prasad. Prasad Film Labs initially set as a modern additive colour processing and printing lab in the mid 70s, eventually concentrated on making 70 mm release prints, introducing Panavision technology to India, besides providing filmmaking equipment on rent. AVM Studios never transformed their black-and-white cine lab to colour and went on to work mainly with Prasad and Gemini labs for their productions. It was not until the introduction of colour television in the early 80s that studio-born celluloid cinema was truly threatened. Around this time, studios started catering to the television industry by renting out floors and producing TV dramas.

R. Parameswaran, in charge of the AVM's cine lab since the early 50s, recalls how AVM’s success with films remained intact till 1968 and was first interrupted by a trade union strike of workers demanding salaries on a par with the Vijaya-Vauhini Studios. This led to the studio shutting down for 18 months. As it picked up pace again after resolving the strikes, a second strike for an unknown cause began in 1975. By the end of the 1970s, the industrial studio system, which was somewhat feudal in labour relations, was headed towards a steady decline, mirrored by an assured rise in the power of the individual star, director and artists. The recession and financial struggles within the system also contributed towards this.

Technological shifts in the medium brought cinema out of the confines of the studio complex. The American Mitchell camera (Fig. 4) made in 1919 was designed for silent films and therefore was not a quiet camera with noise control. This noisy camera went through a series of technological developments over the years as electric motors kept being added, making the device more sophisticated.

With the coming of the talkies, the camera had to be made quieter. To ensure soundproofing, the camera of the early talkie decades ended up being heavy and cumbersome, and it was not travel-friendly. For the sake of better sound, noisy arc lights had to be abandoned as well.

The advent of playback and dubbing technology introduced in the Tamil cinema industry by AVM Studios was the first dent in the dependency of films on the studio system. With work gradually shifting to sound recording studios, the importance of sound recording on the sound-controlled floor started dwindling. Besides, when film stock with improved film speed was introduced, the necessity of shooting with bright studio lights diminished. Both these components made it possible to shoot scenes at lower light levels and diminished the importance of light control within studio confines. With reduced stress on sound control in studio spaces, the heavy-blimped cameras were replaced with a noiseless, lightweight, highly portable Arriflex 35BL in 1972. The advent of this camera in Chennai inspired directors. It made it possible for them to move out of restricted spaces and controlled settings, and take on-location or outdoor shoots.

Last leg of the Studio’s Journey: Arrival of video technology, digital cameras, and the Internet In 1979, Meiyappan passed away. His 25-acre cinema business passed on to his four sons—Saravanan, Murugan, Kumaran and Balasubramanian. While Murugan was entrusted with AVM's cine lab , Saravanan and Balasubramanian took on AVM Productions.

By this time, Saravanan had already been the executive producer of AVM Productions for two decades. The reign of the studio floors kept weakening while technology ushered in newer changes with the introduction of telecine in the late 80s. This was the beginning of a new era of video technology that would quickly morph into digital practices. Telecine made it possible to transfer film stock into video format meant to be screened on television or circulated as video tapes, including VHS and Betacam. Post-production work started constantly evolving towards digital cinema. Around this time, the distinguished Steenbeck flatbed editing and Moviola linear editing machines (Figs 5 and 6) were replaced by digital nonlinear editing. Digital scanners were routinely employed to improve visuals and introduce effects.

In the early 2000s, Red introduced their first digital camera followed by Arri in 2007 introducing the digital camera Arri D-20. In 2011, the popularity of the digital cameras made Arri and Panavision declare that they were discontinuing the production of analogue cameras. By the first decade of the 2000s, the curtain truly fell on all the remaining celluloid aspects of cinema. The economic liberalisation of the 90s and the introduction of multiplex cinemas in the early 2000s influenced the taste of the audience and instigated shifts in the narrative and visual content of Tamil as well as Indian cinema.

The reign of the production house lasted longer than that of the studio floors. Even in 1983, AVM produced a film, Thoongadhey Thambi Thoongadhey , starring Kamal Hassan. It had a 263-day run at the box office. In 2007, AVM Productions released the blockbuster Sivaji: The Boss , starring Rajinikanth. The protagonist Sivaji was a software architect caught in a complex sci-fi high-tech plot. The film was shot in many places including Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad. Although captured on super 35-mm film stock, this film was scanned, digitally graded and transferred to 4K digital cinema projection, introducing the latter to the Tamil film industry. In 2012, this film was re-released in 3D format.

In 2011, AVM’s 175th and last film production Mudhal Idam was released. By this time, AVM Productions had entirely moved to producing television dramas. In 2014, the fourth generation of the AVM family, granddaughters of M. Saravanan (Aruna and Aparna Guhan), released the first direct-to-stream film, Idhuvum Kadandhu Pogum, under AVM Productions on YouTube. Thereby, AVM made another effort to reconcile with its times and ascertain the possibility of rehabilitating itself as a production house despite lost glory.

In 2015, as a documentary was being made on the extraordinary life of AVM Studios, marking its 70th year, part of the studio was also demolished to make way for a high-rise apartment complex. According to media coverage, the part of the studio belonging to Balasubramanian was broken down as he intended to move to the real-estate business with seven acres of this land. Newspaper articles detailed how, besides the air-conditioned shooting floors and preview theatre, a bus stop set was also being brought down. [6] The film narrative desired the city’s landscapes long before equipment could move out to location shoots. The demolition of the bus stop is a subliminal reference to how access to the real city has appropriated the requirement for the constructed city within the studio confines.

The rest of AVM Studios space shows up on the Internet as available to the public. Online city guides such as Little Black Book Chennai list AVM Garden Villa as vintage properties available to rent for family events (Fig. 7). Popularly known as Chettiar Bungalow, this was the residence of Meiyappan. Built by the famous architect P.S. Govinda Rao in 1965, hundreds of films have been shot here. This peculiar landscape—with fountains, spiralling staircases, vintage statues and chandeliers that graced the silver screen—is available to help bring a glorious cinematic grandeur closer to the lives of the consumers. The Mylapore house of A.V. Meiyappan and his wife Rajeshwari, fondly called the Devakottai house by the family, functions as a lavish wedding venue now. The AVM School and housing complex initially set up by A.V. Meiyappan to cater to his employees are still functioning under the guidance of Saravanan and his son, Guhan.

In the neighbourhood of Kodambakkam today, Bharani and AVM stand tall as residential high-rises, Vijaya-Vauhini has been broken into Forum Vijaya Shopping Mall and Vijaya Hospital, and Rohini Studios manages to retain its past structural aura, even if not its glory, with its studio architecture intact as a warehouse of Food Corporation of India.

The cinema industry is continuously morphing, and different genres of filmmaking function with different parameters today. A vast and diverse filmic knowledge and apparatus retraced into the past as skillsets and professions died and were recast, machines were junked or put in glass cases, and workers were asked to leave or learn contemporary practices. Cinema survived all and continues to exist as the most popular form of entertainment and art as audiences break into songs and dance with the protagonists, and interact with this living medium inside the comforting dark cave of a cinema theatre.

Film history is an established discipline across the world today. But the narratives of studios and laboratories, cinematic mediums and formats, obsolete technologies and machineries are often reconstructed in the realm of oral culture. The accounts of technician-artists like film colourists, printers, processors, studio carpenters, boom holders and costume designers who fell into obsolescence remain largely ambiguous. If we are to comprehend and savour the medium better, the changes in cinematic technologies, which spanned a few years, require to be investigated as an inseparable part of film history. The science-fiction world of the past, replete with machines lost and found, dripping chemicals in damp rooms, and unruly consumers who hoard obsolete apparatuses in their attic makes the chronicle of the moving image far-reaching.

[2] Pillai, Madras Studios—Narrative, Genre, and Ideology in Tamil Cinema .

[3] Baalyu, AVM Speaks ( Enathu Vazhkai Anubavangal ).

[4] Pandian, ‘Parasakthi: Life and Times of a DMK Film’.

[5] Pillai, Madras Studios— Narrative, Genre, and Ideology in Tamil Cinema .

[6] Manikandan, ‘From Reel to Real: The Story of AVM Studios’.

Bibliography Baalyu. AVM Speaks ( Enathu Vazhkai Anubavangal ). Chennai: Vadapalani Press, 1974.

Manikandan, K. 'From Reel to Real: The Story of AVM Studios.' The Hindu, Chennai, June 11, 2015. https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/from-reel-to-real-the-story-of-avm-studios/article7302946.ece  (Last accessed on July 2, 2019).

Pillai, Swarnavel Eswaran.  Madras Studios—Narrative, Genre, and Ideology in Tamil Cinema . New Delhi: SAGE Publishers, 2015.

Pandian, M.S.S. ‘Parasakthi: Life and Times of a DMK Film.’ Economic and Political Weekly 26, no. 11/12 (1991): 751–770.

Lifestyle & Travel Blog from Chennai, India

Our Visit to AVM Studios Heritage Museum (Vadapalani)

• June 1, 2023 June 1, 2023

In the above photo I took at the AVM Studios Heritage Museum, Vadapalani ( Google Maps link ) you would have noticed that I have embossed my logo. Besides, this is the only photo I am going to display in this blog post. There is a reason for that – I will let you know at the end.

AVM Heritage Museum is in the same AVM Studios premises where you would have seen the iconic AVM Globe from the Arcot Main Road, Vadapalani. They didn’t collect any parking charges for our two-wheeler, but the entry ticket price was somewhat high at Rs. 200 for adults, and Rs. 150 for Kids ( Why?? )

The best thing for me about this museum is the collection of well-maintained heritage cars. These heritage cars are shining and as good as new! Even the replicas of the first automobiles ever invented (at the entrance) look so good.

There are a few movie set props used in actual movies – but don’t expect anything close to Ramoji Film Studios @ Hyderabad. The museum premises are quite small but they’ve packed quite a punch within that small area.

Another good addition to this museum is the vast collection and display of large-sized printed photos from the various movies produced by AVM productions over the last few decades. That will take you on a nostalgic memory trip.

A few statues are there but we took a selfie only with thalaivar – Rajnikanth’s statue. There is a good collection of old studio production gear – like movie reels, film editing consoles, old projectors, audio editing equipment, cassettes & tapes, etc. There are a few vintage bikes and scooters as well.

Their notice makes it mandatory for visitors NOT to use the pictures taken in the museum premises for commercial purposes – including Youtube. I guess that includes displaying them on this blog as well. Special permission is required to do that.

Instead of taking all the effort to get that special permission, I have decided to use just one long-shot pic, that too with a watermark. If the management deems even this to be too much and in violation of their strict photo rules, they can just request me, and I will take it down immediately.

Readers, tell me something – You’ve all seen infinite pictures of the Taj Mahal both offline and online. Did that ever deter you from visiting the monument directly? I hope the museum management will think about this point and reconsider their strict photo-sharing policies. After all, word of mouth gets around visually through social media nowadays.

Destination Infinity

PS: Yes, my health is getting better nowadays and I am able to visit places like these, at least the ones near my house.

6 thoughts on “ Our Visit to AVM Studios Heritage Museum (Vadapalani) ”

This is what I read somewhere. Just paraphrasing.

Camera flashes hurt patina of delicate objects. Eliminating cameras improves visitor experience. It is hard to enjoy a painting/photo when there is a crowd standing to take photo or selfie. Preventing photography means more sales in their gift shops. Taking photograph is a copyright violation in many cases.

Glad your health is improving,

We are allowed to take photos here for personal use, but they forbid us to use them on blogs, youtube channels, etc.

Nice visit. Informative post. Tickets are high probably because it is a privately maintained museum. DI, who was AVM? A rich producer of movies ?

Yes, a rich producer of many hit Tamil movies.

I love museums. Yes, some of them do have a no-photography policy. And in those where photography is allowed, many visitors are busy taking selfies instead of looking at the displays! Probably that’s one reason why photography is prohibited.

We can take selfies here but they forbid us to post pics online on blogs, youtube channels, etc.

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• Home » Tamil Nadu » Avm Heritage Museum Embark On A Captivating Journey Through The Glorious History Of Tamil Cinema

AVM Heritage Museum: Embark on a captivating journey through the glorious history of Tamil cinema

Established by the iconic AVM Productions, the museum you on a journey through the evolution of Tamil cinema.

Published Jun 19, 2023 | 9:00 AM ⚊ UpdatedJun 19, 2023 | 1:49 PM

Exhibits in AVM Heritage Museum. (Supplied)

Chennai, the cultural hub of South India, is renowned for its rich cinematic heritage. And nestled within this bustling city is the AVM Heritage Museum, a treasure trove of artefacts that celebrates the illustrious history of Tamil cinema.

Established by the iconic AVM Productions, the museum takes visitors on a captivating journey through the evolution of the Tamil film industry.

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Testament to the impact of tamil cinema.

With its collection of memorabilia, photographs, and interactive exhibits, the AVM Heritage Museum stands as a testament to the impact of Tamil cinema on the cultural fabric of India.

The AVM Heritage Museum pays homage to the contributions of AVM Productions, one of the oldest and most esteemed film production houses in South India.

Founded in 1946, AVM Productions played a pivotal role in shaping the Tamil film industry, producing timeless classics that continue to enthral audiences to this day.

The museum, located on the AVM Studios premises in the Vadapalani area of Chennai, invites visitors to delve into the world of Tamil cinema and explore its evolution over the decades.

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Visual journey through tamil cinema.

The museum’s collection of film posters provides a captivating visual journey through the various eras of Tamil cinema.

From black-and-white classics to the colourful spectacle of modern films, the posters reflect the changing trends, themes, and artistic styles that have shaped the industry.

The AVM Heritage Museum also recognises the significant impact of the digital revolution on media consumption.

Exhibits explore the advent of digital cameras, personal computers, and the internet, illustrating how these advances revolutionised the way we create, consume, and share media.

Visitors can learn about the rise of streaming platforms, social media, and the democratisation of content creation.

The museum’s commitment to education is further exemplified by the numerous workshops, lectures, and special events that delve deeper into the various aspects of audio-visual media.

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Celebrating music.

In addition to its focus on film, the museum also celebrates the world of music and sound.

A dedicated section highlights the history of audio recording and playback devices, ranging from gramophones and reel-to-reel tape recorders to vinyl records and compact cassettes.

Interactive listening stations allow visitors to hear the sounds of different eras, from classical compositions to iconic speeches and popular songs.

The museum’s audio-visual installations provide a glimpse into the captivating world of playback singing, showcasing the contributions of legendary playback singers who have lent their voices to iconic film songs.

Visitors can explore the evolution of playback singing and gain a deeper appreciation of the artistry and talent that make Tamil film music so enchanting.

Interactive exhibits engage visitors by showcasing the technical aspects of filmmaking.

From camera equipment and editing tools to sound recording devices, visitors can gain a deeper understanding of the behind-the-scenes magic that brings films to life.

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Immersive cinematic experience.

The AVM Heritage Museum offers visitors a cinematic experience through its multimedia presentations and mini-theatre.

Here, visitors can relish the magic of timeless Tamil classics produced by AVM Productions.

The screenings allow audiences to immerse themselves in the captivating narratives, memorable performances, and soul-stirring music that define Tamil cinema.

Through its meticulous preservation of cinematic history, the museum ensures that future generations can connect with the legacy of Tamil cinema and understand its immense impact on Indian popular culture.

By documenting the achievements of iconic actors, directors, and technicians, the museum celebrates the contributions of those who have shaped Tamil cinema.

As it preserves and celebrates the achievements of AVM Productions and the Tamil film industry, the museum serves as a cultural landmark, paying homage to the artistic visionaries who made Tamil cinema an integral part of India’s cultural tapestry.

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Collections in automobile expo.

This collection also showcases a variety of vintage cars, each with its own unique story to tell.

Starting with the full replica of the world’s first modern automobile — Benz Patent Motorway — built in 1885 by the German Carl Benz, the distinguished lineup includes the Vauxhall 14, Chevrolet Fleet Master, Mercedes Benz 180, MG TB, and Fiat Select.

The automobile expo does not stop with cars. There is also an array of two-wheelers, including the Chetak, RX100 and M80, which we see even now on the roads. They are esteemed as old-school vehicles.

Exhibit in AVM museum (Supplied)

What catches the attention of most of the visitors are MG TB and the Benz Patent Motorway. MG TB represents the epitome of British sports car heritage.

With its compact size, agile handling, and open-top design, the TB delivers a thrilling driving experience.

This two-seater roadster captures the spirit of adventure and has become an icon among vintage car enthusiasts.

Stepping into the AVM Heritage Museum is like entering a time capsule that encompasses the glory of Tamil cinema.

The museum showcases a remarkable array of artefacts, including vintage film posters, accessories, props, photographs, and personal belongings of renowned actors and filmmakers.

A person who is a fan of older vehicles — of the vintage variety or from other eras — would love the journey!

Sughandha, a dentist in the city, told South First , “This is a beautiful experience as the exhibits take us through different eras and educate how the automobile industry evolved. I was not keen on visiting but my kids, who are fond of vintage cars, forced me to visit the museum. However, had I not accompanied them, I would have missed out on this.”

The museum is open to the public on all days of the week except Tuesdays. Entry tickets are priced at ₹150 for children and ₹200 for adults.

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Chennai’s film industry rivals that of Mumbai. AVM Studios, one of the oldest studios in India and is located in Vadapalani.

Chennai’s film industry rivals that of Mumbai. AVM Studios, one of the oldest studios in India and is located in Vadapalani. Read less

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Chennai’s film industry rivals that of Mumbai. AVM Studios, one of the oldest studios in India and is located in Vadapalani.

Madras Week celebrations: A spectacle of cine heritage

CHENNAI: In 1934, during the dawn of the talkie era, Alli Arjuna starring KS Anantha Naryana Iyer and KR Kanthimathi was released by AV Meiyappan under the banner of Saraswathi Sound Productions.

It was a time when Madras had no studio with adequate facilities to shoot a movie. After almost nine decades, the city is a breeding ground for filmmakers and cinema lovers and AV Meiyappan’s AVM Studios with its glorious past of making valuable additions to the history of South Indian cinema serves as an inspiration to many. 

Thus, a heritage walk at the recently inaugurated AVM Heritage Museum on Madras Day was an ode to the city that spins diverse stories on screen. Lakshmi Menon, CEO, The New Indian Express group, and MS Guhan, managing partner, of AVM Productions, inaugurated the walk on Tuesday in the presence of J Vignesh Kumar, senior vice-president of marketing, of The New Indian Express, staff and students from Dot School of Design and heritage enthusiasts.

AVM Heritage Museum is collaborating with TNIE along with VIT, Chennai, Minister White, Noizzy Box, AhaGuru, and cake partner, The Cake World, for the event. 

Of retro and reels

Madras has not only witnessed the growth and success of Indian cinema but has also been an integral part of its legacy, commented MS Guhan, managing partner, AVM Productions.

“AVM Studios has been synonymous with setting benchmarks in the film industry by producing over 178 movies. The relationship between AVM Studios and Madras is intertwined with the history and the growth of the Indian film industry. Our collaboration with an esteemed newspaper like The New Indian Express offers a great opportunity for the public to relish this historical significance of the city in shaping the Indian film industry,” he added. 

Taking the audience on a museum tour, Babu, veteran editor of AVM studios, explained the history and prominence of vintage cars, cameras, reels and film equipment. From the yellow TVS bike Suriya used in Ayan to the palanquin used in Sivaji: The Boss, the place is adorned with reel memories. A Vauxhall 14 (1938), the first car of AV Meiyappan, a Vauxhall Velox owned by SS Vasan, founder of Gemini Studios and MGR’s Dodge Kingsway, are the highlights of the car collection.

Talking about the importance of looking into film history during Madras Week, Guhan said, “Production houses like AVM Studios have helped put Madras firmly on the map as a centre for film production and contributed significantly to the growth and popularity of the Indian film industry. I believe that it is always important to look into the history and celebrate the tireless contributions, innumerable innovations and advancement of technology that have created the rich history and legacy of cinema that has been an integral part of everyone’s lives.”

The walk is open to the public till August 24,10.30 am to 5 pm. 

Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp  

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One of the oldest film production houses in India, AVM, set to make its digital debut

The web series has a sly title

Founded in 1946 by AV Meiyappan, AVM productions, is among India’s oldest and most iconic production houses having made over 3000 films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi. The Chennai-headquartered company, now being helmed by the great grandchildren of that doyen AV Meiyappan Chettiar, had kept itself away from active production for the better part of the last decade. Its last outing was a short film, which was also selectively released online, named Idhuvum Kadandhu Pogum in 2014.

Now this hoary production house --- probably the oldest active film company in India now --- is set to test the OTT space. Its slyly named web series Tamil Rockerz is all set to stream on SonyLiv shortly..

But why slyly named? Because Tamil Rockerz is the name of a piracy group that has been a big challenge to the Tamil film industry. Tamil Rockerz represents the most modern of threats to the film industry. And it is being taken on by the oldest film house. Nice, nah?

A series on the fight against cyber pirates

The most awaited teaser of our first web-series #Tamilrockerz, a @SonyLIV Tamil Original, starring @arunvijayno1 directed by @arivazhagan is now here for youStreaming soon on SonyLIV.@vanibhojanoffl @ishmenon @DopRajasekarB @EditorSabu @arunaguhan_ pic.twitter.com/hgmPzt0jKC July 3, 2022

Aruna Guhan, one of the twin sisters from the eponymous AVM family, has been busy promoting the film on the social media platforms (the other is Aparna Guhan Shyam) and she shared the teaser of the web series Tamil Rockerz that stars Arun Vijay, Iswarya Menon and Vani Bhojan in the leads. The series will also  feature the likes of Azhagam Perumal, Vinodhini Vaidyanathan and MS Bhaskar in pivotal roles. Billed as a crime thriller about the grim reality of piracy in the Tamil film industry, the series is helmed by Arivazhagan, who had directed thrillers like Eeram and Kuttram 23 . For the record, the series was earlier titled Tamil Stalkers.

" Tamil Rockerz deep dives into the dark side of the piracy world and unravels the industry's constant battle against identifying the group that is involved in releasing pirated content. The show follows the journey of Rudra, a cop, who must fight against time, unruly fans, and an anonymous network of cyber pirates to secure a massively budgeted and highly anticipated movie, from the notorious piracy group," the production house said.

Producer Aruna Guhan said: " Tamil Rockerz is a very special show as it marks the foray of AVM Productions into OTT as well as being a story so close to our industry. Aparna and I were keen to show how piracy affects the entertainment industry and keep it rooted and content driven. Working with Director Arivazhagan, we have been able to tell the story visually with deeper context and immense skill. We are extremely thrilled to have Arun Vijay to elevate the series."

The specific date from which the web series will be available is not known yet. The series, made in Tamil, will also be available in languages like Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi.

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Over three decades as a journalist covering current affairs, politics, sports and now technology. Former Editor of News Today, writer of humour columns across publications and a hardcore cricket and cinema enthusiast. He writes about technology trends and suggest movies and shows to watch on OTT platforms. 

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Aparna and Aruna Guhan, fourth generation scions of AVM Studios on the road ahead for the production house

In Chennai, references to cinema are everywhere. You can find them in the posters that are stuck on the scaffoldings of Metro constructions every Friday, on the billboards and garlanded cut-outs at strategic locations in the city, full- page keepsake posters in your newspapers, and even in the memes that flood your Instagram and Twitter pages. The epicenter of all the cinematic action is Kodambakkam, which is believed to be how the Tamil cinema industry got its name — Kollywood. Modernisation has given way for the area that once housed about 20 studios, to be developed into a thriving hub of everything from hospitals to malls. However, on the busy Arcot Road, one structure still stands today, harking back to the earliest days of Tamil cinema — AVM Studios. Built in 1949 by AV Meiyappan, a man who loved films as much as he did his filter coffee, the studio might be a shadow of its former self, but it still stands strong as a production house, making films and television serials in all South Indian languages. Keeping up with the times, they have also ventured into the digital space, spearheaded by the fourth generation heirs of the empire — Aruna and Aparna Guhan, the great-grand daughters of AV Meiyappan, and granddaughters of M Saravanan, who took over the business after Meiyappan’s demise in 1979. Aruna and Aparna are fraternal twins. They are different yes, but still somewhere, they are the same. They are the bridge between the old and the new, a perfect blend of traditional and modern. Stepping into the business six years ago in 2013, Aruna and Aparna have been instrumental in giving AVM a digital presence through YouTube, Twitter and Facebook and producing fresh content including a 90-minute web film, Ithuvum Kadanthu Pogum. With plenty of projects in the pipeline, including a pan-Indian film titled Saheb, directed by Balki in 2020, we speak to the Guhan girls on heralding a change in the industry, the challenges they have had to deal with, and more. Excerpts:

What it was like growing up in a family that made movies? How did it shape your decision to take over the production house? Aparna: We didn’t grow up with movies. We were kept away from the sets as children. However, we always knew we would join the business. Aruna: The first movie we were on the sets for was Minsara Kanavu, when we were eight years old. We got to go because it was during our summer holidays. We loved being on set! What were some of the biggest lessons you learned from your parents, and especially your grandfather, that has helped you professionally and personally? Aruna: We started working when we finished 12th grade. Our father and grand-father wanted us to spend time in every department of filmmaking, and we used to enthusiastically sit with our grandfather for script discussions. Aparna: We walk into their rooms and continue to learn from them every day. Our grandfather’s involvement in the process of film production from beginning to end is something we are inspired by. What parenting advice have you picked up from your parents, which have impacted you the most, and hope to pass on to your kids someday? Being punctual is something we inherited from our parents. We feel that it is a sign of professionalism, and helps you stand out as a reliable and trustworthy person. Both of you run the business together. Do each of you have designated roles in the day-to-day functioning of AVM Studios? At work, we have well-described roles in day-to-day activities. We handle different projects. Has there ever been a time when you didn’t agree with each other? How do you resolve creative conflicts among yourselves? Aruna: We do disagree on things sometimes because we have different personalities. But we have a very close relationship. Aparna: We each bring different strengths to the table. But creatively, we don’t disagree much, because we both want to make the same kind of intelligent, out-of-the-box content. What would you say were some of the major changes you introduced in AVM since 2013? How were these changes welcomed — both at home, and in the office? Aruna: We are very fortunate to be a part of a business that is more than 73 years old, one that has grown by leaps and bounds. The biggest development we have brought in is piloting the brand into the digital world. Have you ever felt disadvantaged at the workplace because you are young or because you were women? Or did you get any kind of special treatment, because at the end of the day, you both are the boss’ daughters? Aruna: My dad brought us up to be bold, and we’ve never felt any limitations by being women. Aparna: We didn’t get any kind of special treatment, and there is no compromise on the work entrusted to us. We are very dedicated to what we do. We are very aware of the legacy that we represent, and set ourselves very high targets. What were some of the major challenges that you’ve overcome (or are still overcoming) in the last six years? Aparna: More than challenges, we choose to see opportunities at AVM, and that sets the brand apart even after four generations. We continue to evolve. Beyond everyday activities as producers, what is your scope of work like? Any projects or initiatives outside films (or making them) that you are passionate about? Aruna: I run a branding and design agency called Aruna Guhan Design. We work across industries to elevate existing brands and kick-start new ones. Aparna: I’m the Founder and Managing Trustee of a children’s charity called Tiara Haemophilia and Cancer Foundation that supports children from low socio-economic backgrounds, who have been diagnosed with haemophilia or cancer. Tell us a bit on what long-term plans you have for AVM in the years to come? What are some of the projects that you are working on at present? We have a few projects in the pipeline. Look out for our official announcement, coming soon!

Reel talk   Back in 1934, right at the dawn of the talkie era, a young man from Karaikudi, AV Meiyappan (in pic), who produced gramophone records instead of merely marketing them, launched a Hindu mythology based movie, Alli Arjuna, under the banner of Saraswathi Sound Productions. The film, which was shot in Calcutta tanked, mainly due to the fact that the lead actor performed with his eyes narrowed through the film, due to bright lights on the set — something the filmmakers could not spot since they did not have the technology that supported playback. In his memoir, My Experiences in Life, Meiyappan writes about how the film was made on a budget of `80,000 and yet, it met with a “great loss”.   Multiple failures later followed, but that did not dampen the spirit of Meiyappan, who holds the credit of introducing playback singing with the film Nandakumar, a Tamil remake (starring iconic actor TR Mahalingam) of a Marathi film. It was only in 1940 that Meiyappan produced Bhoo Kailas in Telugu, which received both commercial and critical acclaim. A series of hits followed including Sabapathy (1941), En Manaivi (1942) and Harishchandra (1943) leading to many successful actors being introduced over the years, including TR Ramachanran, Sivaji Ganesan, Vyjayanthimala, SS Rajendran and even Kamal Haasan.

Kodambakkam chronicles A part of AVM Studios on Arcot Road, which once stood tall and proud — with the signature rotating globe and the letters ‘AVM’, squeaking with each turn — might have made way for a multi-storey apartment complex now, but for every Tamil cinema lover, the space will always evoke a magical feeling of fantasy that motion pictures always carry with them.

Related Stories

Rajinikanth visits AVM Heritage Museum

On Wednesday, actor Rajinikanth visited AVM Studio's newest addition, the AVM Heritage Museum. Photos shared on Twitter show the veteran actor taking a stroll around the museum along with M Saravanan, his son MS Guhan and the third-generation producer of AVM, Aruna Guhan. Legendary filmmaker SP Muthuraman is also seen along with the actor. 

The museum houses up to 40 vintage and classic cars, old-fashioned bikes spanning from the 1910s to the 2000s, cameras, computers, and other antique film equipment.

The first film of Rajinikanth produced by AVM Studios is Murattu Kaalai (1980) directed by SP Muthuraman. Ever since, the production house has backed many films of the star including, Pokkiri Raja , Paayum Puli , Nallavanuku Nallavan , Mr Bharath , and Ejmaan . The most famous collaboration of Rajinikanth and AVM productions is Sivaaji (2007), which was also a huge commercial success.

The AVM Heritage Museum is open to the public from Wednesday to Monday between 10 am and 5 pm and remains closed on Tuesdays, and other National holidays. An entry fee of ₹200 per adult and ₹150 per child will be levied on the guests. 

#SuperstarRajinikanth gets nostalgic at the #AVMHeritageMuseum   The actor visited the museum yesterday & caught up with Producer M Saravanan, MS Guhan, Director SPM & took a tour of the museum. @rajinikanth @avmproductions @arunaguhan_ @avmmuseum @RIAZtheboss @V4umedia_ pic.twitter.com/OkZr9XjJBf — r.s.prakash (@rs_prakash3) June 8, 2023

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Arts to Zion gallery, studio tour returns with more opportunities to explore Southern Utah’s art scene

CONTRIBUTED CONTENT — The Arts to Zion Tour is back and better than ever with a more expansive approach to exploring the arts in Southern Utah. The five-day event runs from Jan. 12-16 in various locations across Washington County, from Ivins to Springdale. This year, it will run in conjunction with St. George Heritage Day activities throughout the city. 

“We are thrilled to highlight so many talented artists that live in Southern Utah,” Arts to Zion board chairman Scott Messel said. “The beauty of our red rock landscape continues to inspire artists, and as this area continues to grow, so does our artist family.”

Like in previous years, you still have the opportunity to visit local galleries and the more intimate private studios. In addition, live music will be offered as part of the “ala cARTe” gallery stroll, featuring nibbles and discounts to some of downtown St. George’s finest restaurants, on Friday, Jan. 13 from 6-9 p.m. Designed to provide a more complete art experience, the ala cARTe activity within the tour adds significant music to the event.

The event will kick off Thursday, Jan. 12 at the Electric Theater with a private screening of the new locally filmed documentary “A Matter of Faith,” which is about the St. George Tabernacle, a Catholic priest and a Mormon choir director, set in May 1879. That year, the unthinkable happened: a Catholic High Mass was sung by a Mormon choir in the St. George Tabernacle, and the entire community across what would become Washington County was there! This film will be shown publicly at the Pioneer Courthouse for the rest of the tour weekend.

As always, the home studios will be open as noted on the map. Only select home studios will be open for the tour on Sunday, Jan. 15. They are designated on the printed rack cards and online. See the map for all participating private studios and galleries.

Included on the tour are the private studios of artists in addition to commercial artists at their places of work. This year’s cost of the private studios is $10 per person to visit all private studios.

Private studios will require a ticket, which is available to purchase here . Please print and show your ticket receipt for private studio access.

For more details, visit ArtsToZion.org .

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Classic film lovers: See James Dean’s apartment and more on new TCM tour at Warner Bros.

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In 2021, the Warner Bros. Studio Tour created new interactive exhibits focused on the company’s recent history, unveiling areas dedicated to the DC Comics universe and the “Harry Potter” franchise.

This week, the popular Studio Tour in Burbank is doubling down on its more distant past.

Warner Bros. is now offering a Turner Classic Movies-branded version of its studio tour that will bring guests to previously off-limit areas of the lot, including vintage animation buildings, a mini rose garden and an apartment that once housed James Dean. The 90-minute tram portion of the jaunt — about 30 minutes longer than the studio’s standard tram excursion — will allow guides to go deeper into the history of the studio’s catalog to deliver factoids related to such films as “Casablanca,” “My Fair Lady,” “Rebel Without a Cause,” “Auntie Mame” and many more.

“We’re off the leash,” says Brad Taylor, a 15-year tour guide veteran with Warner Bros., noting that the TCM excursion will include time for guides to chat with visitors about their favorite films.

“We get to talk to the guests and really hang out with people who have the same passion that we do,” Taylor says. “I find that ‘classics’ guests are less about behind-the-scenes and more, ‘I can’t believe this is where we are.’ It’s just the look on their faces when they realize ‘Casablanca’ filmed here, or James Dean stood right here.”

The launch of the TCM tour arrives during the network’s 30th anniversary and close to 12 months after classic film fans were given a scare. In June, Warner Bros. announced that layoffs would hit TCM, including some of the network’s top executives, prompting concern from prestige directors such as Steven Spielberg, Paul Thomas Anderson and Martin Scorsese. After garnering national attention, key cuts were reversed and Warner Bros. sought to assure fans that TCM would continue to be handled with care.

Long live TCM! Our culture would be worse off without movies on TV

Without Turner Classic Movies and other channels for movies on TV, we’d lose the instructive pleasures of the happy accident, the unexpected discovery.

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TCM network hosts — Eddie Muller, Jacqueline Stewart, Ben Mankiewicz, Alicia Malone and Dave Karger — recorded new video segments for the outing. The tour will take guests into the lot’s Property House, an area not visited by the standard tour. Here, visitors can get glimpses of materials for a full set, including items for a complete Oval Office setting, but expect guides to highlight vintage items, such as a throne from the Errol Flynn pirate film “Captain Blood.”

Danny Kahn, vice president-general manager of the studio tour, says there have been numerous requests over the years from guests to delve a little deeper into the studio’s animation history. That’s why the TCM tour will for the first time take visitors to an area of the lot once known as “Termite Terrace,” which from 1955 to 1964, says Taylor, housed the animation department, a building with a sloped roof designed to capture sunlight. Animation legend Chuck Jones, says Kahn, had an office in the Termite Terrace area in the 1990s despite Warner’s moving animation production elsewhere.

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Another unique tour locale is the exterior of the Dean apartment. When Dean resided there during filming of “East of Eden,” it was actually across the street from the lot, the apartment nesting above a pharmacy. But gradual studio expansion has led to the area now being on Warner Bros. property.

“That was an actual drugstore with apartments, and the studio rented it for him,” Kahn says. “I think it was to keep an eye on him and keep him on a short leash.”

The tour will also give tram riders a look at executive life at the studio, allowing them to briefly walk around a rose garden. The manicured spaces once held a tennis court as well as offices and personal screening rooms for the likes of studio mogul Jack Warner, with many of the structures dating to the 1920s. “It’s a really historic area of the lot that hasn’t really changed a lot in all these years,” says Kahn, noting the area is still in use by studio principals. “Jack Warner, when he ran the studio, privatized the first floor. That was a massage parlor that he had beneath his office.”

TCM Classic Films Tour

Where: The Warner Bros. Studio, 3400 Warner Blvd., Burbank 91505

When: Most days, 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Cost: $95 for adults; $82 for children. A SoCal resident discount is available for $75

Info: (818) 977-8687 or wbstudiotour.com

Staples of the tour, such as a journey around the backlot city streets, a visit to the “Friends” set and cafe and recent additions highlighting the studio’s modern franchise films are included in the TCM trek, as is a pre-tour reception with beverages and pastries. All told, expect the tour to last about 3½ hours. A tour spokesperson says the first TCM-branded outing is scheduled for Wednesday, with trams expected to depart daily after that date. Adult tickets are $95, but there is a Southern California resident discount available for $75.

“It feels so good to have TCM here,” Kahn says. “People understand that the TCM brand is synonymous with classic film.”

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Todd Martens joined the Los Angeles Times in 2007 and covers a mix of interactive entertainment (video games) and pop music. Previously, Martens reported on the music business for Billboard Magazine. He has contributed to numerous books, including “The Big Lebowski: An Illustrated, Annotated History of the Greatest Cult Film of All Time.” He continues to torture himself by rooting for the Chicago Cubs and, while he likes dogs, he is more of a cat person.

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Moscow Metro Tour

• Page active

Description

Moscow metro private tours.

• 2-hour tour $87:  10 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with hotel pick-up and drop-off
• 3-hour tour $137:  20 Must-See Moscow Metro stations with Russian lunch in beautifully-decorated Metro Diner + hotel pick-up and drop off. 
• Metro pass is included in the price of both tours.

Highlight of Metro Tour

• Visit 10 must-see stations of Moscow metro on 2-hr tour and 20 Metro stations on 3-hr tour, including grand Komsomolskaya station with its distinctive Baroque décor, aristocratic Mayakovskaya station with Soviet mosaics, legendary Revolution Square station with 72 bronze sculptures and more!
• Explore Museum of Moscow Metro and learn a ton of technical and historical facts;
• Listen to the secrets about the Metro-2, a secret line supposedly used by the government and KGB;
• Experience a selection of most striking features of Moscow Metro hidden from most tourists and even locals;
• Discover the underground treasure of Russian Soviet past – from mosaics to bronzes, paintings, marble arches, stained glass and even paleontological elements;
• Learn fun stories and myths about Coffee Ring, Zodiac signs of Moscow Metro and more;
• Admire Soviet-era architecture of pre- and post- World War II perious;
• Enjoy panoramic views of Sparrow Hills from Luzhniki Metro Bridge – MetroMost, the only station of Moscow Metro located over water and the highest station above ground level;
• If lucky, catch a unique «Aquarelle Train» – a wheeled picture gallery, brightly painted with images of peony, chrysanthemums, daisies, sunflowers and each car unit is unique;
• Become an expert at navigating the legendary Moscow Metro system;
• Have fun time with a very friendly local;
• + Atmospheric Metro lunch in Moscow’s the only Metro Diner (included in a 3-hr tour)

Hotel Pick-up

Metro stations:.

Komsomolskaya

Novoslobodskaya

Prospekt Mira

Belorusskaya

Mayakovskaya

Novokuznetskaya

Revolution Square

Sparrow Hills

+ for 3-hour tour

Victory Park

Slavic Boulevard

Vystavochnaya

Dostoevskaya

Elektrozavodskaya

Partizanskaya

Museum of Moscow Metro

• Drop-off  at your hotel, Novodevichy Convent, Sparrow Hills or any place you wish
• + Russian lunch  in Metro Diner with artistic metro-style interior for 3-hour tour

Fun facts from our Moscow Metro Tours:

From the very first days of its existence, the Moscow Metro was the object of civil defense, used as a bomb shelter, and designed as a defense for a possible attack on the Soviet Union.

At a depth of 50 to 120 meters lies the second, the coded system of Metro-2 of Moscow subway, which is equipped with everything you need, from food storage to the nuclear button.

According to some sources, the total length of Metro-2 reaches over 150 kilometers.

The Museum was opened on Sportivnaya metro station on November 6, 1967. It features the most interesting models of trains and stations.

Coffee Ring

The first scheme of Moscow Metro looked like a bunch of separate lines. Listen to a myth about Joseph Stalin and the main brown line of Moscow Metro.

Zodiac Metro

According to some astrologers, each of the 12 stops of the Moscow Ring Line corresponds to a particular sign of the zodiac and divides the city into astrological sector.

Astrologers believe that being in a particular zadiac sector of Moscow for a long time, you attract certain energy and events into your life.

Paleontological finds 

Red marble walls of some of the Metro stations hide in themselves petrified inhabitants of ancient seas. Try and find some!

• Every day each car in  Moscow metro passes  more than 600 km, which is the distance from Moscow to St. Petersburg.
• Moscow subway system is the  5th in the intensity  of use (after the subways of Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul and Shanghai).
• The interval in the movement of trains in rush hour is  90 seconds .

What you get:

• + A friend in Moscow.
• + Private & customized Moscow tour.
• + An exciting pastime, not just boring history lessons.
• + An authentic experience of local life.
• + Flexibility during the walking tour: changes can be made at any time to suit individual preferences.
• + Amazing deals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the very best cafes & restaurants. Discounts on weekdays (Mon-Fri).
• + A photo session amongst spectacular Moscow scenery that can be treasured for a lifetime.
• + Good value for souvenirs, taxis, and hotels.
• + Expert advice on what to do, where to go, and how to make the most of your time in Moscow.

Write your review

• Preplanned tours
• Daytrips out of Moscow
• Themed tours
• Customized tours
• St. Petersburg

Moscow Metro

The Moscow Metro Tour is included in most guided tours’ itineraries. Opened in 1935, under Stalin’s regime, the metro was not only meant to solve transport problems, but also was hailed as “a people’s palace”. Every station you will see during your Moscow metro tour looks like a palace room. There are bright paintings, mosaics, stained glass, bronze statues… Our Moscow metro tour includes the most impressive stations best architects and designers worked at - Ploshchad Revolutsii, Mayakovskaya, Komsomolskaya, Kievskaya, Novoslobodskaya and some others.

What is the kremlin in russia?

The guide will not only help you navigate the metro, but will also provide you with fascinating background tales for the images you see and a history of each station.

And there some stories to be told during the Moscow metro tour! The deepest station - Park Pobedy - is 84 metres under the ground with the world longest escalator of 140 meters. Parts of the so-called Metro-2, a secret strategic system of underground tunnels, was used for its construction.

During the Second World War the metro itself became a strategic asset: it was turned into the city's biggest bomb-shelter and one of the stations even became a library. 217 children were born here in 1941-1942! The metro is the most effective means of transport in the capital.

There are almost 200 stations 196 at the moment and trains run every 90 seconds! The guide of your Moscow metro tour can explain to you how to buy tickets and find your way if you plan to get around by yourself.

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40 facts about elektrostal.

Written by Lanette Mayes

Modified & Updated: 02 Mar 2024

Reviewed by Jessica Corbett

Elektrostal is a vibrant city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia. With a rich history, stunning architecture, and a thriving community, Elektrostal is a city that has much to offer. Whether you are a history buff, nature enthusiast, or simply curious about different cultures, Elektrostal is sure to captivate you.

This article will provide you with 40 fascinating facts about Elektrostal, giving you a better understanding of why this city is worth exploring. From its origins as an industrial hub to its modern-day charm, we will delve into the various aspects that make Elektrostal a unique and must-visit destination.

So, join us as we uncover the hidden treasures of Elektrostal and discover what makes this city a true gem in the heart of Russia.

Key Takeaways:

• Elektrostal, known as the “Motor City of Russia,” is a vibrant and growing city with a rich industrial history, offering diverse cultural experiences and a strong commitment to environmental sustainability.
• With its convenient location near Moscow, Elektrostal provides a picturesque landscape, vibrant nightlife, and a range of recreational activities, making it an ideal destination for residents and visitors alike.

Known as the “Motor City of Russia.”

Elektrostal, a city located in the Moscow Oblast region of Russia, earned the nickname “Motor City” due to its significant involvement in the automotive industry.

Home to the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Elektrostal is renowned for its metallurgical plant, which has been producing high-quality steel and alloys since its establishment in 1916.

Boasts a rich industrial heritage.

Elektrostal has a long history of industrial development, contributing to the growth and progress of the region.

Founded in 1916.

The city of Elektrostal was founded in 1916 as a result of the construction of the Elektrostal Metallurgical Plant.

Located approximately 50 kilometers east of Moscow.

Elektrostal is situated in close proximity to the Russian capital, making it easily accessible for both residents and visitors.

Known for its vibrant cultural scene.

Elektrostal is home to several cultural institutions, including museums, theaters, and art galleries that showcase the city’s rich artistic heritage.

A popular destination for nature lovers.

Surrounded by picturesque landscapes and forests, Elektrostal offers ample opportunities for outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, and birdwatching.

Hosts the annual Elektrostal City Day celebrations.

Every year, Elektrostal organizes festive events and activities to celebrate its founding, bringing together residents and visitors in a spirit of unity and joy.

Has a population of approximately 160,000 people.

Elektrostal is home to a diverse and vibrant community of around 160,000 residents, contributing to its dynamic atmosphere.

Boasts excellent education facilities.

The city is known for its well-established educational institutions, providing quality education to students of all ages.

A center for scientific research and innovation.

Elektrostal serves as an important hub for scientific research, particularly in the fields of metallurgy, materials science, and engineering.

Surrounded by picturesque lakes.

The city is blessed with numerous beautiful lakes, offering scenic views and recreational opportunities for locals and visitors alike.

Well-connected transportation system.

Elektrostal benefits from an efficient transportation network, including highways, railways, and public transportation options, ensuring convenient travel within and beyond the city.

Famous for its traditional Russian cuisine.

Food enthusiasts can indulge in authentic Russian dishes at numerous restaurants and cafes scattered throughout Elektrostal.

Home to notable architectural landmarks.

Elektrostal boasts impressive architecture, including the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord and the Elektrostal Palace of Culture.

Offers a wide range of recreational facilities.

Residents and visitors can enjoy various recreational activities, such as sports complexes, swimming pools, and fitness centers, enhancing the overall quality of life.

Provides a high standard of healthcare.

Elektrostal is equipped with modern medical facilities, ensuring residents have access to quality healthcare services.

Home to the Elektrostal History Museum.

The Elektrostal History Museum showcases the city’s fascinating past through exhibitions and displays.

A hub for sports enthusiasts.

Elektrostal is passionate about sports, with numerous stadiums, arenas, and sports clubs offering opportunities for athletes and spectators.

Celebrates diverse cultural festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal hosts a variety of cultural festivals, celebrating different ethnicities, traditions, and art forms.

Electric power played a significant role in its early development.

Elektrostal owes its name and initial growth to the establishment of electric power stations and the utilization of electricity in the industrial sector.

Boasts a thriving economy.

The city’s strong industrial base, coupled with its strategic location near Moscow, has contributed to Elektrostal’s prosperous economic status.

Houses the Elektrostal Drama Theater.

The Elektrostal Drama Theater is a cultural centerpiece, attracting theater enthusiasts from far and wide.

Popular destination for winter sports.

Elektrostal’s proximity to ski resorts and winter sport facilities makes it a favorite destination for skiing, snowboarding, and other winter activities.

Promotes environmental sustainability.

Elektrostal prioritizes environmental protection and sustainability, implementing initiatives to reduce pollution and preserve natural resources.

Home to renowned educational institutions.

Elektrostal is known for its prestigious schools and universities, offering a wide range of academic programs to students.

Committed to cultural preservation.

The city values its cultural heritage and takes active steps to preserve and promote traditional customs, crafts, and arts.

Hosts an annual International Film Festival.

The Elektrostal International Film Festival attracts filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts from around the world, showcasing a diverse range of films.

Encourages entrepreneurship and innovation.

Elektrostal supports aspiring entrepreneurs and fosters a culture of innovation, providing opportunities for startups and business development.

Offers a range of housing options.

Elektrostal provides diverse housing options, including apartments, houses, and residential complexes, catering to different lifestyles and budgets.

Home to notable sports teams.

Elektrostal is proud of its sports legacy, with several successful sports teams competing at regional and national levels.

Boasts a vibrant nightlife scene.

Residents and visitors can enjoy a lively nightlife in Elektrostal, with numerous bars, clubs, and entertainment venues.

Promotes cultural exchange and international relations.

Elektrostal actively engages in international partnerships, cultural exchanges, and diplomatic collaborations to foster global connections.

Surrounded by beautiful nature reserves.

Nearby nature reserves, such as the Barybino Forest and Luchinskoye Lake, offer opportunities for nature enthusiasts to explore and appreciate the region’s biodiversity.

Commemorates historical events.

The city pays tribute to significant historical events through memorials, monuments, and exhibitions, ensuring the preservation of collective memory.

Promotes sports and youth development.

Elektrostal invests in sports infrastructure and programs to encourage youth participation, health, and physical fitness.

Hosts annual cultural and artistic festivals.

Throughout the year, Elektrostal celebrates its cultural diversity through festivals dedicated to music, dance, art, and theater.

Provides a picturesque landscape for photography enthusiasts.

The city’s scenic beauty, architectural landmarks, and natural surroundings make it a paradise for photographers.

Connects to Moscow via a direct train line.

The convenient train connection between Elektrostal and Moscow makes commuting between the two cities effortless.

A city with a bright future.

Elektrostal continues to grow and develop, aiming to become a model city in terms of infrastructure, sustainability, and quality of life for its residents.

In conclusion, Elektrostal is a fascinating city with a rich history and a vibrant present. From its origins as a center of steel production to its modern-day status as a hub for education and industry, Elektrostal has plenty to offer both residents and visitors. With its beautiful parks, cultural attractions, and proximity to Moscow, there is no shortage of things to see and do in this dynamic city. Whether you’re interested in exploring its historical landmarks, enjoying outdoor activities, or immersing yourself in the local culture, Elektrostal has something for everyone. So, next time you find yourself in the Moscow region, don’t miss the opportunity to discover the hidden gems of Elektrostal.

Q: What is the population of Elektrostal?

A: As of the latest data, the population of Elektrostal is approximately XXXX.

Q: How far is Elektrostal from Moscow?

A: Elektrostal is located approximately XX kilometers away from Moscow.

Q: Are there any famous landmarks in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to several notable landmarks, including XXXX and XXXX.

Q: What industries are prominent in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal is known for its steel production industry and is also a center for engineering and manufacturing.

Q: Are there any universities or educational institutions in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal is home to XXXX University and several other educational institutions.

Q: What are some popular outdoor activities in Elektrostal?

A: Elektrostal offers several outdoor activities, such as hiking, cycling, and picnicking in its beautiful parks.

Q: Is Elektrostal well-connected in terms of transportation?

A: Yes, Elektrostal has good transportation links, including trains and buses, making it easily accessible from nearby cities.

Q: Are there any annual events or festivals in Elektrostal?

A: Yes, Elektrostal hosts various events and festivals throughout the year, including XXXX and XXXX.

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