J. F. Madan

J. F. Madan

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J. F. Madan Profile

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  • J. F. Madan

J. F. Madan Biography

Jamshedji Framji Madan, better known as J. F. Madan is a celebrity related to Indian theater and cinema in its early stage. He was one of the pioneers of film production in India, known as a producer, distributor and exhibitor. He owned two theatre companies in the late nineteenth century. He founded Elphinstone Bioscope Company in Kolkata in 1902 which exhibited many movies. Later he turned producer as well. When India’s film centre was shifted from Mumbai to Kolkata, the first film shot in Kolkata was produced by Madan. The movie was Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra released in 1917, followed by Bilwamangal in 1919. Later Elphinstone Bioscope Company merged with Madan Theatres Limited in 1919 which staged many classic Bengali works. The role of Madan theatres in the 1930’s and 1940’s in India’s theater movement can’t be easily forgotten.

 

He was born in Mumbai in a Parsi family in the year 1956. After suffering a huge monetary loss by his family, Madan was forced to leave school studies. He joined Elphinstone Dramatic Club as a prop boy in 1868 and witnessed its change to a professional theatre company by 1875. He left the company in 1882 and tried luck in business for a short while in Karachi. He became successful in the business of supplying goods to army cantonments and moved to Kolkata in 1883 where he bought Corinthian Hall and took over the charge of Elphinstone Theatre Company, with the money he earned through supply business.

 

It marked his successful beginning as a theatre producer where his company used to stage Parsi plays. Later he joined film making business and with the First World War, he became one of the prominent film and theatre personalities of India. Madan Theatres reached its peak in the late 1920s. It owned 127 theatres and controlled half of the country's box office till late 1930’s. Noted American actor Erick Avari is a great-grandson of J F Madan.

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Updated: May 20, 2014

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