Tiruchengodu Ramalingam Sundaram Mudaliar (16 July 1907 – 30 August 1963) was an Indian actor, director, and producer. He was the founder of the Salem-based film production company

Modern Theatres Modern Theaters Ltd was an Indian film studio in Salem, Tamil Nadu started by T. R. Sundaram Mudaliar in 1935. The studio produced over more than 150 films until 1982 in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Sinhalese and even English ...

Early life

Sundaram was born in 1907 from Sengunthar Kaikola Mudaliar Community in

Tiruchengode Tiruchengode is a special grade municipality town located in western part of southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is famous for the ancient hilltop Ardhanareeswarar Temple, dedicated to the unique combined male-female form of Lord Shiva and G ...

(in present-day

Namakkal district Namakkal District is one of the 38 districts (an districts of Tamil Nadu, administrative district) in the States and territories of India, state of Tamil Nadu, India. The district was bifurcated from Salem District with Namakkal city as headqua ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

) to a wealthy textile merchant V.V.C.Ramalingam Mudaliar. He had his studies in India and in

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, England, where he graduated in textile engineering. On returning to India, he managed his family business. After the production of the first Tamil talkie '' Kalidas'' in 1931, the film industry emerged as a profitable means of investment. Sundaram set up Angel Pictures in Salem and produced movies along with S. S. Velayutham. He was brother of famous textile merchant V. V. C. R. Murugesa Mudaliar.

Film career

Sundaram split with Velayutham after a few years and set up his own production company The Modern Theatres Ltd. The first film produced under the banner of Modern Theatres was ''Sathi Ahalya'' in 1937. The next year, Sundaram produced the Malayalam film '' Balan'' (1938). His 1944 film ''Arundathi'' was a commercial success and completed 100 days at the theatres. Sundaram was instrumental in giving

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 – 24 December 1987), popularly known by his initialism M.G.R. and as Makkal Thilagam/Puratchi Thalaivar, was an Indian actor, politician, and philanthropist who served as the chief minister of ...

his first major solo box office hit in ''

Manthiri Kumari ''Manthiri Kumari'' () is a 1950 Indian Tamil-language historical fiction film directed by Ellis R. Dungan, starring M. G. Ramachandran, M. N. Nambiar, Madhuri Devi and G. Sakunthala. The screenplay was written by M. Karunanidhi based on h ...

''. They followed it up with ''

Sarvadhikari {{for, the motion picture, Sarvadhikari (film) Sarvādhikārī is a title with diverse uses in India, including: *An old title for the ''Chief minister'' of a southern Indian ruler, notably of: **Under the Western Ganga Dynasty's Maharaja Dha ...

''. Sundaram served as the president of the South Indian Film Chamber of Commerce (SIFCC) at Madras (Now Chennai).

Filmography

*''Sathi Ahalya'' (1937) *'' Balan'' (1938) *''Arundathi'' (1944) *Sulochana (1947) *''

'' (1950) *''

'' (1951)

Awards

;

National Film Awards The National Film Awards are awards for artistic and technical merit given for "Excellence within the Cinema of India, Indian film industry". Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India ...

1961 Events January * January 1 – Monetary reform in the Soviet Union, 1961, Monetary reform in the Soviet Union. * January 3 ** United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces that the United States has severed diplomatic and cons ...

: Certificate of Merit for Second Best Feature Film in Malayalam – '' Kandam Becha Kottu''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sundaram, T. R. 1907 births 1963 deaths Film directors from Tamil Nadu People from Coimbatore Malayalam film producers Tamil film producers Film producers from Tamil Nadu Odia film directors Filmmaking pioneers