Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu

Sri Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu was the first person in India to produce a film in 1909. His father was a subedar in Indian Army, Machilipatnam. He was expert in drawing and sculpturing. He went to Chennai at the age of 18 rented a small house to set up an art center. He started his career with drawing and carving sculptures. He learnt photography and started experimenting. He happened to come accross a news article on 'Chrono Megaphone'. When we project a flim using Chrono Mega phone, it produces relevant sounds. Venkaiah ordered for that equipment
from John Dickinson and Company. Chronomegaphone costed him around Rs 30,000.

His gave his first show with that equipment at Victoria Hall. He exhibited 12 short films. In 1910 Venkaiah established a tent house called Esplanade in Madras to exhibit his films. Later he toured extensively in Bangalore and Vijayawada to exhibit his films using the tent house concept. He went to Srilanka and exhibited his films in Burma, Rangoon and Peg. In 1912, he constructed 'Gaiety Talkies' in Mount Road. He constructed Crown Theater in Mint Street and Globe Theater in Parasuwakkam.

In 1919, he started a production company called 'Star of East Films'. He started a film studio called 'Glass Studio'. In 1921, Venkaiah's son R.S. Prakash produced films like 'Gajendra Moksham', 'Mathsyavatharam', 'Nandanaar', and 'Bhishma Pratigna'. Though 'Bhisma Pratigna' is supposed to be the first Telugu feature film, history says that Venkaiah produced a film called 'kannagi' which did not see the day of light due to some technical problems. Venkaiah is the pioneer of Trick Shots, Studio and Labs in south India. He died on March 15, 1941. AP State Government honored him by incorporating 'Raghupathi Venkaiah Award'.