Need For An Award In His Name To Startups For Exceptional Excellence
Indeed, Swamikannu Vincent is a name to reckon with as he was known to be the first movie millionaire of India. His untiring efforts took him to dizzy heights to bring pride to Kovai.
From a draftsman – clerk earning a salary of Rs.25 per month with the South Indian Railway (a joint stock company incorporated in England with its headquarters in Trichy) to a film exhibitor, producer and what not, Swamikannu Vincent during his stint in Trichy got an opportunity to see some silent movies screened by an itinerant French film exhibitor – Du Pont.
Inspired by it, he purchased the project and accessories from Du Pont for Rs.2000 with the help of borrowings and the venture helped him repay the sum in a matter of months. Vincent resigned from railways and began his life as a film exhibitor in the year 1905 and one of the films ‘Life of Jesus’ became a big hit. He showed movies all around the Indian sub continent and made a huge pile of money by the year 1914. It was during this year that Vincent built ‘Variety Hall’, the second movie theatre in India at Coimbatore. He realized the need to print hand bills for his movie ventures and the ‘Electric Printing Works’ was formed in the year 1916. The year 1919 was historic for he had established a power driven rice and flour mill in the heart of the city. The in-house electric power plant which had been established for running his theatre was used for his other ventures too.
And 1922 was another important year in the history of Coimbatore. The Government of Madras gave permission to Swamikannu Vincent to supply electricity to the Stanes European High School (it was near Variety Hall those days) and other buildings nearby. Therefore Vincent improved his plant by adding a few more engines and generators. Sir C.P.Ramaswamy Iyer, who was in charge of the ‘Electricity Portfolio’, encouraged Vincent in many ways and his application was approved which resulted in a powerhouse established by him. Coimbatore thus joined Madras, Mysore and Bangalore by becoming an ‘electrically’ lit city. Vincent purchased ‘Edison’ and thus he was able to screen Tamil movies in this theatre which became ‘Swami’ later. The year 1936 was another water shed year and his third theatre ‘Palace’ (Naaz) came forward to show Hindi movies while Variety Hall was for English movies.
Swamikannu Vincent established contact in Calcutta and produced a few films. One such movie was ‘Valli Thirumanam’ which was financially supported by him and produced in association with Pioneer Films Limited, Calcutta in the thirties of the last century.The story is about Lord Muruga marrying Valli, the daughter of a tribal chief. The story was filmed more than once and the ‘sound version’ was also produced. Calcutta was the choice those days because Madras did not have the facilities. These movies were produced during the peak of the freedom movement and therefore the British Indian Censorship Code made life difficult for the movie makers. The movie ‘Valli Thirumanam’ had songs propagating the freedom movement. One song with T.P.Rajalakshmi as Valli taking care of the fields goes on as ‘Vetkamketta Vellai Kokkugala, Viratti Adhithalum Vareegala’ meaning , ‘you shameless white storks, why do you come back even after being sent out’. Another song in the movie talks about the bangle seller offering ‘Masilladha Indhu Swadeshi Valayal’, meaning flawless Indian swadeshi bangles. Both these songs had been composed by the famous patriotic poet Madurai Bhaskaradas, a follower of Gandhi. Many of his songs were bestsellers on gramophone records and are collectors items today. The movie was a box office success and it was released with a missing ‘reel’. Once the ‘missing reel’ was found, an advertisement stated that it was added to the movie and movie goers went back to see the movie !
The Vincent version of a movie was ‘Sampoorna Harishchandra’ and it was produced in the year 1935 with the famous stage and screen actor V.A. Chellappa and T.P.Rajalakshmi playing the lead roles. They could not find a suitable boy to play the role of Lohidasa, the son of Chandramathi and Harishchandra. The smart Swamikannu Vincent identified the star in his own team and it happened to be the daughter of ‘Nungambakkam Janaki’ who was well known in the Madras fine arts and film circles. Rukmini was her only child and she had learnt a bit of dance for her mother had done roles in movies as a supporting star. Baby Rukmini had accompanied her mother to Calcutta and thanks to Vincent, she entered the movie world in a male role. Later on Baby Rukmini, became the attractive ‘Kumari Rukmini’ and her daughter is the famous star – Lakshmi. The pioneer Swamikannu Vincent produced ‘Subadhra Parinayam’ in association with Pioneer Studios, under the banner – Variety Hall Talkies. This movie was directed by Prafulla Ghosh and the leading singing star of the day S.V.Subbiah Bhagavathar came in as ‘Arjuna’. Incidentally, Sambur Vadakarai Subbiah Bhagavathar was the first trained classical Carnatic musician to enter the world of Tamil cinema.
The great entrepreneur worked for long hours. Vincent (1883 – 1942) was a keen philanthropist all his life. He used his time and money in the interest of the needy and downtrodden. The Perur Temple elephant Janaki used to be fed with rice, dhal and vegetables regularly at his huge palatial mansion for years. Swamikannu Vincent was also associated with Central Studios when it was founded by R.K.Ramakrishnan Chettiar in the year 1936. He was in the board along with S.Bheemiah Chetty, C.N.Venkatapathy Naidu, P.A.Raju Chettiar. Swamikannu Vincent was quite close to A.T.Devaraja Mudaliar and he had involved himself in the construction of ‘Ratnalaya’, the fabulous residence of the latter on Race Course. Besides film production, Vincent was also interested in theatre management, equipment distribution and connected activities. Movies had come to Bombay by the year 1895 and Madras in the year 1897. During the early years of Tamil cinema, the producers preferred to play it safe by choosing stories from mythology, epics and folklore for they were worried about copyright issues connected with stories delivered by authors. Besides, one did not have to shell out money for stories rendered by others. Of course some of the activities of the theatre and drama troupes were absorbed by this interesting medium.
Swamikannu Vincent was always ahead in terms of technical upgradation. On learning that movies had begun to talk in America (1927), Vincent ordered for sound projection machines for both – Variety Hall and Edison. He created history once again by making Coimbatore the first city to have talkie equipment in South India. Thanks to Swamikannu Vincent, Coimbatore was put on the list of pioneering cities known for entrepreneurship. A number of Zamindars and wealthy merchants joined the movie bandwagon in order to emulate the success experienced by Swamikannu Vincent.
The entrepreneurs of Coimbatore should come forward and institute a ‘Swamikannu Vincent Citation For Entrepreneurial Excellence’ for the people behind outstanding startups.
—Rajesh Govindarajulu
