Remembering Tamil film industry's Americans

Chennai, Sep 9 (IANS): Two Americans have found mention by film historians who are shedding light on the movie industry in Chennai as part of the city's 365th anniversary celebrations.

Historian S. Muthiah's lectures have been on the contribution of Americans to the development of the Tamil film industry. They have focussed on two Americans in particular - one a director and the other a studio manager.

The director, Ellis R. Dungan, was a cinematography graduate from the University of Southern California who came to Chennai in 1935-36. He directed one of the first Tamil films, "Sathi Leelavathi".

He went on to direct "Seemanthini" and "Iru Sahotharargal". The scripts for many of Dungan-directed films were written by the famous S.S. Vasan.

Dungan also directed "Sakunthala" (1940)" and "Meera" (1945), both starring M.S. Subbulakshmi.

Dungan lived in India for 15 years, introducing new Hollywood technology to the Tamil film industry. He left India after directing the very successful "Manthiri Kumari" (1950), for which former chief minister M. Karunanidhi wrote the script.

The other American was William Moylan, manager of Vasan's Gemini studio.