A. V. Meiyappan

Early life

AVM was born in Karaikudi on 28 July 1907 to Nagarathar family of father Avichi Chettiar and mother Lakshmi Achi. Avichi Chettiar owned a department store called AV & Sons which sold gramophone records. At an early age, AVM envisioned better prospects in the trade of manufacturing records than simply selling them. Hence, he moved to Madras with his friends K.S. Narayan Iyengar and Subbaiah Chettiar and established a new firm called Saraswathi Stores on 9 September 1932. for the part of the young Lord Krishna. This young boy would later become an efficient singer turning in a number of melodious hits. Lalitha Venkataraman sang for the character Devaki making Nandakumar the first film to introduce the concept of playback singing in the Tamil film industry. Reflecting the intense patriotic fervour and hope which engulfed the newborn nation, the film released in January 1947 after six months of shooting and was "a thundering success". The story begins with a Subramania Bharati anniversary and ends with Gandhi's 77th birthday celebrations. The film ran for 25 weeks and was released as Jeevitham (1949) in Telugu and Bahar in Hindi. With the success of Vazhkai, AVM Productions began to produce films in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali and even Sinhalese. By the mid-1950s, he had emerged as one of the top-stars in Kollywood.

Sivaji also starred in AVM's next Tamil film Andha Naal (1954) directed by S. Balachander. The film, the first film without any songs to be released in any Indian language, was about a radio engineer who intrigues with the invading Japanese during the Second World War and is eventually killed by his wife. The style of narration had been heavily borrowed from Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon.

In 1953, AVM produced the Kannada film Jatakaphala which was dubbed into Jatakam in Tamil and Jatakaphalam in Telugu. In 1958, AVM made Bhookailas in Telugu, which triggered the "golden age of Telugu cinema".

The 1960s

In 1961, AVM produced the Telugu film Papa Pariharam which was a remake of the Tamil film Pavamanippu which released in the same year. Both were directed by eminent director A. Bhimsingh and starred Shivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan, Savitri and Devika. Like most of AVM's early films, Pavamanippu too had a storyline based on the Second World War.

Kalathur Kannamma in 1960 saw the introduction of another star in Tamil cinema, the thespian Kamal Haasan who played an unforgettable supporting role as a young orphan. He was barely six years old at the time. It also launched Major Sundarrajan as a character actor in the Tamil film industry. Sundarrajan's second hit, Major Chandrakanth where his famous portrayal of title role earned him the screen name "Major" Sundarrajan was also produced by AVM. Narayanmurthy had earlier directed a black-and-white version of Bhakta Prahlada in 1942 which had failed at the box-office. The film was a major success and the song Rajavin Paarvai topped the charts for a long time. and Miss Mary(1957), the dubbed version of the Tamil film Missiamma. Bhabhi (1957) featured Balraj Sahni, Pandari Bai and Nanda, apart from comedian Jagdeep in his first romantic role. Jagdeep also acted in other films produced by AVM as Hum Panchi Ek Dal Ke and Barkha. Other notable Hindi films made by AVM during the 1960s were Man Mauji, Main Chup Rahungi, Pooja Ke Phool and Mehrban.

AVM's last Hindi film was Jeene Ki Arzoo directed by Rajasekhar in 1981.

Family Meiyappan has five sons and six daughters born to his two wives Alamelu and Rajeswari.

From Alamelu Meiyappan, who died in 1946, has 1 son and 5 daughters.

For Rajeswari Meiyappan, who died on 9 November 2008, has 1 daughter and 4 sons including M. Saravanan.

With dawn of the 1970s, production had slowed down considerably. He also directed most of his early movies. He is credited with having introduced Kollywood's first playback singers, made India's first dubbed film and Kollywood's first film shot on location. He has also had the distinction of having had five chief ministers work in his films – C. N. Annadurai wrote the script for AVM's Ore Iravu, M. Karunanidhi scripted the dialogues for Parasakthi, M. G. Ramachandran played the hero in Anbe Vaa, J. Jayalalithaa was the heroine in AVM's Major Chandrakanth and Akka Thamudu and N. T. Rama Rao starred in AVM's Jeevitham, Ramu and Bhookailas. Made at enormous cost of Rs. 60 to 960 million (15 to 20 million dollars), it is the costliest Tamil film made to date and had earned a critical reception worldwide. In recent times, AVM Productions has significant lessened film production making only one or two films a year.

Philanthropy Apart from his contributions to the growth of motion picture industry in Tamil Nadu, AVM has also donated extensively for charitable causes. The charitable activities of the AVM group were channelled through an organisation called AVM Charities established at Mylapore in Chennai. This trust has been managed by the descendants of AVM since his death in 1979. The AVM Charities had provided land for old age homes and organising social events. The AVM family also owns a marriage hall, AVM Rajeswari Kalyana Mandapam which is generally rented for Hindu marriages. This marriage hall is controlled by the AVM family through AVM Charities. Following the astounding success of the 2007 Tamil film Sivaji, AVM Productions declared publicly that it would offer 25% of the revenues from the film as charity.