Mysuru, Sep 22(UNI) The iconic Premier studio, which was known second largest Film studio in Asia, has became a part of the history now with entire building demolished on Friday.
Nearly 1000 movies have been shot in the studio. Besides movies of Indian languages, foreign movies were also shot here. M N Basavarajaiah started the studio at
Chitharanjan Mahal owned by royal family after the closure of Navajyothi studio at Saraswatipuram.
By 1954, a huge studio of seven floors was set up on 10 acres of land. It had facilities to develop, print, edit and screening of seven movies at a time. Even after the construction of video studios, Premier studio held its value.
The studio was well known among those in the film world but it came to limelight and suffered a setback when nearly 60 people were killed in a fire mishap in 1989 when Bollywood actor and Director Sanjay Khan was shooting 'The Sword of Tipu Sultan' based on Bhagwan Gidwani’s book by the same name.
People from the film industry aver that the slide of the studio — which was reckoned to be one of the biggest in Asia had the facility to shoot multiple scenes of different movies simultaneously — began soon after the fire accident.
But in subsequent years, change in shooting format with emergence of digital technology, location-based outdoor shooting in different parts of the world unlike in the past, were some of the factors that gradually led to a decline of some of the established studios and they became commercially unviable ventures.
The forerunner of Premier Studio was Navajyothi Studio which was established at Saraswathipuram in the 1940s by the late G.R. Ramaiah but it shut down decades ago and the premises now houses a school.
Airavatha movie of Darshan and Jaguar movie of Nikhil Kumaraswamy were the last movies to be shot at the studio.
“Cost of production is increasing day by day. Though we did not wish to close the studio, we were left with no option. The trends of movie-making has changed,” the son of the studio owner Basavarajaiah, Nagakumar told UNI.
With the demolition of the studio, the place which witnessed the shooting of the movies of Dr Raj Kumar, Dr Vishnuvardhan, Ambarish, Rajinikanth will only be a memory.
UNI BSP MSP HVB1502