The Parsis who once ran theatres in Madras

Cinema theatres and Parsis - both are dwindling in numbers.

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This thought came to my mind while researching about the golden age of single-screen theatres in Chennai city, and I realised that many were run by Parsis. I have managed to count seven. I am sure readers will send in replies with more. While the first Indian to own cinema theatres in Madras was undoubtedly Raghupathy Venkaiah with his Gaiety, Crown and Roxy, dating to 1914/1915, J.F. Madan, of the famed Madan Picture Palace chain was already here, renting the Lyric theatre at the intersection of Wallajah and Mount Roads and renaming it Elphinstone. By 1915, he had moved across Round Tana and begun New Elphinstone where the Raheja Complex stands today. For a brief while, after Venkaiah was adjudged insolvent in the 1920s, his Gaiety too was run by a Mrs. Piroja Madan, who may have been related to the Madans of the Elphinstone chain. Gaiety, after changing hands several times, is now a commercial complex. Only for European audience