“Madras on Stage”, the fourth edition of ’s ‘Made of Chennai’ photo archives exhibition — held at Kasturi Buildings, the newspaper’s corporate head office — concluded on September 15. This year’s exhibition attracted a larger crowd than previous years, and notables from various walks of life visited it.

We at the Library Department, which serves as the archives of , started collecting photographs for the exhibition in the second week of July. The curator, Thirupurasundari Sevvel, suggested a division of 33% performing arts (national and international), 33% drama/stage, and 33% cinema. We chose to display pictures from the 1920s all the way to the 2010s to ensure that we did not miss out on any cultural activities or performing arts. We have in our repository nearly 2.5 to 3 million pictures across varied subjects, which include digital copies, black-and-white and colour prints, negatives, and colour transparencies. Of these physical prints, negatives, and transparencies, 60% were readily available in digital format; for the rest, we had to search through physical copies.

The curator gave us helpful clues and ideas. She also shared a timeline of key programmes and cultural events in Madras over the years. Using these leads, we cross-checked news items published in and Sport & Pastime (a magazine published by Group from 1947 to 1968), confirmed the dates, and searched our archives for pictures.

Finding some photos was tough, such as the 1927 photograph of Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar with the cast of his play by the Suguna Vilasa Sabha. Tracking down cinema stills of M.K. Thyagaraja Bhagavathar (MKT) shot in Madras was similarly exhausting. We hold only very few photographs from MKT’s films; the 1934 musical Pavalakkodi, directed by K. Subrahmanyam, provided the sole Madras-based still in our collection.

On the brighter side, we came across photographs of many international performers who appeared in Madras from the 1950s to the 1990s, including Boney. M, American jazz musicians, Egyptian folk dancers, Tibetan Amdo drama troupes, Russian Ramayana casts, and Russian ballet dancers. We collected a total of 600 pictures and shortlisted 181. Out of these, 100 pictures were physically exhibited, while all 181 were displayed on a television screen at the venue.

Right from the inauguration on August 14, school and college students visited the exhibition almost daily. Film and drama personalities, politicians, journalists, and public officials were among the other notable visitors. The exhibition was inaugurated by Tamil Nadu Minister for School Education, Tamil Development and Information A. Rajmohan. Tamil Nadu Minister for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments S. Ramesh also toured the display.

Historian and heritage activist V. Sriram appreciated the exhibits and helped identify several figures in the photographs — updates we have since incorporated into our archival captions.

Actor Pasupathy, whose photo from his Koothu-p-Pattarai days was on display, visited with his family and spotted a familiar face in the frame — retired Justice Prabha Sridevan, his co-star in The Conduct of Life, a play by María Irene Fornes. Actress and activist Revathi also dropped by, thrilled to spot three photographs capturing her participation in various social causes.

Other notable visitors included drama veterans Kathadi S. Ramamurthy, S.Ve. Shekher, and Madhu Balaji; theatre and television artist S. Varadarajan; cartoonist Madhan; singer Chinmayi; actor-journalist Chitra Lakshmanan; filmmaker Halitha Shameem; screenplay-dialogue writer Anand Kumaresan; and cinema PROs Diamond Babu and Nikhil Murukan.

We’re already looking forward to celebrating Madras again next year.