User:Scorpiosunil/M t rajen

Shri. M. T. Rajen, born on 28th May 1886, was one of the most prominent movie entrepreneurs of early Tamil movie production years. He produced, distributed, directed and exhibited Tamil movies.

Shri. M.T. Rajen showed an entrepreneurial streak very early in his life. He went to Burma on his own at a very early age to work for the railways there and returned to make his fortune in the Electrical Contracting business, again a pioneering field those days. His firm M.T. Rajen & Co, established in 1914, had many notable “Electrifying” achievements, including the first electrification of the Chettinad Palaces.

As a serial entrepreneur he was quite successful and went on to establish M/s Vel Pictures, producers of films and M/s Madras Theatres Ltd., film exhibitors. The renowned theatres, Prabhat, Broadway, Saraswathi and Kinema Central were all either run or owned by M/s Madras Theatres Ltd. M.T. Rajen was also an investor in real estate properties and owned numerous prime properties in Madras.

His complete mastery of the movie world was put to good use when he served as one of the founding fathers of the South India Film Chamber of Commerce, along with Shri. C. P. Sarathy, Shri. K. Subramaniam, Shri. S. Soundararajan, Shri. C.S.V. Iyer, Shri. V. Rama Rao and Shri. M.A. Venkatrama Naidu, and went on to become the founder President of the Chamber.

M.T. Rajen who initially was a member of the Justice Party, later, was engulfed by the nationalist sentiment and joined the Congress Party, in the presence of Shri. Jawaharlal Nehru, on the insistence of Shri. Satyamurthy Iyer. He refused the ‘Rao Bahadur’ title conferred upon him by the British government in line with his commitment to the independence struggle. He passed away on the 14th of July 1943, never recovering from a persistent bout of pneumonia.

His only child Smt. Kasi Visalakshi, wife of Shri C.S. Bhavani Shanker, Treasury Deputy Collector, survived him. They were survived by their offspring, Prof. Shanthakumari, Principal Law Colleges Tamilnadu (since retired), Late Shri. Bhaskar Shanker, Advocate, Shri. Sukumar Shanker, IRS, Chairman Central Board Excise & Customs (since retired) and Shri. Sudhakar Shanker, Proprietor M.T. Rajen & Co.

Currently M.T. Rajen & Co., a property management firm is successfully run along with its sister concerns, M.T. Rajen’s Pooncholai (Landscape and Indoor Plant Suppliers), established in 1988 and M.T. Rajen’s Farms (Horticulture Farms) established in 1990.