Christ in Tamil Cinemas.
Tamil Cinema industry, one of the leading cinema industries in the world, produced approximately 6500 cinemas, a force influencing Tamil Society, Culture and Politics, produced chief ministers like M.Karunanithi, M.G.R and J. Jeyalalitha, has not yet produced a single cinema on Jesus Christ. Surprisingly, Swamikannu Vincent, one of the earliest exhibitor in Tamil Nadu, screened the first show of the silent movie ‘Life of Jesus Christ’ in 1905, in St.Joseph’s School, Trichy, using the equipment purchased from a French Man called Dupont along with that movie, and started touring the major cities in the then Madras Presidency and India under British rule , to screen the movie. The silent movie, Life of Christ, was not produced by any of the native film producers or film makers from Tamil Cinema world. There were few dubbed versions of the cinemas from Malayalam (Jesus) and Telugu (Karuna Moorthy) on the Life of Jesus. Jesus (1973), a Malayalam movie, was directed by P.A. Thoma