Type | Film school |
---|---|
Established | 1945 |
Location |
CIT Campus, Tharamani, Chennai, India |
Campus | Urban |
Nickname | Adayar Film Institute |
The Adyar Film Institute (officially known as M.G.R. Government Film and Television Training Institute) is an Indian film and television training institute. Established in 1945 as Adyar Film Institute, it is one among the pioneer film institutes in India. It is in Tharamani, Chennai and is run by the Tamil Nadu State Government under the Department of Information and Public Relations.
It offers three-year diploma courses in Screenplay and Direction, Cinematography, Sound Recording and Sound Engineering, Film Editing and Film Processing, and functions of the government. The diplomas are approved by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), while the certificates are awarded by the Department of Technical Education, Government of Tamil Nadu.
The institute was established in 1945 as Adyar Film Institute and was a part of the Central Polytechnic. In 1965, it moved into its present campus in the Tharamani area of Chennai. At the time, the campus was spread over 54 acres, which has reduced over following decades, due to rapid urbanisation. Parts of land were given to the IIT Madras and many IT companies, bringing it down to present 10 acres.
In 2006 it was renamed as M.G.R. Film and Television Training Institute, after former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M.G. Ramachandran (1917–1987), who was a prominent actor of Tamil cinema.
In 1994, the government started MGR Film City to make more filmmaking facilities in the city. On 16 October 1997, Queen Elizabeth II visited MGR Film City and watched the filming of Kamal Haasan's Tamil movie Marudhanayagam. The acting course that started in 1971, at the behest of M.G.R., was discontinued in 2002. Talks to revive the course have been on for many years.