1785, by Richard Johnston, a printer employed by the British East India Company. The first Indian-owned English-language newspaper was The Madras Crescent which was established by freedom-fighter Gazulu Lakshminarasu Chetty in October 1844. Lakshminarasu Chetty is also credited with the foundation of the Madras Presidency Association which was a forerunner of the Indian National Congress. The number of newspapers and periodicals published in the presidency totalled 821 in 1948. The two most popular English-language newspapers were The Hindu established by G. Subramania Iyer in 1878, and The Mail, established as the Madras Times by the Gantz family in 1868. Regular radio service in the presidency commenced in 1938 when All India Radio established a station in Madras. Cinemas became popular in the 1930s and 1940s with the first film in a South Indian language, R. Nataraja Mudaliar's Tamil film Keechaka Vadham, released in 1916. The first sound films in Tamil and Telugu were made in 1931 while the first Kannada talkie Sati Sulochana was made in 1934 and the first Malayalam talkie Balan in 1938. There were film studios at Coimbatore, Salem, Madras and Karaikudi. Most early films were made in Coimbatore and Salem but from the 1940s onwards, Madras began to emerge as the principal centre of film production. Until the 1950s, most films in Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam were made in Madras. See also History of Tamil Nadu History of Kerala Administrative divisions of Madras Presidency Madras States Agency List of colonial Governors and Presidents of Madras Advocate-General of Madras Sheriff of Madras Bengal Presidency Bombay Presidency References Citations Sources Government publications Madras District Gazetteers Other publications External links Coins of the Madras Presidency Historical Indian regions Presidencies of British India History of Chennai History of Andhra Pradesh Lakshadweep History of Karnataka Colonial Kerala History of Odisha 1652 establishments in British India 1950 disestablishments in India