From fruit seller to a cinema owner
JAFFNA – S. Thiyagarajan, who once sold fruits on the streets, has made gigantic strides since then and is now the owner of STR films, a leading cinema distributor in Sri Lanka which operates six cinema halls in the Northeast.
Mr. S. Thiyagarajan.
He started his business in a cool bar at the Jaffna bus stand and improved his business step by step and recently celebrated his 88th birthday in London with his eight children and 14 grandchildren. He faced lot of challenges in the cinema industry; to survive and continues his business.
Mr. Thiyagarajan, was born in Nagadeepa – Jaffna, studied up to Grade seven but failed. Interested in films, he would collect the waste cut film reels at the Windsor theatre, paste the film reels and show the movements through a manual box to children at temple festivals.
In his early days, Mr. Thiyagarajan made friends with an orange seller in the Jaffna market, and said he was interested in selling oranges. That was his entry into the fruit selling business. But his vision was cinema; thereafter he purchased a land and built a cinema.
After it was built, Colombo-based Cinemas Ltd wanted to lease the theatre which he refused. With the help of friends, he went to Chennai to purchase films but had issues there and was told: “You are stranger to the film industry and we give films to Ceylon Theatres and Cinemas Ltd only.”
Mr. Thiyagarajan persisted and succeeded and eventually became a successful cinema distributor and cinema owner.