Our Visit to AVM Studios Heritage Museum (Vadapalani)
In the above photo I took at the AVM Studios Heritage Museum, Vadapalani (Google Maps link) you would have noticed that I have embossed my logo. Besides, this is the only photo I am going to display in this blog post. There is a reason for that – I will let you know at the end.
AVM Heritage Museum is in the same AVM Studios premises where you would have seen the iconic AVM Globe from the Arcot Main Road, Vadapalani. They didn’t collect any parking charges for our two-wheeler, but the entry ticket price was somewhat high at Rs. 200 for adults, and Rs. 150 for Kids (Why??)
The best thing for me about this museum is the collection of well-maintained heritage cars. These heritage cars are shining and as good as new! Even the replicas of the first automobiles ever invented (at the entrance) look so good.
There are a few movie set props used in actual movies – but don’t expect anything close to Ramoji Film Studios @ Hyderabad. The museum premises are quite small but they’ve packed quite a punch within that small area.
Another good addition to this museum is the vast collection and display of large-sized printed photos from the various movies produced by AVM productions over the last few decades. That will take you on a nostalgic memory trip.
A few statues are there but we took a selfie only with thalaivar – Rajnikanth’s statue. There is a good collection of old studio production gear – like movie reels, film editing consoles, old projectors, audio editing equipment, cassettes & tapes, etc. There are a few vintage bikes and scooters as well.
Their notice makes it mandatory for visitors NOT to use the pictures taken in the museum premises for commercial purposes – including Youtube. I guess that includes displaying them on this blog as well. Special permission is required to do that.
Instead of taking all the effort to get that special permission, I have decided to use just one long-shot pic, that too with a watermark. If the management deems even this to be too much and in violation of their strict photo rules, they can just request me, and I will take it down immediately.
Readers, tell me something – You’ve all seen infinite pictures of the Taj Mahal both offline and online. Did that ever deter you from visiting the monument directly? I hope the museum management will think about this point and reconsider their strict photo-sharing policies. After all, word of mouth gets around visually through social media nowadays.
Destination Infinity
PS: Yes, my health is getting better nowadays and I am able to visit places like these, at least the ones near my house.
This is what I read somewhere. Just paraphrasing.
Camera flashes hurt patina of delicate objects. Eliminating cameras improves visitor experience. It is hard to enjoy a painting/photo when there is a crowd standing to take photo or selfie. Preventing photography means more sales in their gift shops. Taking photograph is a copyright violation in many cases.
Glad your health is improving,
We are allowed to take photos here for personal use, but they forbid us to use them on blogs, youtube channels, etc.
Destination Infinity
Nice visit. Informative post.
Tickets are high probably because it is a privately maintained museum.
DI, who was AVM? A rich producer of movies ?
Yes, a rich producer of many hit Tamil movies.
Destination Infinity
I love museums. Yes, some of them do have a no-photography policy. And in those where photography is allowed, many visitors are busy taking selfies instead of looking at the displays! Probably that’s one reason why photography is prohibited.
We can take selfies here but they forbid us to post pics online on blogs, youtube channels, etc.
Destination Infinity