HOUSES IN DE MONTE COLONY DEMOLISHED

The last of the houses in De Monte Colony, off TTK Road in Alwarpet, have been demolished. The Colony, which earned the reputation of being Chennai’s most haunted place after the release of the successful movie Demonte Colony, is now no more. There is no word on what will come up in this prominent location in the city.

 

De Monte colony is named after John De Monte, a wealthy 19-century merchant, who at one point owned the entire stretch.

 

Demonte Colony, a film starring Arulnithi Tamilarasu, grandson of former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, was made by director R. Ajay Gnanamuthu, who was inspired by the real colony and its reputation.

 

We spoke to Gnanamuthu to get his views. "The colony was being demolished when my movie was made. I made it based on the reputation of the colony as a haunted place. The building shown in the movie is not actually on De Monte Colony. I will be happy if the area is put to good use and loses its haunted location tag," he said.

 

The movie shows the principal characters visiting the ‘haunted’ colony after which their lives are fatally jinked. People have been trickling into the colony to click photographs of themselves on their cell phones in the background of the houses, in the wake of the film’s release.

 

Aravinnd Singh shot the movie, whose songs were composed by Keba Jeremiah. S Chinna scored the background music.