In 1913, Venkiah built Gaeity theatre in Madras, the first permanent theatre in South India. Venkiah travelled across India and further than Burma (then, a part of India) and Ceylon (now, Sri Lanka).
After 1917, he ventured into film production. Star of East Film Company was set up by Venkiah with an impressive Board of Directors - Maharaja of Pithapuram, Sir R.K. Shanmukham Chettiar, Dewan Bahadur Govindas Chaturbhuj Doss. His son R. Prakash returned from his stint in London and Paris with knowledge and equipment for the studio. He established a modern outfit complete with glass roof and an in-house laboratory.
 In 1921 - Bhishma Pratigna. The film was directed by Prakash and proved a major success.
In 1923 - Gajendra Moksham.
In 1924 - Usha Swapna.
In 1929 - Kovalan.
In 1930 - Nandanar. The films were shown with subtitles in Hindi, Gujarati, Telugu, Tamil, and English.
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