The Bollywood Pioneers
The Mumbai film industry, known for Hindi cinema, churned out 364 films in 2017 and accounted for 43% of Box Office net revenue. Against this, Tamil & Telugu cinema contribute 36% while Regional Cinemas, including Bengali and Bhojpuri account for the balance 21%.
Like everything else in India, it was Bengal which provided the initiative to film making in India but it was Mumbai which took the lead. One reason was that Hindi as a language had a near pan indian appeal, covering parts of India above the Vindiyas, even in the east, so that gave Hindi cinema an automatic advantage. However, Bollywood, despite being located in Mumbai had a number of Bengalis playing key roles in the industry either as actors, technicians, music directors, producers, and directors.
The Parsee community actually provided the real time efforts to set up the industry, incidentally, both in Mumbai and Kolkata. The first name from Mumbai that comes up is Homi Wadia who, alongwith his family and partners set up Wadia Movietone and later Basant Studios which made a number of memorable films during this period. Another Parsi, Sohrab Modi, through his production company Minerva Movietone, made a slew of films on historical characters like Sikandar, Jhansi ki Rani and Mirza Ghalib.
The business and creative sense of the Parsi community set the industry rolling and the learned Marathi community also got in to the business, perhaps initially as a passion with Dadasaheb Phalke making Raja Harishchandra. In fact, India’s first talkie, Alam Ara was also made by a Parsi, Ardeshir Marwan Irani.
With the talkies having moved up the production ladder, the industry well in position, came the Punjabis and the Bengalis.
Himanshu Rai’s Bombay Talkies, set up with his wife Devika Rani, almost set the pattern of the studio system that was to run for some time. The studio/ production house also had its juicy ingredient what with Devika Rani running off with an actor and the actor’s career getting terminated. However, the real “tamasha” began when post Himanshu Rai, Devika Rani started running the empire but ran in to conflicts with two key people, Sasadhar Mukherjee and Ashok Kumar. Mukherjee and Ashok Kumar split from Bombay Talkies to form Filimistan Studio with Rai Bahadur Chunilalis and later their independent studio, Filmalaya.
A young boy from Gujarat who came to Mumbai as a supervisor in the horse shoe repair shop of a stable run by a horse supplier to films (and also a producer) was fascinated by film making and approached a director who took him under his wings. Soon, Mehboob Khan was making his own films and he will be remembered for Anmol Ghadi and later, Mother India. Khan built Mehboob Studios which still stands in Bandra.
The patriarch of the first family of the Mumbai film industry also came from Punjab by borrowing money from his aunt and started working as an extra. Prithviraj Kapoor set up the iconic Prithvi Theatres and four generations of Kapoors have kept his legacy going. As we all know it included the setting up of RK Studios in Chembur.
The people mentioned here had admirable qualities. They had vision. They had courage. If today we are talking Bollywood, then we must acknowledge the contribution of these doyens who actually set up a huge industry which has nourished many an Indian dreams.
Courtesy : Artpickles