Probashi- Cover Story
Probashi- Cover Story
The Firsts in Indian Cinema
complete by his habit for gambling and horseracing. He soon moved to a chawl in Mumbai all his riches now a distant dream. However one woul still see film starss like Dilip Kumar, Sunil Dutt and
Amitabh Bachhan stop by his chawl to say hello to Bhagwan. Bhagwan died penniless in 2002.
Nazeruddin Shah had termed him as the best actor ever in Hindi Movies. A superstar with both money and fame at his beck and call, Motilal( 1910‐1965) would even pilot his own personal plane.
He is most remembered for his role as‘ Chunni Babu’ in Bimal Roy’ s Devdas( 19555), for which he won his first Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award. He lost all his money while making the film Chotti Chotti Baatein which took longer than expected. The film on its release didnot make a mark and Motilal by now a pauper died the year the film was released. He would never know that Chotti Chotti Baatein would win the President
’ s award the very next year. Same story was repeated for the
famous lyricist
Shailendra( 1923‐ 1966), who went broke producing his maiden venture Teesri Kasam. He died in 1966 a pauper. Raj Kapoor and Waheeda Rehman starrer, Teesri Kasam, won the Presidents
Gold Medal, sadly Shailendra was no more.
In life unlike our movies there is never a perfect ending but for some the imperfection is rather unfair.
Written and researched by Probashi Editorial Team, coordinated by
Sudipto Sengupta
The Firsts in
Indian Cinema
First Indiann cinema hall: Jamshedji Framji Madan opened the Elphinstone Picture Palace in Calcutta on Hogg Street in 1907. The Hall was later renamed Minerva, and subsequently renamed Chaplin. Father of the Bengali cinema’ s superstar Uttam Kumar used to run the projector here. Two months ago in April 2013
, the demolition of the hall started. A piece of cinema history was allowed to be wiped out from the country which boasts of the largest film industry in the world.
1896 First cinema show in India ‐ Marvel of the Century, arranged by agents of Louis and August Lumiere, at Bombay ' s Watson Hotel on July 7 1899 First use of cine‐camera ‐ H. S. Bhatavdekar imports a cine‐camera from London. He films a wrestling bout at Hanging Gardens in Bombay, the first documentary. 1902 First bioscope show
‐ J. F. Madan launches his bioscope show in a tent at Calcutta Maidan.
1907 First Indian cinema hall ‐ J. F. Madan opens the Elphinstone Picture Palace in Calcutta, the first of his cinema chain.