Probashi- Cover Story
Probashi- Cover Story
The Firsts in Indian Cinema
1959 First film in Cinemascope Guru Dutt ' s Kaagaz Ke Phool is the first widescreen film , shot with Cinemascope lenses from 20th Century Fox . Bombs at the box office . 1964 Switzerland ‐ The snowy slopess of Switzerland make their debut in Bollywood with Sangam . Triggers the trend of shooting songs abroad . 1967 First 70‐mm film ‐ Around the World is shot in 70 mm using blow‐up method and stereophonic sound . Later , in 1975 , Sholay too is shot in 70‐ mm format . 1969 New wave ‐ Mrinal Sen ' s Bhuvan Shome and Mani Kaul ' s Uski Roti usher in an all‐new experimentati ion in technique , form and narrative 1971 India becomes the No . 1 Film making country ‐ India makes 433 feature films
, making it the world ’ s biggest film producer 1972 First horror film ‐ Do Gaz Zameen Ke Neeche sees the Ramsay Brothers spearhead the genre . Earlier films dealt with reincarnation and ghosts , but weren ’ t gory . 1975 Sholay breaks all records ‐ Becomes the first film to celebrate a silver jubilee in more than 100 cinemas ; runs for over five years at Mumbai ' s
Minerva theatre 1977 First actor CM ‐ MGR is the first actor to become a chief minister ; is
CM of Tamil Nadu from 1977 to 1987 1982 Colour
TV ‐ First film to be seen in colour on TV is Ray ’ s Shatranj Ke
Khiladi 1983 First Oscar for India ‐ Bhanu Athaiya becomes the first Indian to win the Academy Award for Costume Design for her work in Richard
Attenborough ' s Gandhi 1984 First 3D film ‐ Malayalam film My Dear
Kuttichathan uses 3D technology . It is later dubbed in Hindii as Chhota Chetan . The first Hindi 3D movie is Shiva Ka Insaaf . 1992 Honorary Oscar ‐ Days before his death , Satyajit Ray gets the Oscar for Lifetime Achievement 1995 ‘ Item’ number ‐ Sonali Bendre ’ s Humma Humma dance in the film Bombay is the first item song in Indian cinema , though the term is not used yet 1997 First multiplex ‐ PVR Anupam , with four screens , opens in Delhi 1999 First insured film ‐ For Taal , Subhash Ghai ' s Mukta Arts took an insurance policy worth Rs 11 crore against shooting schedule disturbances or accidents 2009 Double Oscar ‐ A . R . Rahman wins two Oscars for Danny Boyle ' s Slumdog Millionaire . Resul Pookutty bags an Oscar for best sound mixing . 2011 Most expensive ‐ At $ 30 million , Shahrukh Khan ' s ambitious superhero flick Ra One becomes the most expensive film till date 2012 World
' s largest film studio ‐ The 2,700‐acre Prayag Film City at Chandrakona , West Bengal , is unveiled . When it becomes fully operational next year , it will become the world ' s largest film studio complex
, taking the crown away from Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad .
Baburao Painter introduced film publicity using posters . The first being the poster for his film Maya Bazaar . An extremely gifted painter , who used to design theatre sets taught himself the art of film making and founded Maharashtra Film Company in
1919 . He along with his brother
Anandrao even assembled a cameraa . He introduced V Shantaram into films . The oldest surviving
Indian film poster is of the 1924 Marathi movie Kalyan Khajina , designed by Babubhai
. The hand‐painted poster remained the dominant form of movie publicity for decades . In the late 1980s , the industry adopted the cut‐and‐paste method , which combined photographic images from a film with painting . This was phased out after 1992 , when leading publicity designer Rahul Nanda brought in digital technology , which eventually ended the old‐school publicity design .
Shyamchi Aai‐ the Marathi film which got the first National award for the best film in 1953
From : ( i ) Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema — Ashish Rajadhyakshaa & Paul Willemen ; ( ii ) The Essential Guide to
Bollywood — Subhash K . Jha & Pavan Jha ; and online information sources . Collated by Amit Mukherji