FilmIndia (May-Dec 1938)

Director Shantaram s Scathing Criticism Of Middlemen Condemns Profiteering & Wants 3,000 More Theatres. "I have no patience or respect for those importers of machinery who have been profiteering at the cost of the Indian Film Industry," said Mr. V. Shantaram, the famous director and partner of the Prabhat Film Co., when our Editor Mr. Baburao Patel interviewed him recently. "They have been bleeding the 'infant' by inflating the prices of all kinds of machinery and making huge profits for themselves since the advent of the talkies. "Projectors whi:h were hardly worth five thousand have been sold for fourteen and fifteen thousand rupees. "This greedy inflation has put back the clock of progress so much that after 25 years of its existence, the Indian film industry can hardly claim a thousand theatres in India. Mr. V. SHANTARAM Partner & Director, Prabhat Film Company Imagine a thousand theatres tor a population of 350 millions! That works down to one theatre ior every 350,000 people. What a pathetic progress when I think that we ought to have a theatre in every town with a population oi 10,000 people. "So far we have hardly touch•ed the fringe of our huge population. In my opinion, our most successful picture may not have drawn more than five million people to the theatre. And if that is all we can cater for, where is the rest of India? Need of the Moment: "During the next three years we must at least have 3000 more theatres, if our film industry is to assume any national importance In culture, education and entertainment. "The crying need of the hour is a projector with a price and quality within reach of all. A qocd serviceable projector ought not to cost more than Rs. 3000 and I am informed that even in the present range of makes available in our market, there are good projectors actually not costing more than this amount, but due to inflation of prices for personal gains these projectors are not brought within the reach of small enter prise. What a pity that the oer Bonal gains of a few should baulk the progress of an entire industry. "All this procedure is wrong and it is just bad business. If our machinery importers thought for a while, they would well imagine the huge business in spares, accessories and replacements in maintaining theatre projectors it we have four to five thousand theatres in India someday. "And this supplementary trade would always pay better dividends than the principal job of selling machines. "It is a well known fact that motor dealers make more proiitr, In their repair workshops than by selling cars. Importers of cinema machinery can do the same, if they allow the field to expand and secure nation wide demand. The Sesame of Progress "That one word 'demand' is a sesame of progress. It opens wide the gates of progress by in viting healthy competition and spurring enterprise. "What we must all do to-day is to create more demand for our pictures and we can do that only by exploiting new and virgin fields. We simply must have more cinemas and quickly too if the industry is to live. "The present tactics of machinery dealers are not praiseworthy apart from the fact that they are suicidal to the industry in general. "There is no sense in killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. If the industry survives, as an industry of such national importance should, the machinery importers will be perhaps the first ones to clear good profits. "Big profits got with the present quick methods leave the industry more crippled than otherwise. "What an irony it is when manufacturers equipped with the latest plants and protected by mass production can put out on the market projectors at a reasonable price, that the middlemen should step in and make more profits than the manufacturers themsel 23