FilmIndia (1939)

FILM INDIA January 193S casions subdued lighting is used to emphasise tragedy. The haunting "mystical" beauty of certain stars is achieved by photographing them slightly out of focus. Next time you see Greta Garbo or Marlene Dietrich, watch how much of their screen personality Is the work of the photographer. So far has photography advanced in Hollywood that beauty is no longer necessary for a screen career. Either the dual combination of make-up and photography transform a gawky female into a Madonna or — the publicity men convince the world that it Is not ugliness at all: but "personality" — or «ven "elusive" beauty! THAT IS SOME PUBLICITY! Of publicity men it has been said that if they took it into their head they could convince the world that black is white and night is day. The huge publicity organizations of Hollywood can certainly perform such miracles. I had never any idea how completely they have perfected the technique of "boosting", until I saw how the publicity departments of the major studios work. They spend almost as much on publicity as we do on an entire production. On their staff they have firstrate newspaper men, gossip-writers, social columnists and fashion experts, every moment on the look out for new publicity angles. Every week each studio sends out articles, paragraphs, Hollywood letters, studio news, interviews with stars, biographies (and even "autobiographies") of stars and dozens of stills to each of the thousand newspapers and magazines on their list. No sooner does a new artiste sign o.i the "dotted line" than the publicity department gets busy to Hke out the last drop of human interest cut of his or her life for the popular press. Romances, engagements, marriages, divorces -they are all mere grist to the mill of publicity. I was present in the office 01 a publicity manager while he telephoned to the press the news ol the engagement of one of the minor stars to a Director. He got in touch with about four dozen newspapers and gave them the news — to each one of them In a different way. That evening a million residents of Los Angeles had read the news and acquired a new interest in that particular actress. I am not at all sure however, that the engagement was not a publicity stunt, an excuse to crash in the news columns. It is thus that unknown persons are made into universal favourites. How shall we compete with them with the hush hush policy of our studios most of which are content to issue a badly written sheet very few months announcing the next "glorious, gor geous, magnificent golden epic of the silver screen"? WE HAVE TALENT BUT— I have stressed these three points to the exclusion of others because in other respects we are not so backward. Some of our directors can compare favourably with foreign directors, if some of our producers are just money-making machines, most of Hollywood executives are no better. Favouritism, trading in the body and mind, intrigue— these are not entirely absent from the movie capital of the world. And yet they continue to make hundreds of impressive pictures every year, because they have a world-wide market, their profits run into millions, they can afford to buy the best equipment and the best talent ;while we, with our twelve hundred cinemas, have to economize on everything and be content with the second best. We have to strive for the deve* lopment of our industry and the improvement of the general level of our films. But, meanwhile, we should not be over-awed by Hollywood but try to analyse its method and its achievements with a view to adopting them to our own conditions. I came away from Hollywood a little disillusioned, a little impressed, better informed but, above all, a greater optimist about the future of the Indian film industry. Here you see them, these excellent artistes of the screen. Mubarak, Ratan Bai and Sunalini Devi in "Sitara" produced by Everest Pic tures and directed by Ezra Mir. 42