FilmIndia (1939)

■bruary 1939 FILMINDIA Clarity? Can't the Censors do Lything about it? i GAR PICTURES IX "PATHE" , Right in the wake of Ranjit MoIvtone securing the release mono'•/ly at the Royal Opera House, {gar Movietone, rather Mr. Sundra C. Desai, the eldest son of I\ Chimanlal Desai, the propriet: of Sagar, has secured the • athe", which is perhaps the most rpular and well equipped cinema ,c the Lamington Road and in the •lart of the city, for the first rel.se of all Sagar pictures. With pducers having more and more cect control over our cinemas, t? exhibition side of the film indstry will in future be consideraly influenced by the production i erests. In a way, this is good, as pducers will realize from their On experience the causes of the p?carious existence of several of o: exhibitors and will not insist o the pernicious practice of askminimum guarantees for pictres which are no better than bily made sausages. rhe cinemas in the city are at ppsent controlled as follows: Centl Talkies (Prabhati, Minerva (pw Theatres) West End and Ryal Opera House (Ranjit). Pathe ikgar) Lamington (Wadia) and tt Krishna, the Imperial, the Sper and the Majestic for small ppducers, — 4 first run houses for Mr 12 small and independent Procters. IK. A. NARAYANAN" HITS OUT ! jpeaking as the President of the Iftrd Madras Provincial Film Chference held on the 22nd Deshber 1938 at Madras. Mr. A. *ayanan said: "It is a pity that Men less important industries tu/e officially recognised councils ap associations to voice their revances and further their intests, an important growing riasiial industry like the cinema in Mich crores of rupees have been nested which affects the outlook ilife of crores of people and with W great future potentialities Jluld be without an officially revised central organization." facing the history of the South tyian film industry Mr. Nara yanan said: "A limited market heavier initial investment, without corresponding increase in the field of exhibition, a greater supply of pictures than what the market could hold and less of thought for the production of pictures that will sustain audience interest by a varied, novel treatment of subjects with timely topical appeal and a complete lack of general improvement in technique, have brought the film industry in South India at Khan Bah.adur Gulam Hoosein Dossani, the senior partner of Dossani Film Corporation is the first Khoja gentleman of Calcutta to be honoured with the title of the Khan Bahadur. the end of 1938 to a state of which we could not be proud." UNJUSTIFIABLE DISCRIMINATION ! Condemning the discrimination shown by the Government and the public utility concerns, Mr. Narayanan said "The help we are getting from our government (in these days of subsidized industries in other countries'! for which we are paying by way of income-tax and the other usual taxes and customs duty on imported raw films and recording and reproducing equipments to the tune of lakhs of rupees and for all this the cinema industry does not get a return of even one pie's worth of service, is the continued imposition of the entertainment tax first imposed as a temporary war-time measure. In principle no more unjust or inequitable tax could be found than this tax based on income and not on profits. "The latest addition is the Imposition of a tax on bills and hoardings by the municipalities that has definitely throttled not only the film industry, but also the stage, throwing the stage workers on the streets and adversely many other allied industries like printing etc. "It is unfortunate that the cinema industry alone should be singled out for special discriminatory charging. "The same is the case with the Railways with their discrimination in rates for film parcels and their withholding the concessions for film producing units, while granting such concessions to others, and the electric supply companies with their unequal rates for the supply of energy for the cinema companies as compared with their rates for a few of the major industries." Every word of Mr. Narayanan is unfortunately too true but does he forget that the ascetic popular ministers with their peculiar "Gandhian Hue" are not so fond of the Indian film industry? The Hon. Mr. C. Rajagopalachariar, the Premier of Madras, would do well to study the Presidential address of Mr. A. Narayanan during his spare time. And so should the other ministers in other provinces, because grievances of our film industry elsewhere are identically the same. WE MOURN WITH DISNEY ! Walt Disney the famous screen cartoonist is in mourning. On December 12. Disney's 80 year old father and 71 year old mother were found dead in their Hollywood home, poisoned by coal gas from a furnace. Disney adored his parents and only two years back he presented them their new house next to his own. India sympathises with this great artist in his grief, 23