FilmIndia (1945)

Hi This section is the monopoly of "JUDAS" and he writes what he likes and about things which he likes. The views expressed here are not necessarily ours, but still they carry weight because they are written by a man who knows his job. INSURING OUR NIGHTINGALES! Hollywood is a strange place because strange things happen there. Marriages and divorces are so common among film people that no one notices them nowadays. People observe the week's chaperon with the glamour girl and from her behaviour ascertain whether he is a would-be or a had-been. No one worries about these common events these days in Hollywood. The latest is about Miss Rise Stevens, the singing star of Bir:g Crosby's. "Going My Way". Miss Stevens also sings ::t the Metropolitan Opera of New York and her singing voice is loved by millions in the States. The girl has now insured her singing voice with Lloyds, London, for /, 2,50,000 (nearly Rs. 33,33,300). If she becomes hoarse tcmpoii.rily Lloyds will pay her ^750 (Rs. io,ooo|-) a week, and if she is unable to sing for a year the policy will be paid in full. That is some value for a singing voice. It is high time we in India begin aping Hollywood in this new publicity stunt just as some of our volatile stars recently courted some cheap publicity by rushing to the divorce courts. What fbout insuring Miss Amir Karnatki's voice ? Though it is not much of a voice, we cannot afford to let Amir's wholesale "ghost" voice go hoarse. If we did that it would take the "nightingale" out of scores of our leading stars. Muin'az Shanti and many others would no longer be singing stars but just crowing crooners. Yes, Amir's voice has me re insurance value than that of Miss Stevens. Amir sings at least for twenty pairs of lips every month and her insurance must reach astronomical proportions even though people are fed up with all that music. HOLLYWOOD'S HEADACHE! Hollywood capitalists are learning life these days. And the man who is Llerbert Sorrell — nothing to do with Son". Herbert, an ex-painter, is the leader of the studio workers who are on strike for the last six months because they want better payments from the studio owners who have made huge war profits and refuse to" share them with the workers. New production in all major studios is held up and already Herbert Sorrell has cost the producers more than ^10,000,000. The strike began in March and within a few hours over 15,000 workers struck in sympathy and paralysed an industry worth £500,000,000. The capitalists have been able to woo back to work some of the sympathisers but Sorrell and his handful of essential workers are still out with the result that several pictures which should have been on the screen months before are still being shot with the help of old sets and patched-up backgrounds. If the all-powerful Hollywood tin-gods can be taught a lesson of their teaching them is 'Sorrell And His ■ a lesson, is it difficult to bring round some of our studio bosses who virtually live on the blood of our workers ? The working conditions obtained in our film studios are far from being congenial. Lighting assistants, coolies, carpenters and strangely enough even the educated technicians are always made to work overtime without being paid a pice as compensation. All these people work because their jobs are constantly threa'ened. Their routine wages is another pitiful story but to deprive these hard-working people of their overtime money is nothing less than heartless capitalism. Can't all these people, slaves though they have been since their birth, unite at least once in their life-time and teach our profit-mad producers a lesson which they richly deserve? It is high time that we should have a union of our studio workers organised on Trade Union lines. Unless our labour is organised on modern lines we are not likely to have happy people. All we shall have will be over-fed Now look at that man! Can you imagine any one leaving Protima and Para in the lurch like that? What are these sweet ones to do if people run away like that? Come don't let these girls worry longer. 13