FilmIndia (1948)

)clober, 1946 PILMINDI A :ntly set a Production Code for film producers in Bomay but the Code will be effective in checking such lewd revocations only if rigorously enforced by the execuves and by the members of the Censor Board. If a certain artiste, due to her past popularity, still fcntinues to provoke the masses to indulge in vulgar exbitions, it may become necessary for the Censors to lam the film producers before giving another assignent to such an artiste. Though all this sounds very strict and puritanic at resent, as a free people we have got to make a begining of national discipline somewhere and teach our unions some decency in general conduct specially at places I public amusement where all — men, women and young lildren— assemble for common entertainment. At least te little ones must be saved from the ghosts of the ucknow nawabs and not taught that every cinema house I a veritable brothel. While we have been agitating to make the cinema fi extension of the nation s school room, producers and thibitors have been doing their best to keep it at a bro Lel level by providing lewd and juicy entertainment ider one excuse or other. The choice for the future is not at all in doubt. Vi ith jpular ministries in different provinces, the law must |j used to teach our producers and exhibitors some de;nc) and responsibility in their trade, if the elders of »day intend to leave a rich heritage to the posterity of morrow . In the meantime exhibitors would do well to display )tices in their theatres requesting patrons to behave roperly in the theatres. If a few misbehaving ones are eked out unceremoniously with the help of their neiibours, this nuisance of throwing coins and uttering vulir epithets will soon stop. ROFITS AND PUBLICITY Film producers are in tears, crocodile tears of »urse. over what they claim to be a 60% drop in boxfice takings owing to the general slump in the counV There is of course a general post-war slump in the >untry, but to describe the box-office slump as a 60' r "op is sheer exaggeration. The most conservative owners, however, admit a drop between 25% to 30% in e box-office takings all over the count i \ . Film producers, however, stick to their 60% slump ory and use it for cutting down production expenses id blackmail artistes and technicians into accepting Iwer salaries. And they have succeeded so wonderfully 1 this propaganda that several top line artistes who once Bed to earn between Ks. 60 and Rs. 75 thousand per Icture have been recently roped in for a meagre Rs. I),000| per picture. That is more than 85% drop in arfste's wages. The technician's salaries have been scaled down by l)% while the over-all cost of production has been lesslied by nearly 75% and a picture on which producers lice spent Rs. 4 lakhs is nowadays made ready for rease within just a lakh of rupees. The producers have thus amply compensated for the Witural drop in the returns and are actually making these w&ya more profits per rupee of their investment than they id during the war years. The slump story, however, comes in handy not only for blackmailing all and sundry into accepting rock-bottom wages but also in manipulating income-tax returns which still show inflated costs with deflated takings thus achieving a synthetic loss. The slump of 25% can, however, be effectively checked if producers, shrewd businessmen as they are. realize the stern necessity of improving their publicity campaign which is one of the vital factors in pulling the audiences to the theatres. While foreign producers are spending more on publicity these days and consequently drawing better audiences than ever before, slump or no slump, the Indian producers, stigmatizing picture publicity as a necessary evil and an unavoidable drain, have cut down their budgets to the rock-bottom minimum and in doing so lost their contact with the very people whom they expect to come and see their pictures. The publicity initiative is in the hands of the foreign producers these days and one has only to watch the crowds at the foreign show -houses in the city to realize their gains and our losses. There are over three million people in the city of Bombay these days deprived of old-time time killers like liquor, gambling, stage and other entertainment. All these people need some relaxation after their day's work and all that is available to them is a motion picture. All these are potential customers of Indian pictures only if our producers realize the need of contacting Marihubala has come a long way since she was a child star. Here she is in "Lai Dupatta", a social romance of Akaeh Chitra. 15