FilmIndia (1946)

FILM INDIA BRINGING TO A BEWILDERED AGONY-RIDDEN WORLD THE MESSAGE OF COURAGE & ACTION RATNAKAR PRODUCTIONS' Picture of the TIME— UTHHO ilRGO Starring : S H A H Z A D I (of ' Zoola ' fame ) Baby N A LIN I (of 'Mali' fame) ASHIK HUSSEIN (of 'Mother India') JAMSHETJI. M. A. AZIZ and A. KHAN ft Now Xeariny Completion Trade Inquiries: RATNAKAR PRODUCTIONS Ahmed Chambers, Lamington Road, BOMBAY 4. April, 194 "ill-thought" and my challenge as "unworthy of a man wh is supposed to understand his responsibility." At another place in his !ong-\vinded letter, the angrl Raghavendra says that "Mr. Nicholson of the Britisl Parliamentary Delegation observed that the people o Mysore are fortunate in being citizens of a progressiv and prosperous state." I should like to ask friend Raghavendra after who* dinner had Nicholson spoken — after the people's or thi prince's: And when did I ever say anything about th< people of Mysore? What I wrote in the January issue wa condemning the stupid act of the Mysore Governmen which Raghavendra himself describes as "not a full fledged responsible government." Where the hell is the complaint then; Why can't thi patriotic Mysorean in Gwalior be a little more sensib'e? I still think it is a shame to be a Mysorean if by beinj so one is expected to contribute to the present reactionary and bureaucratic government prevalent in Mysore — a gov eminent that bans the faces of the nation's most helovei leaders on the screen. I should advise a'l Mysorean Raghavcndras, spreat all over India, to read my writings with greater car< future before pu ling me up again. THE RACKET OF EXTRAS Of all the numerous rackets prevalent in the Indian film industry, the one practised by the "Extra Suppliers" i: about the most annoying.. The "Extra Supplier" is th< person who supplies to the different film studios extra men and women who are required for mob scenes dances and lor minor roles. There are half-a-dozen of these Extra Suppliers operating in Bombay and suppl) ing hundreds of men and scores of gir's to producers who require such "atmosphere" in their films. No one in the world can object to these people carry ing out their business of supplying extras. Even in Holly wood there are umpteen agents who do this business on a big scale. What we object to are the methods of these Suppliers which have turned the business into a racker. Usual'y, the^ Extra Supplier, bar a couple of happy exceptions, is identified as an unpunished goonda, and no wonder seeing that his methods of work can be easily recognised as improved technique of goondaism. The pool of extras — men and wmen — is a common crowd from which the half-a-dozen Extra Suppliers draw iheir supplies for different studios. Very often, perhaps too often, the very men or women that are previously supplied by one Extra Supplier to a studio are taken to another studio by another Supplier on the very same day that these extras are required to main tain scene continuity. This procedure constantly holds up the work of one producer or other almost every day and without the producer being able to do anything about it. If a producer shows his desire to be independent of these Suppliers by negotiating directly with the extras, he is given a mild threat while the extras, themselves, receive a few sticks on their unprotected skulls. In fact this woeful racket of supplying extras to the studios is maintained purely by methods of goondaism in which the knife and ilk stick feature prominently. Another aspect of this racket, callous in its execution, is the scale of payment at which these extras are paid. a