FilmIndia (1946)

ay, 1946 FILM INDIA |j) is quite important in life, how they do it is certainly ore important. The Ranjits have spent over Rs. 1,78,00,805 on their > oduction business from 193 1 to 1945. Out of this they 1 ive paid Rs. 1,06,80,480 to artistes; Rs. 35,60,000 were >ent on settings; Rs. 8,90,400 were used for out-door enes and Rs. 18,00,800 went in purchasing raw film. . hey employ on an average 650 persons every month and I ly over a lakh of rupees every month in salaries. Sardar Chandulal Shah and Miss Gohar have not only oduced 100 talkies and set up an all-time record in moran picture production in India but they have also estab;hed great traditions of business worthy of emulation by I 1 those who aim high in the career of commerce. ( And yet in 1926 just 20 years ago, Sardar Chandulal j |as but a struggling story-writer for the none-too wosperous Laxmi Film Company of Bombay. But the liorld which is cruel enough is not strong enough to put Itwn an intelligent man who has decided to rise above lis fellow men. Within three years, in 1929, the Sardar llunded the Ranjit Film Company in partnership with liiss Gohar, who was soon destined to take the crown .I'll e most emotional artiste of the screen. Sardar Chandulal and Miss Gohar made a rare team 21 artists who gave some great motion pictures to the film I azy people of India. We still remember pictures like I fish w a Mohini", "Gunsundari". "Miss 1933", "Barris U r's Wife'" etc., pictures that made history in their own I nes. Sardar Chandulal directed twenty two pictures before I settled down to enjoy the fruit of his hard struggle in I c" It must be recorded here that since the Sardar"s retire I ent from the active life of a producer and director, not I ie Ranjit picture has ever attained the quality or the I' indard ot production so often found in the previous } injit pictures. With his own labour Sardar Chandulal had taken the m injit trade name to the top, expecting others to nurse it U that position in future. And it has again to be regretfully recorded here I at not one man who succeeded the Sardar as a director of I injit pictures has come within even a striking distance j the intelligence of the founder of Ranjit. Ranjit has lost its great name gradually because ot a I iwd of unintelligent and unimaginative people who don't I Xi to have even the horse-sense to follow the Sardar's Hkelligent instructions when given. These people have i ither the zeal nor the initiative to be different and enter Rising. They seek their guarantee of employment in their ■ flity in soothsaying and in the Sardar's affectionate I Valty to his workers. For, no man has yet been sacked ■im the Ranjit staff. They either die or leave for their ■en reasons. But they are never asked to go, because to I War Chandulal and Miss Gohar, their workers, be they Brn rotters, constitute just so many members of the big Ijnjit Family. And a majority of the members of the [jnjit Family are too old to be useful for modern proliction purposes and it is no wonder that the Ranjit trade name today is far away from the top where it used to be once. And yet after all said and done, a hundred pictures, good or bad, are not produced every day by a single producer. No producer in the world can produce a quality picture every time. Quality pictures take a lot of hard work ind time and their success is often a speculative factor. While quality should be the ideal of every producer, the film business needs a lot of quantity also to be called an industry. The thousand and odd theatres in India need pictures trcm month to month for picturegoers of various tastes and it is essential that a certain amount of quantity must be produced to meet this demand. The most happy compromise would be to produce quantity with a reasonably ;^ood standard of quality. A product like this would meet 1 he expectations of both the filmgoers and the critics. The previous Ranjit product, in the days when the Sardar himself directed pictures, met all the requirements of a happy compromise between quality and quantity. With a thorough reorganization of the present production methods, the Ranjit can once again attain their old positron. We wish they do so as quickly as possible. But in the meanwhile. Sardar Chandulal and Miss Gohar take our salute for their unique achievement in producing a hundred talkies in just 15 years and under a single irademark. 7 STRAND ELECTRIC FOR FILM STUDIO, STA6E OR CINEMA FOOTLIGHTS & FOCUS LANTERNS BATTENS, STAGE FLOODS & SPOTLIGHTS CYCLORAMA LIGHTING & DIMMERS OPTICAL EFFECTS & CONTROLS AUDITORIUM LIGHTING SHIPMENTS IMMEDIATE" We Specialise in Acoustic Treatment and Heat Insulation for Cinemas STRAND ELECTRIC & ENGINEERING Co. Ltd. LONDON Sole Agents i?i India INDO-BRITISH GENERAL EXCHANGE NEW OPERA _ BANGALORE