FilmIndia (Feb-Dec 1949)

SUBSCRIPTION RATES The annual subscription, for 12 Issues of "filmindia", from any month Is : INLAND FOREIGN: Rs. 24/. Shillings 50/ Subscriptlon Is accepted only for a collective period of 12 months and not for a smaller period. Subscription money should be remitted only by Money Order or by Postal Order but not by cheques. V. P. P.s will not be sent. filmindia PROPRI ETO R S FILMINDIA PUBLICATIONS LTD 55, SIR PHIROZESHAH MEHTA ROAD. FORT, BOMBAY Telephone . 26752 Editor: BABURAO PATEL Vol. XV. FEBRUARY 1949 No. 2 ADVERTISEMENT RATES: The advertisement rates are as follows : Full Page Inside Half Page Inside J Page inside J Page mside 2nd & 3rd Cover Rs. 4th Cover Rs. 1st Cover Rs. Per Rs. Rs. Rs. Rs. 400 210 120 ISO 500 600 1,000 The cost of the advertisement should be submitted in advance with the order. The advertisement will be subi>ct to the terms and conditions of our usual contract. To Dztitate J^atdat \/aLLabklfkai J Our two film boys, Badami and Bhavnani, who have ken up the none-too-easy burden of producing newsels and documentaries for the Ministry of Information d Broadcasting are completely lost in the unholy tangle the red-tape in New Delhi. Since August 1948, the month in which both took their duties as active producers of newsreels and )cumentaries, they have been kept busy shooting browndoured correspondence between Bombay and New lelhi praying for one sanction or another from a pin to broomstick. By the time the sanction for the pin hives, the need for it is over and a broomstick is badly re is an unusual snapshot of the world's best mapiker since King Ramchundra of Ayodhya. Worshipped til love and fear, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patcl, strong and ent, is the only practical statesman left in the country now. These boys who have been used to working hard in sun and rain as film directors all their life are now tied to office desks drafting the never-ending letters of request instead of going out and actually producing some useful films. And yet during the last 5 months, in spite of the New Delhi red-tape strangling them every minute, whenever they found the noose sufficiently loose, Badami and Bhavnani have slipped out and produced a few newsreels and documentaries which could not be shown because the "patriotic" exhibitors in the country would not show them by paying a small weekly hire. Bhavnani has done a good job of "Operation Kashmir"', though this documentary is a trifle too long, but by the time this film actually arrived on the screen, due to lack of co-operation from the exhibitors, the operators in Kashmir returned home for a well-earned rest. This film which has bits of political propaganda cannot therefore be shown any longer without prejudicing the inter-dominion talks of settlement over Kashmir. Likewise Badami has made a beautiful newsreel of Sardar Yallabhbhai's visit to Sewagram and quite a few other topical newsreels but all of them are worthless today because these reels could not be exhibited in time and their news value has since evaporated. The Films Division was established in April 1948 with an annual budget grant of Rs. 33 lakhs. Months were wasted in advertising different posts and after engaging Badami and Bhavnani in August the technical staff was actually employed in November. A lot of equipment has either been purchased or ordered and very recently the premises of Ambalal Patel at Walkeshwar have been taken up by the Ministry on a monthly rental of Rs. 7000|-. That works out at Rs. 84,000| per year merely in rental for office premises without a studio, laboratory, editing rooms etc. Calculating a conservative return of 6% per annum on building investment Ambalal's building is now worth 14 lakhs. For half of that amount, the Government of India could have built the most up-to-date studio, laboratorv, editing room and offices all within 6 months and all this property would have belonged to our people, instead of helping Ambalal Patel to turn his extravagance into a profitable investment. After patronizing Ambalal Patel in this manner, the Ministry of Information has once again advertised 3