Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

The coming of cinema, 1921–1931

How moving pictures reached the Telugu country in the silent years: the first film made at Madras in 1921, the first cinema halls, the touring cinemas of the Madras districts, what the Indian Cinematograph Committee of 1927–28 found in the Madras Presidency, and the arrival of the talking picture in 1931.

Moving pictures reached the Telugu country in the 1920s. Most films came from Bombay, and touring cinemas carried their projectors from place to place.12 Only a handful of films were made at Madras in these silent years.34 This page tells how the cinema arrived, from the first Madras film of 1921 to the first talking picture in 1931. The Telugu films that followed are on The first Telugu talkies.

About the sources. The main source is the report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee of 1927–28, which the Government of India set up to study the film trade.56 Its volume of Madras evidence is not in our library, so this page uses the report itself. The other sources are a history of the Indian film by Panna Shah (1950) and a film almanac of 1953.15

Films from Bombay

Panna Shah writes that until 1921 South India got plenty of films about the gods from Bombay. So it did not yet make films of its own.1 The committee found the same pattern in 1927. Bombay films were shown at Madras and in many other cities.7

Some films travelled better than others, the committee noted. A film of Bengali life was little liked by the uneducated people of Madras.7 But in the south the Marathi way of life, which the Bombay films showed, did draw audiences.7 Stories of the gods and tales like the Arabian Nights had the widest appeal.7

The first films made at Madras

The almanac of 1953 dates the first film made at Madras to 1921. It says “Messrs. Venkiah and his son Prakash” produced Bhishma Pratigya that year.5 Panna Shah gives the maker as the Star of the East Film Company, founded in 1921. She says its first film, Bhishma Pratigna, was fairly popular.1 K. N. T. Sastry also writes that Raghupati Venkayya offered his first silent feature film in 1921.8

The venture did not last. By 1927 there was no film-making at Madras, though a few films had been made there before.39 The committee’s list of producers says that “Messrs. Venkiah Brothers, Mount Road, Madras” and T. H. Huffton were “not producing now”.10 It named the Venkiah company among the film firms that had failed.11 In every such case, the committee said, the failure did not come from losses on the films. It came from bad management, quarrels between partners or other causes.11

The censors’ figures show how small Madras production was. Between 1921–22 and 1927–28 the Madras board passed 19 Indian feature films. The Bombay board passed 461 and the Bengal board 83.4 The committee said that in Madras the industry was “distinctly languishing”.4

The first cinema halls

Krishnabai and Prasad, the editors of Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao’s cinema essays, name Maruti Talkies as the first cinema hall in the Telugu country. They say it opened on 23 October 1921.12 Ten years later, they add, the first Telugu talkie came out.12

By 1927 the Madras Presidency had 43 permanent cinemas. Only Bombay, with 77, and Burma, with 58, had more.13 Nine of the Madras cinemas stood in the city of Madras and 34 in the towns of the districts.14 Together they had about 42,835 seats.14

Across India the committee found that most cinemas were cheap, plain buildings. An average hall held about 800 people.13 Tickets usually cost from 3 annas up to 2 or 3 rupees, with extra for boxes.13 The committee gave two reasons why India had so few cinemas. Most people were poor and lived in villages, and “the cinema-habit” had not yet spread.13

Running a cinema in a small town was hard. In the larger towns, and where there were many students or factory workers, a cinema usually paid its way.15 But many owners in the mofussil (the country towns) had “a hard fight for existence”.15 Poor people could not pay for a ticket. Many owners also had to rent their halls at a heavy cost.15

Touring cinemas

A touring cinema carried its projector and films from place to place. The committee counted 26 touring cinemas in the Madras Presidency.2 The Madras figure came from the Electrical Inspector. The committee thought the all-India total of touring cinemas was probably too high.2

A touring cinema needed a licence at each place where it gave a show. The number of such licences in Madras rose year by year:2

  • 13 in 1921
  • 31 in 1925
  • 63 in 19272

The committee called the touring cinema “a poor and struggling concern”. The main reason was the poverty of the people, and the licence fees were a heavy burden too.16 It expected these cinemas to grow as the habit of going to the cinema spread.16

Signs of change

The committee heard 353 witnesses across India, and 53 of them at Madras.6 It warned that the early craze for Indian films was fading. Some cinemas in Madras had gone back from Indian to Western films.1718

Film traders were already trying the local languages. In December 1927 Mr. Row, who worked at Calcutta for the American firm Universal Pictures, gave evidence to the committee.19 He said his firm was starting to put titles in the local languages on a few films. In Madras it was trying titles in Tamil and Telugu.19

The talkie arrives

Sound changed everything. T. S. Mahadeo, who ran the projector for the first touring talkie party, remembered its arrival at Madras Central station early in 1931.20 His party showed Alam Ara, the first Indian talkie, for the Select Pictures Circuit of Bangalore.20 It carried just three pieces of luggage: the projector, the amplifier and the loudspeaker.20 The party went to the big cities of Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Malabar, Karnataka and Ceylon, and was welcomed everywhere.20

At Nellore, Mahadeo writes, a relative of the owner of the Vinayak Cinema asked him how the sound was made.20 Then the man asked why the talkie spoke and sang only in Hindustani. Could it not be made “to talk in Telugu”?21 Mahadeo’s party later toured Andhra and Tamil Nadu again with a Telugu talkie. By then, he says, all the big cities had cinemas wired for sound.21

Panna Shah explains why the talkie mattered so much in the south. In the silent days South India had made almost no films, though it was a rich market for films from elsewhere.22 With sound came the need for films in the South Indian languages, so production began in Tamil and Telugu.22 The silent film soon died out. Of the 240 Indian films of 1935, only seven were silent, and after that none were made.23

Where the sources disagree

Who made the first Madras film. The almanac of 1953 names “Venkiah and his son Prakash”.5 The committee’s list of 1928 names the firm “Venkiah Brothers”.10 Panna Shah gives the maker as the Star of the East Film Company.1

Footnotes

  1. Panna Shah, The Indian Film (Bombay: Motion Picture Society of India, 1950), p. 25 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee (1928), p. 182, Tables 6 and 7 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  3. Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee (1928), p. 31 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  4. Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee (1928), p. 59, table of Indian feature films examined by province (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  5. I. K. Menon and S. G. Chandavarkar (compilers), Indian Motion Picture Almanac and Who’s Who, 1953 (Bombay: Film Federation of India, 1953), p. xix, “Important events in the history of Indian motion picture industry” (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  6. Indian Cinematograph Committee, Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee, 1927–1928 (Calcutta: Government of India Central Publication Branch, 1928), p. 14 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  7. Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee (1928), p. 40 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  8. K. N. T. Sastry, Chittoor V. Nagaiah: A Monograph (New Delhi: Publications Division, 2000), p. 2 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  9. Panna Shah, The Indian Film (1950), p. 36 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

  10. Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee (1928), p. 198, Table 22 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  11. Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee (1928), p. 37 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  12. Krishnabai and Prasad, editors’ introduction to Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao, Cinema Vyasalu, Vol. 1 (Viplava Rachayitala Sangham, 2000), p. v (in Telugu) (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  13. Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee (1928), p. 19 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  14. Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee (1928), p. 180, Tables 2 and 3 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  15. Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee (1928), p. 45 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  16. Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee (1928), p. 46 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  17. Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee (1928), p. 47 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  18. Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee (1928), p. 60 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  19. Indian Cinematograph Committee, 1927–28: Evidence, Vol. II (Calcutta, 1928), p. 717, oral evidence of Mr. Row, sub-agent at Calcutta for Universal Pictures, 16 December 1927 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  20. T. S. Mahadeo, “Triumphal Tour of First Talkie Party”, in Indian Talkie, 1931–56: Silver Jubilee Souvenir (Bombay: Film Federation of India, 1956), p. 147 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Signed article, cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  21. Mahadeo, “Triumphal Tour of First Talkie Party” (1956), p. 148 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  22. Panna Shah, The Indian Film (1950), p. 49 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩2

  23. Panna Shah, The Indian Film (1950), p. 51 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩

References

Sources (7)
  1. Indian Cinematograph Committee (T. Rangachariar, chairman), Report of the Indian Cinematograph Committee, 1927-1928 (opens in a new tab), Government of India Central Publication Branch, Calcutta, 1928, pp. 14, 19, 31, 37, 40, 45, 46, 47, 59, 60, 180, 182, 198. [Public domain]
  2. Indian Cinematograph Committee, Indian Cinematograph Committee, 1927-28, Evidence, Vol. II (oral evidence and written statements) (opens in a new tab), Government of India Central Publication Branch, Calcutta, 1928, pp. 717. [Public domain]
  3. I. K. Menon and S. G. Chandavarkar (compilers), Indian Motion Picture Almanac and Who's Who, 1953 (opens in a new tab), Film Federation of India, Bombay, 1953, xix. [Public domain in India (directory and unsigned matter); signed articles cite only]
  4. Panna Shah, The Indian Film (opens in a new tab), Motion Picture Society of India, Bombay, 1950, pp. 25, 36, 49, 51. Cite-only; paraphrased. [Cite only]
  5. K. N. T. Sastry, Chittoor V. Nagaiah: A Monograph (opens in a new tab), Publications Division, Government of India, New Delhi (for the National Film Archive of India), 2000, pp. 2. Cite-only; paraphrased. [Cite only]
  6. Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao; Krishnabai and Prasad (eds.), Cinema Vyasalu, Vol. 1 (Vyasa Prapancham 4) (in Telugu) (opens in a new tab), Viplava Rachayitala Sangham, Andhra Pradesh, 2000, v. Cite-only; paraphrased. [Cite only]
  7. Film Federation of India, Indian Talkie, 1931-56: Silver Jubilee Souvenir (opens in a new tab), Film Federation of India, Bombay, 1956, pp. 147–148. T. S. Mahadeo's signed article is cite-only; paraphrased. [Public domain in India (photographs and unsigned matter); signed articles cite only]

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