The East India Film Company was an

Indian film The Cinema of India consists of motion pictures produced in India, which had a large effect on world cinema since the late 20th century. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Ko ...

production company A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and ...

, based in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

. It was the first Indian film company to screen a movie at an international

film festival A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upon ...

. Started in 1932 in Calcutta, by R. L. Khemka, it went on to be a pioneer in producing films across the several regional film industries, including

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

, and

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

, in the decade after its founding; till then, production companies were restricted regionally.

History

The company was formed in 1932 by R. L. Khemka, a local Marwari businessman in

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

, after acquiring the

RCA Photophone RCA Photophone was the trade name given to one of four major competing technologies that emerged in the American film industry in the late 1920s for synchronizing electrically recorded audio to a motion picture image. RCA Photophone was an opt ...

studio, its location recording equipment, and its

Mitchell Camera Mitchell Camera Corporation was a motion picture camera manufacturing company established in Los Angeles in 1919. It was a primary supplier of newsreel and movie cameras for decades, until its closure in 1979. History The Mitchell Camera Corpor ...

s. In 1933, East India Film Company's first Bengali film production, ''Jamuna Puline'', was released, with Priyanath Ganguli as the director after he left the

Madan Theatre Madan Theatre Company, also known as Madan Theatres Limited or Madan Theatres in short, was a film production company founded by Jamshedji Framji Madan, one of the pioneers of Indian Cinema. History Madan, a young Parsi businessman, who had expe ...

. Riding on its success, the company became the first

i studio to venture into not just

Hindi films Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood, is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (fo ...

, but also various films in South Indian languages. East India Film Company was soon producing a dozen movie releases per year, including several hits like ''Savithri'' (Telugu) and ''Ramayan'' (Tamil). The East India Film Company's '' Seeta'', made by

Debaki Bose Debaki Bose (1898–1971), also known as Debaki Kumar Bose, was an Indian director, writer, and actor who is recognized for his contribution in Hindi as well as Bengali cinema. He was born on 25 November 1898 in Akalposh, (now East Burdwan), Bu ...

, was the first

talkie A sound film is a motion picture A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, percep ...

shown in an international film festival when it was shown in 1934 at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

, where it won an honorary diploma. Subsequently, Bose also made his noted film, ''Sonar Sansar'' (Hindi: Sunhera Sansar) in 1936 under the East India Film Company banner. Shot in

on a lavish budget of Rs.75,000, East India Film Company's '' Sati Savithri'' in

was a huge hit. Based on a popular stage play by Mylavaram Bala Bharathi Samajam, the film was directed by debutant

C. Pullaiah Chittajallu Pullayya (Telugu language, Telugu: చిత్తజల్లు పుల్లయ్య; 1898 – 6 October 1967) was an Indian film director and screenwriter. He is one of the earliest film personalities in Telugu cinema being ...

and starred stage stalwarts

Vemuri Gaggaiah Vemuri Gaggayya (1895–1955) was an Indian actor, singer, and thespian known for his works in Telugu cinema, and Telugu theatre. In 1933, East India Film Company produced its first Indian film, '' Savitri'' in Telugu. Shot in Calcutta on a bu ...

and

Dasari Ramathilakam Dasari may refer to: * Dasari (caste), in Telangana region in Andhra Pradesh, India * Dasari Narayana Rao (1942–2017), Indian film director * DVV Danayya (born 1961), Indian film producer * Dasari Gopi Krishna, better known as V. Gopi Krishna, ...

as Yama and Savithri, respectively. Like ''Seeta'', this film was also shown in

, where it too won an honorary diploma.

Filmography

* ''Vara Vikrayam'' (1939) * ''Anasuya'' (1936) * ''Leyli o Majnun'' (1936) *''

Sunehra Sansar ''Sunehra Sansar'' is a 1975 Bollywood film directed by Adurthi Subba Rao. It stars Rajendra Kumar, with Mala Sinha as his wife, and Hema Malini as his past love, who has re-entered his life to seek vengeance for abandoning her years ago. T ...

'' (1936) *''

Baghi Sipahi Baghi Sipahi (Hindi: बागी सिपाही, Urdu: باغی سپاہی, meaning ''Rebel Soldier'') may refer to the following films: * ''Baghi Sipahi'', a 1936 Indian Hindi/Urdu film * ''Baghi Sipahi'', a 1958 Indian film * ''Baghi Si ...

'' (1936) *''Murderer'' (1935) *'' Selima'' (1935) *'' Step Mother'' (1935) *'' Chandragupta'' (1934) *'' Kismet Ki Kasauti'' (1934) *'' Night Bird'' (1934) *'' Seeta'' (1934) *'' Sultana'' (1934) *'' Aurat Ka Pyar'' (1933) *''

King for a Day King for a Day may refer to: Film and television * ''King for a Day'' (1940 film), a 1940 cartoon short in Max Fleischer's ''Gabby'' series * ''King for a Day'' (1934 film), a 1934 short film starring legendary tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinso ...

'' (1933) *'' Nala Damyanti'' (1933) *''Radha Krishna'' (1933) *'' Savithri'' (1933) *''Jamuna Puline'' (1933)

References

{{Authority control Film production companies based in Kolkata Mass media companies established in 1932 Cinema of Bengal Telugu cinema Indian companies established in 1932