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Published: 07 October 2025

Last Updated: 07 October 2025

Yesterday I was discussing some topics of mutual interest with Sanjeev Tanwar, He mentioned this point. 

Film censorship in British India existed before the censor certification boards were installed. This earlier censorship was done by local police departments, impossible to find their records. Interestingly, the whole films were banned. They were mostly worried about the damage done to image of British and American woman through foreign films! Of course, in the early days foreign films shown in India were much more in number than the Indian films, because the Indian industry was just starting out.

Here is the first page of the Evans report from 1921.

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Published: 06 October 2025

Last Updated: 06 October 2025

This silent film ran for 24 weeks continuously in Calcutta. Then it was released in the West-End cinema in Bombay on November 9, 1929. I am not sure how long it ran there.

The image is from the book

Silent Cinema In India 1913 – 1934, When Silence Spoke In Celluloid

by Sanjeev Tanwar.

https://hindi-movies-songs.com/joomla/index.php/hindi-films/books/2308-musing-957-encyclopedia-of-silent-cinema

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Published: 05 October 2025

Last Updated: 06 January 2026

In the last musing I shared a photo given to me by Ajit Sidhu about the Silver Jubilee of the film Amrit Mantan (1934). I added the statement that it was the first Silver Jubilee talkie because I remembered reading it somewhere. Then Hrishikeh Arvikar commented that it was really Shyam Sunder (1932) starring Shahu Moduk, That film ran in Pune for 25 weeks in one theater.

Then Ajit Sidhu looked at her data from 1932 and found that the Hindi version of this film actually ran for 21 weeks from August 13 to December 31, 1932 at Westend Talkies. Unfortunately we do not have the Bombay Chronicle newspaper for the first three months of 1933. In April it was running in a different theater. It is quite possible that this movie ran in Bombay also for 25 weeks, therefore making it the first Hindi talkie to have Silver Jubilee. We are making efforts to get the first three months of Bombay Chronicle 1933.

Thank you Hrishikesh Arvikar! 

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