Chapter 2 Bombay Talkies Ltd. and Indo-German Collaboration 2.1
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Chapter 2 Bombay Talkies Ltd. and Indo-German collaboration 2.1. From the early attempts at production to Bombay Talkies Apart from Himansu Rai, Devika Rani, Niranjan Pal, Franz Osten and other German and Indian technicians there were some other people who were important for the formation of Bombay Talkies Ltd. This well equipped studio was formed in 1934 as a joint stock company having F.E. Dinshaw, Sir Chimanlal Setalvad, Sir Chunilal Mehta, Sir Pheroze Sethna and Sir Cowasji Jehangir as some of its partners. Rai Saheb Chunilal joined hands with Himansu Rai once again for Bombay Talkies after founding Himansu Rai Indo-International Talkies, Ltd., in 1931. Rai Saheb Chunilal was quite an influential man having worked as Financial Assistant and Accounts Officer to the Inspector General of Police and Assistant Commandant of Police. He was also the secretary, vice-president and later President of Indian Association in Iraq. He operated as the Vice-President of the Motion Picture Society of India from 1934 to 1936. He chiefly operated as the General Manager and Controller of Distribution Department for Bombay Talkies Ltd. (ICYB 1938 40). The Bombay Talkies studio was supposed to be built in Chembur as Rai wished for but F.E. Dinshaw’s idle lying bunglow at Malad was offered as a space by Mr. Dinshaw, one of the Board members of the studio, himself. Bombay Talkies was started “…as a joint stock company with an authorized capital of Rupees 2.5 million. On its board were the city’s distinguished industrialists, lawyers etc. One of its directors, Sir Richard Temple was, however, the main drive behind the newly formed company” (Gangar 3). Niranjan Pal in his autobiography Such is Life considers Sir Richard Temple’s contribution to the formation of Bombay Talkies Ltd. very important. Pal writes: Himansu is recognised as the founder of Bombay Talkies though the credit is really due to Sir Richard Temple…He had joined Himansu’s Indo International Talkies capital. He lived in a suit provided for him by Himansu at the studio and was always at hand whenever any trouble brewed. It was his considerable presence that guided the company through the teething years. He was amply supported by Sir Chimanlal Setalvad, who harboured a soft corner for Himansu, the latter having once given him up his lower berth in a First Class coupe while travelling from Lahore to Bombay…(236). 58 Considered to be one of the best studios in the early talkie era of Indian cinema the story of collaboration of the important participants in formation of Bomabay Talkies studio goes back in 1920s. Himansu Rai and Niranjan Pal met in London. Niranjan Pal, accompanied his father Bipin Chandra Pal, to London where he was supposed to study medicine. But Niranjan Pal’s nationalistic ideas got better off him as he made friends with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, an extremist for Britishers. It was Savarkar who introduced Pal to the world of theatre in London at West End stage. Joyojit Pal in his article “Niranjan Pal and Orientalism in Early Indian Cinema” states “…Pal and other Indian youngsters would frequently go to the theatre and start to think about how theatre represented the ‘natives’” (5). Pal had a flair for writing and some of his plays were performed in London. Pal’s play The Goddess (1922) was to be performed in London with all Indian caste and at this juncture he met Himansu Rai. Himansu Rai had finished his studies in law from Middle Temple and wanted to pursue his interest in theatre. Rai, being a part of The Indian Players, a troop of young Indian actors, ended up collaborating with Pal. The play was a success. Himansu Rai and Niranjan Pal’s collaboration continued when they started working on the idea of making films. Kusum Pant Joshi and Lalit Mohan Joshi in their co-written article “Cultural Nationalsim in the Age of Empire: The Light of Asia (1925)” state “For Pal, writing for the silver screen was primarily a reaction against ‘Orientalism’ or the highly exaggerated or negative, degrading and humiliating manner in which non-western cultures were generally portrayed in the west” (36). Niranjan Pal had already been working on a script based on the life of Gautam Buddha. His script was based on Sir Edwin Arnold’s narrative poem The Light of Asia (1897) that explores the life of Gautam Buddha. Niranjan Pal ended up writing the script as a reaction to Frank Wilson’s film Indian Woman’s Pluck. Pal’s disagreement with the director through a conversation “…ended with him being told to write his own scripts if he felt westerners were unable to accurately depict India” (Joshi and Joshi 7). Pal’s search of producers who would make a film out of his script continued till Charles Urban the producer from Natural Colour Kinematograph Company agreed to use Pal’s script. But the the film did not materialise as Natural Colour Kinematograph went out of business (Joshi and Joshi 150). However later around 1923 Himansu Rai’s trip to India to see the possibilities of staging The Goddess was fruitful. Nirnajan Pal recalls: 59 The idea of staging The Goddess in India had not found any financial backers and Himansu turned his attention to films. He cleverly utilised the publicity I had received in the Statesman… Himansu had met Sir Moti Sagar, an eminent ex-judge of the Lahore High Court, and got him to agree to finance Light of Asia. Himansu was carrying on him a Letter of Credit on Lloyds Bank for 50,000 rupees and all that was needed to produce this film was to get Emelka’s technical backing. (Joshi and Joshi 201) Rai and Pal left for Munich where they struck the deal with Emelka, the German company. The Indo-German collaboration was confirmed as Emelka agreed to send a technical crew and equipments to shoot the film. Peter Ostermayr who was at the helm of Emelka gave the responsibility of direction to his younger brother Franz Osermayr known as Franz Osten. Franz Osten was accompanied by two cameramen Josef Wirsching and Josef Kiermeier along with an interpreter Bertl Schultes. Bertl Schultes in his memoir A Comedian Looks Back describes his experience in following way: On the 18th March (1925) towards noon, we disembarked in Bombay. Passport and customs formalities were quickly concluded. Then we went by car to our first Indian hotel, the ‘Taj Mahal’. Our task was the production of the great international film ‘The Light of Asia’. It portrays the life and the struggle of Gautama Buddha. Himansu Rai played the title role. Whilst still aboard ship I had already studied the script intensively and knew the whole plot almost by heart. It was a splendid task for us four ‘Munichwallahs’. (qtd. in Koch 31) After the German technicians arrived in India Himansu Rai started hunting for the actors to play the characters. While Sharada Ukil was selected for the role of Gautam Buddha’s father, Rai could not find anybody to play the character of Gopa, Gautama’s wife. Even after advertising in the Calcutta newspapers nobody turned up. Pal recalls “We did not realise that in those days, no respectable woman would dare be seen inside a film studio, much less appear on the screen. Osten kept insisting we fall back on German girl” (Joshi and Joshi 206-07). Nevertheless Rai, Pal and Osten selected Renee Smith, an Anglo-Indian girl, who had approached them after reading the 60 advertisement in newspaper. Renee Smith later came to be known as Seeta Devi, her screen name, and worked with Madan Theatres. Himansu played the character of Buddha. The actual shoot of the film was made easy by Sri Alexander Muddiman’s recommendation, who was a Home minister in Lord Reading’s Government (Jsohi and Joshi 208). Maharaja of Jaipur supported with access to his property and whatever he could avail them. Gehrard Koch, in his book Franz Osten’s Indian Silent Film published in (1983), translates and quotes Osten’s report on his experience of working on Light of Asia. Osten’s report appears in the German film journal Lichtbild-Bühne No. 129 published in 1925. Osten states: One of the richest Maharajas showed a great interest in our work. He offered us all possible help and support, and for some of the crowd scenes he offered not only his people dressed in precious old costumes, but also about 30 elephants. These animals, which are sacred to the Indians, wore trappings made of gold and precious stones. Each such dress of the elephants was worth 450,000 Goldmarks. (qtd. in Koch 30) The process of shooting and developing the film was not easy. Osten recalls that they had to shoot in 40 to 50 degree centigrades in the mid of the month of June. The crew suffered from heat strokes. They had to use police force for the crowd control. Osten also mentions that the entire film was shot without studio with natural light. Some of the scenes were shot in naturally well-lit interiors and none of the actors used make- up. One of the most tedious tasks for Osten was the developing of negatives. Osten mentions “Because of a lack of pure well-water, the water had to be filtered. But despite filtering the water five times through cotton wad filters, the water remained cloudy and caused bubbles on the film” (30). The shooting of the film was completed within a month. The film was screened in Germany first and in Britain later.