New Theatres is an Indian film studio. It was formed in Calcutta by Birendranath Sirkar popularly known as B.N Sirkar on 10 February, 1931. Its motto was Jivatang Jyotiretu Chhayam—meaning ‘light infusing shadows with life’. He built a processing laboratory and acquired staff. New Theatres was the cradle of Bengali and Hindi cinema. Before Bombay, Calcutta was the centre of Hindi film industry. New Theatres was the birth place of many future stars like K.L. Saigal, Prithviraj Kapoor, directors like Pramathes Barua (P.C. Barua), Bimal Roy. New Theatres was the symbol of artistic good sense and technical excellence of Indian cinema.
New Theatre’s first talkie was ‘Dena Paona’ directed by Premankur Atarthiz, music by Raichand Boral (R.C. Boral). In 1932 ‘Chandidas’, starring Kundan Lal Saigal (K.L. Saigal), made a great reputation. After seeing this film, Lata Mangeshkar along with her father said to her father—“I will marry K.L. Saigal.” Her father replied—“By the time you are of marriageable age, Saigal Saheb would have been old.” Chandidas was a popular film at that time.
In 1935, ‘Devdas’ was released starring K.L. Saigal, Yamuna and others. It was based on Sarat Chandra Chatterjee’s immortal classic Devdas novel. Sarat Da was himself present in the shooting of the film Devdas to know whether justice was given to his story. The film was directed by Pramathesh Chandra Barua. He could justify the novel of Sarat Da.
New Theatres went on to become a leading film studio in India. One significant thing is that New Theatres made K.L. Saigal a great singer and great actor. Kanan Devi was the first popular actress of New Theatres. New Theatres made many persons great—Pahari Sanyal, Prithviraj Kapoor, Chhabi Biswas, Debaki Bose, Nitin Bose, Pankaj Mallick, R.C. Boral and others. New Theatres did a yeoman service for the film industry in India.
New Theatres produced films at Tollygunge in Calcutta. From 1935 to 1955, 150 films were shot in these studios. New Theatres came back in 2011 with the film—‘Aamir Prem’. Some films of the past of New Theatres are as below:
• Dene Paona (1931)
• Natir Puja (1932)
• Chandidas (1932)
• Subah ka Sitara (1932)
• Puran Bhagwat (1933)
• Mirabai (1933)
• Devdas (1935)
• Maya (1936)
• Desher Mati (1938)
• Street Singer (1938)
• Biraj Bahu (1946)
The contribution of New Theatres is commendable. Without New Theatres, Hindi films industry would not have been what it is today.
(The views expressed are the writer’s own.)
Radhakanta Seth is a Former Income tax officer in Sambalpur. He is a Freelance writer and his articles have been published in some Oriya dailies like Sambad, Samaj, Dharitri and English dailies like The Telegraph and in a sociological journal ‘Folklore’ published from Kolkata.
(Photo has collected from net )