CinemaScope films in Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
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CinemaScope and 70mm films in India
‘The Robe’ (USA, 1953) was the world’s first motion picture to be filmed in wide-screen 35mm, CinemaScope. Indian cinema got off to a very early start with this new technology, thanks to a collaboration with Mosfilm Studios.
The 1950s
The bilingual Indo-Soviet film ‘Pardesi’ (Hindi-Urdu/ Russian) was released in 1957. The film is called ‘Khozhdenie za tri morya’ in Russian and its subtitled English version is known as ‘Journey Beyond Three Seas.’ India’s first CinemaScope film was in SovColor. However, even though it starred Nargis, the most successful heroine of the time, this film about a mediæval Russian explorer in India did not get a release beyond left-leaning arthouse cinemas. T-Series has released the film on DVD. The wide-screen CinemaScope format is intact but the colours have faded.
Around then Guru Dutt purchased from 20th Century Fox the technology needed to make a CinemaScope film—Gouri, a Bengali film with him in the lead opposite his real-life wife, the singer-actress Geeta Dutt. Some of the film was shot in and around Calcutta and two songs were recorded. However, Guru Dutt decided to stop making Gouri; he launched Kaagaz ke Phool instead.
‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ (Hindi-Urdu, 1959) was India’s second CinemaScope film and was filmed in black and white, in technical collaboration with 20th Century Fox. It had an aspect ratio of 2.35: 1. This film was widely released, mostly got excellent reviews and its soundtrack album was a success (and, like the film itself, a cult classic to this day). However, ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ flopped at the box office, because the subject was considered too heady for the 1950s.
CinemaScope,thus, had a very shaky start in India.
The 1960s
Initially, CinemaScope was an expensive technology. Only such Indian cinema halls as screened English-language films (and, therefore, catered to the Indian elite) had CinemaScope projectors, lenses and widescreens. Therefore, it is a curious fact that India’s third CinemaScope film, ‘Pyar ki Pyas’ (Hindi-Urdu, 1961),which was in Gevacolour, was a low-budget family weepie. This film, too, tanked without the new screen technology getting noticed by the Indian public.
That was when the Moguls of Indian cinema stepped in. Mehboob Khan was a communist (his company’s logo was the hammer-and-sickle) who used to make the biggest budget films of the era. His ‘Aan’ (Hindi-Urdu, 1953), was the first Indian film to be shot in the extremely expensive Technicolor. Khan followed it up with the 172-minute, Technicolor, multi-star blockbuster ‘Mother India’ (Hindi-Urdu,1957). Therefore, it was only logical that his next film, ‘Son of India’ (Hindi-Urdu,1962) would marry the two pricey technologies to become India’s fourth CinemaScope film and the first in Technicolor.
However, ‘Son of India’ was another arthouse film and, uncharacteristically for a Mehboob Khan opus, featured only unknown actors. Once again CinemaScope failed to draw audiences. The Indian film industry gave CinemaScope one last chance. ‘Leader’ (1964) featured the biggest star of the era, was shot in Technicolor and was a mega-budget entertainer. However, the jinx surrounding CinemaScope (renamed Filmalyascope for this film) continued.
If ‘Son of India’ was Mehboob Khan’s first disaster (and the last film that he ever made), ‘Leader’ was the first of a series of flops for the thitherto hyper-successful Dilip Kumar. (Incidentally, the failure of ‘Kaagaz Ke Phool’ had shattered its director Guru Dutt.)
Indian cinema gave up on CinemaScope—for the rest of the decade.
The 1970s: Hindi-Urdu cinema
Then, in 1972, came ‘Pakeezah’(Hindi-Urdu), which was the second biggest grosser of the year and the first CinemaScope film to make money in India. However, its mega success was attributed to other factors and CinemaScope continued to have no takers in Hindi-Urdu cinema.
South Indian (and other Indian) cinema
India’s Tamil and Telugu film industries are, on some counts, as big as the commercially better-known Hindi-Urdu cinema. Like their counterparts in Bombay (now Mumbai) they make big-budget entertainers. Filmmakers in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh were more impressed by the success of ‘Pakeezah’ and it was in South India that CinemaScope struck roots. The historical epic, ‘Rajarajacholan’ (1973) was the first CinemaScope film in Tamil,the freedom struggle blockbuster ‘Alluri Seetharama Raju’ (1974) the first CinemaScope film in Telugu , 'Sonbai ni Chundadi' (1976, dir Girish Manukant) the first in Gujarati, ‘Sose Thanda Soubhagya’ (1977) the first in Kannada , ‘Thacholi Ambu’ (1978) the first in Malayalam and ‘Hisab Nikas’ (1982, d Prashanta Nanda)the first in Odiya.
By the late 1970s the majority of big-budget Tamil and Telugu films, and many in Kannada, were being made in CinemaScope.
Hindi-Urdu cinema, which had started the trend, was slow to catch on this time around.This started changing with the success of ‘Dulhan Wahi Jo Piya Man Bhaaye’ (Hindi-Urdu, 1977) a low budget CinemaScope film that was the 8th biggest hit of the year.
By the mid 1980s all big-budget films in India, and by the early 1990s all Indian films (and most South Asian films) irrespective of language, genre and budget, were being made in CinemaScope.
Vairi-Jatt (1985) is arguably India’s first Punjabi language film in CinemaScope; Jaspal Bhatti’s Mahaul Theek Hai (1999) claims to be the first CinemaScope comedy in Punjabi (India).
The first CinemaScope film to be made in Marathi was Dhadakebaaz by Mahesh Kothare.
Hal Ta Bhaji Haloon was perhaps India’s first colour and CinemaScope Sindhi film.
CinemaScope films in Bangladesh and Pakistan
East Pakistan originated almost all the film-technology firsts of Pakistan (and, therefore, Bangladesh). Not only was East Pakistan more populous than the then undivided nation’s western wing, almost everyone in the East spoke Bengali, giving it a market several times as big.
West Pakistan, on the other hand, had four major languages, with a fifth, Urdu, enjoying importance disproportionate to the number of its speakers. Urdu was the official language, the language that linked the five linguistic groups of undivided Pakistan and the language (wrongly) considered more sophisticated and suitable-for-literature than the other languages of at least West Pakistan.
Zahir Raihan (1935-c.1972) was an unlikely pioneer of Pakistan’s Urdu cinema. Not only was he a Bengali, he graduated with BA (Honours) in Bangla (Bengali) from the University of Dacca (now Dhaka). On the 21st February 1952 he was one of ten students who defied the ban on the now-historic Language Movement—which had since 1948 been demanding that Bangla be made one of the state languages of Pakistan. Many youths were killed on that fateful day. Zahir was sent to jail.
And yet Zahir made Pakistan’s colour film Sangam (April 23, 1964), and also its first (black & white) CinemaScope film Bahana (1965), both in Urdu. (The Indian magnum opus Sangam, in the making since 1962, was released a few weeks after its Pakistani namesake.)
Mala (Bengali/ 1965), also produced in erstwhile East Pakistan (by Dosani and Mustafiz), was the first film made in CinemaScope and colour in undivided Pakistan (and, thus, Bangladesh).
Lakkha (September 22, 1978) was the first CinemaScope film in Pakistan’s most widely spoken language, Punjabi. By then almost all Pakistani films were being shot in colour.
Syed Kamran Haider’s Zero Point (2012) was the first Sairaiki film in CinemaScope and Dolby Stereo.
Yousaf Khan Sher Bano (1970/ 71; writer: Ali Hyder Joshi; director: Aziz Shamim)) was the first Pashto film. Today most Pashto films are released in CinemaScope.
South Asian countries other than India never made 70mm films. Bambino cinema, Karachi, inaugurated by then president Ayub Khan in 1968, was home to the first 70mm projection screen in Pakistan. (India’s first, Shiela in New Delhi, was inaugurated on January 12, 1961.) On September 21 2012, protesters denouncing an anti-Islam film set on fire the Bambino, Capri, Gulistan Talkies, Nigar, Nishaat and Prince cinemas, while in Peshawar, they stormed the Capital, Naz, Shabistan and Shama, cinemas. The Karachi cinemas were destroyed; the ones in Peshawar damaged.
CinemaScope films in Nepal
Paral ko Aago (1978) was arguably the first Nepali CinemaScope film
CinemaScope films in Sri Lanka
Dr. Diego Badaturuge Nihalsinghe brought CinemaScope to Sri Lanka through Ketikathava, a short film. In 1971 he made Welikathara , the country’s first 35mm CinemaScope feature film
70mm
It is frequently, and incorrectly,said that ‘Sholay’ (1975) was the first Indian film to have a stereophonic soundtrack, and to be presented in the 70mm widescreen format. In this connection an inaccurate NDTV documentary is cited.[22] It was the second, on both counts,the first having been 'Around the World' (1967/ Technicolor). However, since actual 70mm cameras were deemed too expensive at the time, both films were instead shot on traditional 35mm film and the 4:3 picture was subsequently blown up, cropped and matted to a 2.20:1 frame.
Sholay' was the biggest grosser of the era and, by to some calculations,the most successful Indian film ever. Its success made producers with somewhat smaller budgets think of the vastly less expensive CinemaScope instead.
In the case of both 'Around the World' and 'Sholay' exactly four 70mm prints were released in the first instance: two were allotted to the Bombay-Maharashtra territory, and one each to Delhi and U.P. And yet both films were screened in 70mm. at two cinema halls in Delhi ('ATW' at Odeon and Liberty and 'Sholay' at Plaza and Liberty). This was achieved by shuttling the 70mm. print allotted to Delhi between the two halls. Over the decades 'Sholay' has acquired such a dedicated fan following that fans insist that it was India's first film in 70mm and six-track stereophonic sound, even though the film's makers have never made any such claim. All surviving prints (and DVD released by Shemaroo) of 'ATW,' on the other hand, do.
Some Indian films in 70mm
‘Around the world’
(Hindi-Urdu)
1967
"Sholay"
(Hindi-Urdu)
1975
"Padayottam"
(Malayalam)
1980 Shaan (Hindi-Urdu)
1982
"Badle Ki Aag"
(Hindi-Urdu)
"Mahaan"
(Hindi-Urdu)
"Karma"
(Hindi-Urdu)
"Thandara Pappa Rayudu"
(Telugu)
"Samraat"
(Telugu)
"Dayavan"
(Hindi-Urdu)
"Saravegada Sardara"
(Kannada)
"Saagar"
(Hindi-Urdu)
"Maa Veeran"
(Tamil)
"Simhasanam"
(Telugu)
"Razia Sultana"
(Hindi-Urdu)
“The Burning Train”
(Hindi-Urdu)
(1980)
Ram Gopal Varma's "Raat"
(Hindi-Urdu)
‘Swapna Sagar’
(Odiya)
(1983)
3D
The first 3D film produced in India, My Dear Kuttichathan (1984), was made in Malayalam. Following its phenomenal commercial success it was dubbed into Hindi and released the same year as Chhota Chetan. Shiva ka Insaaf (1985) was the first 3D film made-in-Hindi. The 3D trend petered out after that, only to be revived, and brought right into the mainstream, by the success of the Hollywood blockbuster Avatar (2009).
