Testing Times of Silent Movies

In the past, entrepreneurs were reckoned by their integrity and virtue. Even though Srinivasa Rao was in the Defence and away from home for many years, it was the social standing and selfless deeds of his younger brother Ganapathi Rao, at home, that paved the way for the unprecedented support they received from the local bigwigs. The respect with which the younger brother was revered by all cross sections of society complemented the original ideas of Srinivasa Rao that made him a legend. It is not the culture of the political clout that we have been witnessing in the post-independence era, but it was the sheer virtue of these two brothers that sponsored the enterprise. There were no bank evaluations or project reports involved to assess whether such a new business would prosper, nor were there securities such as gold or land property that could be offered by the brothers as security. With the said unprecedented support, the elder brother fought his battle with true grit, unwilling to accept any failure.

With the projectors purchased along with the film rolls from the German, Rao moved around to different villages and promoted his silent movies, but the success, enthusiasm and excitement did not last long. Moving pictures on a screen was no doubt an innovative medium but it was no match for the flashy and clamorous stage shows that passed as entertainment. There was only an initial draw only out of curiosity, but eventually, the visitors got bored watching silent movies. Rao travelled to Calcutta and Bombay for months together to hire new movies, so that they could draw the interest of the audience. He purchased foreign film magazines to update himself about the new movies and innovations.

Maruthi Cinema was also called Mylavaram Hall because it was run in the Mylavaram Raja’s choultry. Rao realised that in order to attract more audiences, there was a need for a larger auditorium. So, he leased an open plot of land measuring about 900 square yards that belonged to a Muslim family on Covent Street and constructed a permanent theatre, hoping that he could attract audiences in large scale. There were no guidelines or statutory norms for the establishment of a cinema theatre in those times. The cinema hall now had a larger screen, protected by a curtain, a projection room, rest rooms and all the facilities that are required for the audience to feel comfortable. Once again, the excitement was only for a very brief period, for the audience was still seeing only moving pictures, even if it was now in a larger space. To promote the movies, an incentive of soda and sweet paan was offered along with the entrance ticket as an allurement, which again did not attract audiences for long. Rao did not give up, he conceived innovative methods of publicity. There was no power in those days, hence the projectors were run on oil. The management employed an engine-driver, orator and the operator who rewound the films; the tasks of projection and ticket sale was mostly managed by Rao only, for there was no scope of hiring more hands.

There was no concept of publicity in those days other than distributing pamphlets. To attract a larger audience from all corners of the town and even from nearby villages, colourful banners erected on bullock carts, with the local street players in striking make-up as tigers and lions dancing all the way making a commotion, gave them a publicity edge. The announcer describing the highlights of the movie on a loudspeaker brought more interest, but it also did not improve the business. But in one mythological movie Draupadi Vastrapaharanam, Bheema’s moustache peeled off due to some negligence in the pasting and was almost half fallen, which warranted bad publicity. The public were disappointed and pooh-poohed that the movie was not worthy to witness. Rao immediately edited the film with his own expertise, removing the frames where Bheema’s moustache was falling off and announced by pamphlets and the bullock cart dancing team that “A brand new print was brought from Madras where Bheema’s moustache is intact. See today Draupadi Vastrapaharanam”. The people believed the publicity blindly without even reasoning, for in those days, there was no such knowledge among the general public about movie making.

Then another innovative turn took place that resulted in an increase in footfalls. Rao hired dancers from Bombay who actually were part of the movie and they danced on stage during the interval with musicians, which gave the audience a better reason to come to the theatre. Rao observed that the dancers from Bombay attracted more attention than the movie and the trick was sound and music. Being a scriptwriter of stage plays himself, Rao scripted the story on paper and hired stage actors, including Sivarao who later became a famous comedian in movies. Sivarao had extraordinary oratory skills with wit as a flavour, keeping the audience alive with humour. Sometimes, short plays of fifteen minutes in the form of skits were also introduced to divert the audience from boredom. This razzmatazz gave a peep into the future — a future where sound could be added to the medium. Then, there would be no stopping of cinema on the world stage, but by that time, many silent movie theatres were shut down throughout the country, unable to bleed further due to unending losses.

The collection of two shows per day was hardly four rupees and ten annas (one anna was six paise) at the most. In those days, there was no weekly holiday on Sunday, it was on the day of the new moon i.e., on amavasya that shops and establishments were closed. So Rao released a new silent voice on the day of a full moon to attract more audiences. Srinivasa Rao believed that one day it would become a great entertainment and endured the pain of losses. Rao’s tenacity to adhere to the film exhibition opened the ultimate door to a successful phase in his life with the advent of ‘talkies’, where the soundtrack was added at last to the celluloid.

Until 1928, the world only witnessed ‘Silent’ Cinema, which later went on to be called ‘Movies’. The Jazz Singer, an American musical film released in 1927, was the first talking movie with dialogues and music. It marked the beginning of the ‘Talkies’, putting an end to the silent-film era. It was the greatest invention of this time.

Only four years later, on 14th March 1931, Alam Ara, India’s first talkie film was released. The film was shot at a studio which happened to be beside a railway track, hence the movie was shot only at night to avoid the sound of running trains (despite which there were some noise intrusions). Rao travelled to Bombay and pursued the filmmakers of Alam Ara for a simultaneous release at Maruthi Cinema and proudly released it on 14th March 1931, which performed well at the box office. There was a sigh of relief as the characters now seemed to talk and also sing with the music. Audiences applauded the performance and the songs, even though there were some disturbances in the sound recording. In addition to the success, the film was also widely considered a major breakthrough for the Indian film industry. A few months later, the first South Indian talkie in Tamil and Telugu, Kalidas, was released on 31st October 1931.