The Legend of Maruti Cinema 1921

During my childhood, the only knowledge I had about my joint family was that that we owned two cinema theatres named Maruthi Cinema and Srinivas Mahal, built by my elder grandfather Srinivasa Rao, and that his younger brother, Ganapathi Rao, was the second Chairman of the Vijayawada Municipality after the formation of Andhra Pradesh on October 1, 1953. I also knew that we were among the ten prominent families in Vijayawada, for people of all sections of society visited our house throughout the day to meet our family members. Apart from the above meagre information, I had no clue of the struggle that made my grandfathers’ great personalities. It was only later that I came to know of their importance and I investigated the past from time to time and preserved the information along with some excerpts from various magazines.

This year marks the centenary of two great historical moments that make Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh stand tall — one was at the AICC session held for two days on 31st March and 1st of April in 1921 at Vijayawada (then known as Bezwada) where Gandhiji commissioned Pingali Venkayya, a young freedom fighter, to design an exclusive flag to mark the freedom struggle.

Earlier, Gandhiji wrote in his journal ‘Young India’ about the need for an Indian flag to mark the momentum of the independence struggle, proposing a flag with the charkha (the spinning wheel) at the centre. This flag eventually came to be known as the ‘Swaraj Flag’. Two years later, on 13th April 1923, the Congress volunteers in Nagpur commemorated the Jallianwala Bagh massacre and hoisted the Swaraj flag designed by Pingali Venkayya. This event resulted in a confrontation between the Congressmen and the police, following which a few people were imprisoned including Ganapathi Rao. This year marks the 100th year of the birth of the Swaraj flag and also the birth of the world of cinema in erstwhile Andhra Pradesh. It was on 23rd October 1921 that Pothina Srinivasa Rao established the first cinema exhibition house, Maruthi Cinema, at Bezwada. Let me narrate the saga of a true legend.

To begin with, the town’s national importance shot up overnight when the British built the iconic Bezwada Railway Station, in 1888, at the edge of the mile-long railway bridge across River Krishna, which flows on the southern banks of the town. The Bezwada Railway Station was built with six platforms that were the longest in the country, in those days, and became a strategic railway junction connecting Northern and Southern states of India, resultantly boosting the importance of the town as the nerve centre of the Southern Railways. Srinivasa Rao was born on 17th February 1891 to the humble couple Narayana Swamy and Kanakamma, and a year and half later, their second-born was Ganapathi Rao. Narayana Swamy was only a subedar in the British Army and his pension was the only source of income for the family, hence his wife established a timber depot to provide education for her two sons, until their SSLC.

The standard and quality of education in those days was at par with the English, hence both brothers were well-acquainted with reading and writing in English and Hindi, apart from their mother tongue Telugu. Thereafter, Srinivasa Rao followed the path of his father and joined the Indian British Army at the National Defence Academy in Pune in the beginning of 1913 and Ganapathi Rao joined the Indian Freedom Struggle, the battle that he believed in, and left for Nagpur. Even though the ideologies and passions of the brothers were the opposite — where one served in the British army while the other opposed British rule — the brothers respected and loved each other but followed their hearts in search of their destiny.

In the global scenario, the Lumière brothers invented the first successful movie projector, based on the work of the French inventor Léon Bouly. The brothers’ first film, Sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon, was shot in 1894 and publicly screened on 28th December 1895. It was the world's first commercial movie and the screening took place at the Grand Cafe in Paris. Soon, the mode of movie projection, even though not a huge commercial success, was fancied by the military worldwide. The British filmed several programs and dispatched them along with the projectors to train their soldiers in their colonial territories. At that juncture, Srinivasa Rao was at the National Defence Academy in Pune and due to his communicative skills in English and other popular Indian languages, he was already the favourite to his immediate Commanding British Officer. One fine day, a shipment of expensive equipment had arrived from England, along with an engineer who was supposed to train one in the army. It was introduced as the movie projector and along with it came a large library of film rolls of the military training programs. Srinivasa Rao, already having earned a reputation for his communicative skills and technical eagerness, was chosen to be trained as the operator to handle the equipment. After being thoroughly satisfied that Srinivasa Rao had learnt the operations and maintenance, the English technician returned to his homeland.

Meanwhile, there was a huge rush of entrepreneurs, mostly from France and Germany, for the commercial exploitation of movie projection within the Indian territory. They were going from town to town, carrying silent films of French, German and English origin that were mostly about ten to fifteen minutes long, while a few were not more than half an hour long. The silent films were usually screened in a tent that was erected on a stretch of open land close to a town or village, where the audience sat on the mud floor or on mats for their comfort. The “tent cinema” concept became very popular — the entry fee was mostly one paisa or three paise, at best. At that time, Vincent, an employee of the South Indian Railways at Coimbatore, working as a draftsman-clerk, happened to see some short films exhibited by a French touring film exhibitor named DuPont. When the Frenchman wanted to return, Vincent bought his projector, accessories and films. Vincent resigned his desk job at the Railways and set up a business as a film exhibitor. Initially, he travelled to villages to exhibit the films he had.

History was created on 21st April 1913 when Dadasaheb Palke produced and directed the first Indian silent movie ‘Raja Harischandra’ and released it. This triggered the enthusiasm for film exhibitions as a future enterprise in India, but only a handful who could import the projectors and understand the working of it were able to establish themselves as cinema exhibitors. At this juncture, Vincent of Coimbatore established Variety Hall, the first cinema house in South India in 1914, at Coimbatore in Madras Presidency.

After having served for about five years at the NDA, Srinivasa Rao returned home due to personal reasons at the home front and started a printing press called PS Press along with Ganapathi Rao. The brothers indulged in their own passions but were totally diverse from each other. Srinivasa Rao was a huge fan of drama plays and he used to attend all the plays of Sohrab Modi and Prithiviraj Kapoor, and with his irresistible interest, he scripted and published plays in Telugu for stage producers. Whereas Ganapathi Rao published articles of the Gandhiji’s freedom movement under a pamphlet by the name ‘Swarajya’, updating all the messages of the freedom fighters in the country, motivating the local youth to join the freedom struggle.

One day, a German tent exhibitor approached the PS Press to post an advertisement for the sale of his German projectors and a variety of French and German films. The German seller wanted to return to Germany, hence, wanted to sell to anyone who was willing to buy lock, stock and barrel for an amount of Rs 5,000. Having been acquainted with film projection and its technology at the NDA, Srinivasa Rao could not contain his enthusiasm to buy it all, but it was too big an amount for the brothers to raise. It was then that they approached their brother-in-law Marupilla Simhadri, who was a wealthy landlord. Simhadri, without hesitation, loaned them the amount. The second requirement was a venue — the brothers did not have any commercial land other than their residence to set up the exhibition theatre.

There was this choultry owned by the Raja of Mylavaram whom Srnivasa Rao approached to run his shows. The Raja was so thrilled with the enthusiasm and background of Srinivasa Rao that he permitted them to use his venue until such time that he could identify his own. Srinivasa Rao set up his new equipment with ease and started his first film show in the makeshift auditorium on 23rd October 1921, naming it Maruthi Cinema. And the journey of the legendary entrepreneur began.

In my next week’s blog, ‘The Era of Silent Movies’, more interesting facts shall be narrated.

(The Author has narrated the facts learnt during his personal interaction with his grandfather Srinivasa Rao, in his lifetime.)