The 1943 Telugu release Chenchulakshmi made by Tamil Nadu Talkies ‘T’. Sounderrajan featured Kamala Kotnis in a few underwater scenes.

Prabhat Mukherjee’s  ‘Vicharak’ (1949 Bengali) starring Uttam Kumar and Arundhati Mukherjee featured a murder by drowning. The scene enacted by Atanu Ghosh and Prafulla Dey featured underwater footage picturised with a tank specially built for the purpose in AVM studios, Madras.

‘Anmol Moti’ in colour starring Jeetendra and Babita was made by S.D. Narang in 1969 and had many scenes shot underwater through studio-made devices.

First film without studio sets

‘Aasman Mahal’ (1965) directed by K.A.Abbas with Prithviraj Kapoor in the lead was shot on locations or interiors of palaces and houses without creating any artificial set.

First close-up shots

Hira Lal Sen was the first film maker to use close-ups in the two 1 hr dance films. Alibaba and Maner Maftn is apparent from an article in Ranagalaya (a monthly journal in Bengali) written by the then renowned theatre personality Amar Dutta. Reviewing the two films, he wrote. inter alia: The images in some places were so big and seemed so near that one could feel they were breathing on us”.

First footage using trick effects

‘Ankurachi Gaatha’ made by pioneer film maker D.G. Phalke in 1912 was the first to use the single frame exposing technique to show a bud bursting into a flower. The short film using the trick method helped Phalke to impress his financier and get funds for Raja Harishchandra, released in 1913.

Most versions of a story in a single year

The record for three films being adapted from the same story was set in 1991-92. ‘Heer Ranjha’ by Harmesh Malhotra, ‘Mehboob Mere Mehboob’ by H.S. Rawail and ‘Ishq Khuda Hai’ by P.D. Mehra. All these three were based on the Punjab folk tale of legendary lovers Heer and Ranjha and were filmed within the span of a single year.

First screening of Motion Picture

Films were first shown in India that too on a commercial basis, on July 7, 1896 at Watson’s Hotel, Bombay. It was done through Cinematographer, a versatile machine brought by France’s famed Lumiere Brothers, Louts and August. There were four, 40 minutes shows every day. The ticket was priced at Rs. 1/- a high value for that time.

First films exhibited

The first six short films to be screened on the opening days were: Entry of Cinematographer, Arrival of a Train, Sea Bath. A Demolition, Workers Leaving the Factory and Ladies & Soldiers on Wheels. On the fourth day there were six new items including the comics Baby’s Dinner.

First screening in a public theatre

The Lumiere show ran at a drama theatre Novelty from July14,1896 along with the screening at Watson’s Hotel. There were four classes of seats going down to four annas for the masses, and high priced boxes for ladies in Purdah with their families. The itmes in each show went up to twenty. The first run of the first programme was 35 days.

First experiments of films in colour

The very first colour venture was by Calcutta’s Madan Theatres in 1932. Their talkie feature Bilwamangal was sent abraod for printing. Prabhat Company under V. Shantaram tried a colour processed film Sairandhri which was taken to Germany for printing. The results of both turned out of be unfit for proper viewing.
First woman cinematographer

B.R. Vijayalakshmi qualified cinematographer 1981. Her first film was Bhagaraj’s Chinna Veedu in Tamil.

First Talkie Film

Alam Ara made in Hindustani by Ardeshir lrani and released on March 14, 1931 in Bombay became India’s first talkie feature. The first talkie stars were Master Vitthal as hero, Zubeida as heroine, Prithviraj as Villain and W.M. Khan as a singing ‘Fakir’. The first music directors were Pirojshah Mistry and B. lrani. It was a costume fantasy with seven songs. The film was 10,000 ft. long and ran for seven weeks.

First Indian film in English

Ardeshir Irani’s Noor Jahan directed by Ezra Mir with Vimla and Nayampally in 1931 was given an English version a year later for foreign markets.

First film in multilingual versions

J.B.H.Wadia’s Court Dancer (Raj Nartaki) directed by Madhu Bose and featuring Sadhana Bose with Prithviraj was shot in Hindi, Bengali and English in 1941. The shorter English version was taken by Columbia Pictures for world distribution. It was the first Indian film to be released at the prestigious Metro Cinemas of Bombay and Calcutta.

The Real ‘Soorma Bhopali’

Nasir Kamal

Jagdeep played Soorma Bhopali in film 'Sholay' (1975)

People keep asking about the real ‘Soorma Bhopali’ who inspired the ‘Sholay’ character. Well, his real name was Nahar Singh. A man, who once  characterised the social milieu of Bhopal.

The late Nahar Singh, also addressed as ‘Mama’ and ‘Soorma Bhopali’, was a contemporary of writer-poet Javed Akhter (part of the Salim-Javed team that scripted Sholay) in Bhopal’s Saifia College. That was in mid-1960s. By that time, Soorma Bhopali was already known to most of old Bhopal. Javed was also known in the social and literary circles because of his parents – poet Jan Nisar Akhter and writer Safia.

Javed, who often slept in a room of Saifia College by pulling together two benches (have you read his poem ‘Woh kamra yaad aata hai’?), saw Nahar Singh from close quarters and enjoyed his sharp wit and his delightful company. But the reel character portrayed in Sholay a few years later had no resemblance with the real personality of Nahar Singh, except his sobriquet.

Nahar Singh was of medium height, dark hued, very witty and large-hearted person with a couldn’t-care-less attitude towards life. He invariably wore dark glasses and a golf cap. His sense of humour and his repartee made him popular; what made him earn respect and love was that he was always prepared to help friends facing any problem. Actually, he was always ready to intercede physically for friends and this perhaps earned him the sobriquet of ‘Soorma Bhopali’. No wonder, because he was named ‘Nahar’ (lion).

But he had a special love for his alma mater Saifia College. At that time, the college had a very strong hockey team that challenged the might of many a formidable team in various tournaments. ‘Mama’, who was a municipal employee, accompanied the team wherever it went as its unofficial cheerleader. He even picked up players from their homes on his way to railway station. He was always prepared to jump into the field whenever he felt umpires had done ‘injustice’ to the team or when the opposing team played rough. (When it came to a scrappy encounter, inflicting a bleeding injury on shins, knees and wrists through deft stick-work, which even the umpires could not see, was called ‘phool khila diya’ – made a flower bloom. Mama even shared the team’s accommodation and sometimes bore his travel expenses himself.

Former president of the Bhopal Hockey Association, Prof Rafat Mohammed Khan, himself a national player who represented Bhopal and Saifia College, has written that Nahar Singh’s many qualities included his deep spirituality. Whenever he saw lying on ground a wrapper of Ganesh Bidi (with a image of lord Ganesha printed on it), he would pick it up, direct a couple of profanities towards the irreverent smoker, and pocketed the wrapper to later dispose it off respectfully.

Khan wrote that once Saifia College was playing in Scindia Gold Cup at Gwalior. Olympian Inam-ur-Rehman was at his peak and unstoppable. The match was against a local team of Gwalior. It was an intense fight. Suddenly, someone from the stands shouted, “Pakistani hai! Maro!’ In a flash, an infuriated Nahar Singh was in front of the stand, shouting, “You are a Mahasabhayee (of Hindu Mahasabha)! No Muslim in my Bhopal can dare treat a Hindu player like this! Come on, come on! I can take you on! I am Soorma Bhopali!” and then he broke down.

Gwalior Superintendent of Police Kailash Saxena, who hailed from Bhopal, pacified Mama with great difficulty.

When Sholay was released, Nahar Singh went to the court, alleging he had been defamed. The case was settled out of court though it created quite a sensation in the town.

One night in 1979, he went to Bhadbhada check-post of BMC to drop a colleague on his scooter. While returning, a truck knocked down his scooter. Soorma Bhopali died and with him died a part of essential Bhopali character.