How Madras became India’s film capital The next time you are talking about Indian films, don’t let your tongue slip into saying “the Bombay film industry” No longer is Bombay India’s film capital. In 1979, less Hindi films were produced than in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam. The Censors in Madras can barely keep up with…
Zaherra is one of those unfortunates who are jinxed from the word ‘go’. Sometime back she said, “What’s not in a name?” and changed the ‘I’ in Zahirra to an ‘e’. But Zaherra is still lost in the wilderness. She does not even have a Russian fiancé like Katy (Cypher) Mirza, to console herself with,…
Nine Film Personalities Discuss Their Dream Schemes! “India” said James Shepherd in a recent issue of TIME, “stamps out movies like cookies – and most are just as durable.” At once, our film critics, the tribe that revels in dissecting and deprecating nine out of every ten Hindi films that are churned out by our…
It took me eight months to discover that I was living next door to a film person. And that too, because the chap appeared in a “daring, all-clothes-barred” gatefold In a girlie mag. Yes. My neighbour was there in B & W. in all his hairy, slightly paunchy evidence. Undressed. In disabille. There was a…
A really good film should not be concerned so much with its plot, as with its characters and the interplay of those characters. Though the characters, the intelligent filmmaker aims at establishing in the consciousness of the spectators the elements that would lead them to the idea he wants to communicate; he attempts to place…
Kem Chho, Chandra Bhai? Fine, I see. Thought I’d discover what makes you tick. Tell me what’s doing. Chandra Barot does not answer at once. He’s busy buttoning his cuff. And then: I’m directing Don. And this is keeping me on my toes right now. It’s a fun experience, shooting with Amitabh and Zeenat…
You may have heard of East African Indian fleeing to Mother England, and Dr. Hastings Banda pelling 40 Malawi Asians Ever heard of an Indian settled in Tanzania who came back to India and turned out to be a much talked-about Hindi film director in Bombay? He is Chandra Barot, a young man in his early…
An American who acts in Hindi movies? And who’s Indian except for his fair skin and blond hair? “I don’t believe it” was the reaction of most people who met Tom Alter at the recent screening of diploma films arranged by Mr. Girish Karnad, the Director of the Film and Television of India, at Bombay.…