During the 1990s, I interviewed Dilip Kumar on several occasions. These are excerpts from an audio interview that I did in his house which ...
During the 1990s, I interviewed Dilip Kumar on several occasions. These are excerpts from an audio interview that I did in his house which did not end up in the book that I was researching at the time. We were talking about the great film studios that saw their decline in the late 1940s and discussing the profound change that took place in the Hindi cinema of the 1950s.
I have always found Dilip Kumar’s observations, particularly on the film industry of the past, so well-thought through that almost everything he spoke about had new insight and a certain lived wisdom.
The prestige and the magic
Nasreen Munni Kabir: We were talking about the major Indian studios.
Dilip Kumar: These institutions enjoyed great credit and prestige in our society like Prabhat Film Company. They came up with films like Duniya Na Mane, Padosi, Shejari, Sant Dnyaneshwar.
NMK: And Sant Tukaram.
DK: Yes, Sant Tukaram and Aadmi. Shejari is a Marathi film. They had excellent technique. These studios had their own departments, even their own laboratories and vast grounds. I think Prabhat had about 30 acres or 40 acres of land. This was in Poona.
Likewise, there was New Theatres in Calcutta. Men like Debaki Bose, P. Barua, Nitin Bose, Hem Chandra working there. Bimal Roy also came from New Theatres. They had very talented people who...
