B.N. Sircar, founder of the film studio New Theatres in Kolkata, was born on this day.
He studied engineering in London. On his return he built two cinemas in Kolkata, Chitra and New Cinema, and developed a passionate interest in making films. He founded New Theatres in 1931, which played a major role in shaping Indian cinema from the age of talkies.
The studio produced more than 150 films in Bengali, Hindi and also Tamil, including Devdas, Chandidas, Mukti, Vidyapati, Bhagya Chakra, which introduced playback singing to Indian films.
Sircar had gathered around himself the best talent, in every department of filmmaking: acting, direction, music and technology. Pramathesh Barua, Premankur Atarthi, Debaki Bose, Bimal Roy, Kanan Devi, K.L. Saigal, Pahari Sanyal, Chandrabati Debi, the brothers Mukul and Nitin Bose, Prithviraj Kapoor, Subodh Mitra, Raichand Boral, Timirbaran and Pankaj Mullick worked with him. The New Theatres logo, featuring an elephant, became famous.
Sircar received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award and the Padma Bhushan.