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{{Short description|Indian film studio}} | |||
{{More citations needed|date=April 2024}} | |||
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}} | {{Use dmy dates|date=October 2017}} | ||
{{Use Indian English|date=October 2017}} | {{Use Indian English|date=October 2017}} | ||
{{Infobox company | |||
| name = Kohinoor Film Company | |||
| image = | |||
| logo = | |||
| type = {{plainlist| | |||
* [[Filmmaking|Film production]] | |||
* [[Film distribution]]}} | |||
| genre = {{hlist|[[Fantasy film|Fantasy]]| mythology}} | |||
| foundation = 1918–1919<ref>Some sources date the company's establishment to 1918. | |||
* {{cite book | last1=Chabria | first1=Suresh | last2=Usai | first2=Paolo Cherchi | title=Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema, 1912-1934 | publisher=Wiley Eastern | date=1994 | isbn=978-81-224-0680-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CORkAAAAMAAJ | page=15 |quote=Arguably the most important production company in Bombay was Duarkadas Sampat's Kohinoor Film Co. established in 1918.}} | |||
* {{cite book | last=Kaul | first=Gautam | title=Cinema and the Indian Freedom Struggle: Covering the Subcontinent | publisher=Sterling Publishers | year=1998 | isbn=978-81-207-2116-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WNxkAAAAMAAJ|page=160|quote=On the 'Diwali day'* of 1918, Sampat opened his own Kohinoor Film Company and went into filmmaking.}} | |||
* {{cite book | last=Thoraval | first=Yves | title=The Cinemas of India | publisher=Macmillan India | date=2000 | isbn=978-0-333-93410-4 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-OpkAAAAMAAJ | page=9 |quote=The studio system dominated the scene until the 1940s and '50s. One of the legendary ones was the Kohinoor Film Company, founded in 1918, in Bombay, by Dwarkadas N Sampat, a professional showman of repute.}}</ref> | |||
| founder = Dwarkadas Sampat | |||
| defunct = 1932{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA126 126]}} | |||
| location_city = [[Mumbai]] | |||
| location_country = India | |||
| industry = [[Entertainment]] | |||
| products = Mostly [[silent film]]s | |||
}} | |||
'''Kohinoor Film Company''' was an Indian [[film studio]] established in 1919 by Dwarkadas Sampat (1884-1958).{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA126 126]}}<ref>{{cite web |title=History of Cinema in India |url=http://www.filmbirth.com/india.html |access-date=25 December 2011 |archive-date=6 May 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120506014334/http://www.filmbirth.com/india.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> According to [[Ashish Rajadhyaksha]] and [[Paul Willemen]], it was the largest and most influential studio of the Indian silent film era.{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA126 126]}} The studio gained national prominence when its 1921 film ''[[Bhakta Vidur]]'', was banned by the British colonial government{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA126 126]}} on the ground that the character ''Vidur'', played by its producer Sampat, was "portrayed as a 'thinly-clad version' of [[Mahatma Gandhi]]."<ref>{{cite book | last=Nowell-Smith | first=Geoffrey | title=The Oxford History of World Cinema | publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] | date=1996 | isbn=978-0-19-874242-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MZwVDAAAQBAJ | page=403}}</ref> | |||
Under Kohinoor, directors such as [[Kanjibhai Rathod]] and [[Homi Master]] made some of the most popular films of the era.{{sfn|Abel|2005|p=522}} For example, under Rathod's direction, the 1924 film ''[[Gul-e-Bakavali (1924 film)|Gul-e-Bakavali]]'' is widely regarded as the 'first all-India super hit'.<ref>_ | |||
* {{harvnb|Thomas|2015|p=[https://books.google.co.in/books?id=WHrmBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA9 9], "The first all-India super hit, a storm across the country in 1924, was Gul-e-Bakavali (The Bakavali Flower, Kanjibhai Rathod)"}} | |||
* {{harvnb|Rajadhyaksha|2016|p=[https://books.google.co.in/books?id=88mSDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA21 21], "Gul-e-Bakavali was almost certainly the first truly national commercial hit in India"}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | last=Gooptu | first=Sharmistha | title=Hundred years of Indian cinema | website=[[The Times of India]] | date=6 June 2012 | url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/edit-page/hundred-years-of-indian-cinema/articleshow/13854661.cms | access-date=8 July 2025|quote=There was also the genre of films like Gul-e-Bakavali (1924), inspired by the popular Parsi theatres of Bombay and Calcutta, and which also became the first blockbuster talkies.}}</ref> Several stars of the time such as [[Zubeida]], [[Khalil (actor)|Khalil]], and [[P. K. Raja Sandow|Raja Sandow]] started their careers at the studio.{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA126 126]}} Film scholar ''Suresh Chabria'', a former director of the [[National Film Archive of India]],<ref>{{cite news | last=Chabria | first=Suresh | title=Personal essay: How films became a bridge to my past and my present | website=[[Scroll.in]] | date=20 April 2023 | url=https://scroll.in/reel/1047582/personal-essay-how-films-became-a-bridge-to-return-to-my-past-and-my-present | access-date=29 December 2025}}</ref> argues that Kohinoor Film Company was "perhaps the first Indian studio to decisively move away from the artisanal production practices of [[Dadasaheb Phalke|D. G. Phalke]], [[S. N. Patankar]], and others."{{sfn|Abel|2005|p=521–522}} | |||
==History== | |||
Dwarkadas Narendas Sampat (1884–1958) started his career in Indian cinema in 1904, when he brought a projector and began to organise film screenings in [[Rajkot]], [[Bombay Presidency]].{{sfn|Gokulsing|Dissanayake|2013|p=89}} He later entered film production and, through a partnership with [[S. N. Patankar]], established ''Patankar Friends & Co'',{{sfn|Gokulsing|Dissanayake|2013|p=89}} which, according to [[Ashish Rajadhyaksha|Rajadhyaksha]] and [[Paul Willemen|Willemen]], 'took off in 1917' with Sampat's entry.{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA172 172]}} | |||
Film historian [[Amrit Gangar]] notes that Sampat established the ''Kohinoor Film Company'' after differences with Patankar.{{sfn|Gokulsing|Dissanayake|2013|p=90}} | |||
The studio also trained such people as [[Nandlal Jaswantlal]] and [[Mohan Bhavnani]], and produced artists such as [[Goharbai]], [[Zebunissa (actress)|Zebunissa]] and [[Rampiyari]].{{cn|date=December 2025}} | |||
Along with [[Ranjit Movietone]] and the [[Imperial Film Company]] it was the largest movie studio when Indian [[talkies]] began in the 1930s.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hayward |first=Susan |title=Cinema studies: the key concepts |year=2006 |publisher=Taylor and Francis |isbn=9780203020210 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=OlPXsA-OBMAC&q=kohinoor+film+company&pg=PA393}}</ref>{{Page needed|date=December 2025}} | |||
==Filmography== | ==Filmography== | ||
{| class="wikitable" style="width:100%;" | |||
!Film | |||
!Year | |||
!Director | |||
!Notes | |||
::[[ | |- | ||
!Vikram Urvashi | |||
!1920 | |||
![[Kanjibhai Rathod]] | |||
!<ref>{{cite book | last1=Sengupta | first1=S. | last2=Roy | first2=S. | last3=Purkayastha | first3=S. | title='Bad' Women of Bombay Films: Studies in Desire and Anxiety | publisher=Springer International Publishing | year=2019 | isbn=978-3-030-26788-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6z7CDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA96 | page=96}}</ref> | |||
|- | |||
!Mahasati Ansuya | |||
!1921 | |||
!– | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA244 244]}} | |||
|- | |||
![[Bhakta Vidur]] | |||
!1921 | |||
!– | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA244 244]}} | |||
|- | |||
!Sukanya Savitri | |||
!1922 | |||
!– | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA245 245]}} | |||
|- | |||
![[Gul-e-Bakavali (1924 film)|Gul-e-Bakavali]] | |||
!1924 | |||
!– | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA245 245]}} | |||
|- | |||
!Bismi Sadi | |||
!1924 | |||
![[Homi Master]] | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA245 245]}} | |||
|- | |||
!Kala Naag | |||
!1924 | |||
!K. Rathod | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA246 246]}} | |||
|- | |||
!Cinema Ni Rani | |||
!1925 | |||
!Mohan Bhavnani | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA247 247]}} | |||
|- | |||
!Fankdo Fituri | |||
!1925 | |||
!Homi Master | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA247 247]}} | |||
|- | |||
!Kulin Kanta | |||
!1925 | |||
!– | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA247 247]}} | |||
|- | |||
!Lanka Ni Laadi | |||
!1925 | |||
!– | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA247 247]}} | |||
|- | |||
![[Mojili Mumbai]] | |||
!1925 | |||
![[Manilal Joshi]] | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA248 248]}} | |||
|- | |||
!Veer Kunal | |||
!1925 | |||
!– | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA249 249]}} | |||
|- | |||
!Telephone Ni Taruni | |||
!1926 | |||
!Homi Master | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA249 249–250]}} | |||
|- | |||
!Bhaneli Bhamini | |||
!1927 | |||
!– | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA250 250]}} | |||
|- | |||
![[Gunsundari (1927 film)|Gunsundari]] | |||
!1927 | |||
![[Chandulal Shah]] | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA250 250]}} | |||
|- | |||
!Daily Mail | |||
!1930 | |||
!Narayan G. Devare | |||
!{{sfn|Rajadhyaksha|Willemen|2014|p= [https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ&pg=PA252 252]}} | |||
|- | |||
|} | |||
==References== | ==References== | ||
{{reflist}} | {{reflist}} | ||
== | ===Bibliography=== | ||
* | * {{cite book | last=Garga | first=Bhagwan Das | title=So Many Cinemas: The Motion Picture in India | publisher=Eminence Designs | date=1996 | isbn=978-81-900602-1-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wXRZAAAAMAAJ}} | ||
* {{cite book | last1=Rajadhyaksha | first1=Ashish | last2=Willemen | first2=Paul | title=Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema | publisher=[[Routledge]] | date=2014 | isbn=978-1-135-94318-9 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SLkABAAAQBAJ|archive-url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopaediaofi0000raja|archive-date=4 December 2018}} | |||
* | * {{cite book |last=Kaul |first=Gautam |title=Cinema and the Indian freedom struggle |year=1998 |publisher=Sterling Publishers |isbn=9788120721166 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=WNxkAAAAMAAJ}} | ||
* {{cite book | last=Abel | first=Richard | title=Encyclopedia of Early Cinema | publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] | date=2005 | isbn=978-0-415-23440-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hFxwX-dM008C}} | |||
* {{cite book | last=Thomas | first=Rosie | title=Bombay before Bollywood: Film City Fantasies | publisher=[[State University of New York Press]] | date=2015 | isbn=978-1-4384-5677-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WHrmBgAAQBAJ}} | |||
* {{cite book | last=Rajadhyaksha | first=A. | title=Indian Cinema: A Very Short Introduction | publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] | year=2016 | isbn=978-0-19-872309-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=88mSDAAAQBAJ }} | |||
* {{cite book | last1=Gokulsing | first1=K. | last2=Dissanayake | first2=Wimal | title=Routledge Handbook of Indian Cinemas | publisher=Routledge | date=2013 | isbn=978-1-136-77291-7 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QwGgF-rDucEC}} | |||
[[Category:Film production companies based in Mumbai]] | [[Category:Film production companies based in Mumbai]] | ||
[[Category:Mass media companies established in 1918]] | [[Category:Mass media companies established in 1918]] | ||
[[Category:1918 establishments in India]] | [[Category:1918 establishments in India]] | ||
[[Category:Indian film studios]] | |||
[[Category:Silent film studios]] | |||
[[Category:Defunct companies of India]] | |||
[[Category:Defunct film and television production companies]] | |||
Latest revision as of 01:47, 7 January 2026
This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2024) |
| Industry | Entertainment |
|---|---|
| Genre |
|
| Founded | 1918–1919[1] |
| Founder(s) | Dwarkadas Sampat |
| Defunct | 1932[2] |
| Headquarters | , India |
| Products | Mostly silent films |
Kohinoor Film Company was an Indian film studio established in 1919 by Dwarkadas Sampat (1884-1958).[2][3] According to Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen, it was the largest and most influential studio of the Indian silent film era.[2] The studio gained national prominence when its 1921 film Bhakta Vidur, was banned by the British colonial government[2] on the ground that the character Vidur, played by its producer Sampat, was "portrayed as a 'thinly-clad version' of Mahatma Gandhi."[4]
Under Kohinoor, directors such as Kanjibhai Rathod and Homi Master made some of the most popular films of the era.[5] For example, under Rathod's direction, the 1924 film Gul-e-Bakavali is widely regarded as the 'first all-India super hit'.[6][7] Several stars of the time such as Zubeida, Khalil, and Raja Sandow started their careers at the studio.[2] Film scholar Suresh Chabria, a former director of the National Film Archive of India,[8] argues that Kohinoor Film Company was "perhaps the first Indian studio to decisively move away from the artisanal production practices of D. G. Phalke, S. N. Patankar, and others."[9]
History[edit | edit source]
Dwarkadas Narendas Sampat (1884–1958) started his career in Indian cinema in 1904, when he brought a projector and began to organise film screenings in Rajkot, Bombay Presidency.[10] He later entered film production and, through a partnership with S. N. Patankar, established Patankar Friends & Co,[10] which, according to Rajadhyaksha and Willemen, 'took off in 1917' with Sampat's entry.[11]
Film historian Amrit Gangar notes that Sampat established the Kohinoor Film Company after differences with Patankar.[12]
The studio also trained such people as Nandlal Jaswantlal and Mohan Bhavnani, and produced artists such as Goharbai, Zebunissa and Rampiyari.[citation needed]
Along with Ranjit Movietone and the Imperial Film Company it was the largest movie studio when Indian talkies began in the 1930s.[13][page needed]
Filmography[edit | edit source]
| Film | Year | Director | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vikram Urvashi | 1920 | Kanjibhai Rathod | [14] |
| Mahasati Ansuya | 1921 | – | [15] |
| Bhakta Vidur | 1921 | – | [15] |
| Sukanya Savitri | 1922 | – | [16] |
| Gul-e-Bakavali | 1924 | – | [16] |
| Bismi Sadi | 1924 | Homi Master | [16] |
| Kala Naag | 1924 | K. Rathod | [17] |
| Cinema Ni Rani | 1925 | Mohan Bhavnani | [18] |
| Fankdo Fituri | 1925 | Homi Master | [18] |
| Kulin Kanta | 1925 | – | [18] |
| Lanka Ni Laadi | 1925 | – | [18] |
| Mojili Mumbai | 1925 | Manilal Joshi | [19] |
| Veer Kunal | 1925 | – | [20] |
| Telephone Ni Taruni | 1926 | Homi Master | [21] |
| Bhaneli Bhamini | 1927 | – | [22] |
| Gunsundari | 1927 | Chandulal Shah | [22] |
| Daily Mail | 1930 | Narayan G. Devare | [23] |
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Some sources date the company's establishment to 1918.
- Chabria, Suresh; Usai, Paolo Cherchi (1994). Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema, 1912-1934. Wiley Eastern. p. 15. ISBN 978-81-224-0680-1.
Arguably the most important production company in Bombay was Duarkadas Sampat's Kohinoor Film Co. established in 1918.
- Kaul, Gautam (1998). Cinema and the Indian Freedom Struggle: Covering the Subcontinent. Sterling Publishers. p. 160. ISBN 978-81-207-2116-6.
On the 'Diwali day'* of 1918, Sampat opened his own Kohinoor Film Company and went into filmmaking.
- Thoraval, Yves (2000). The Cinemas of India. Macmillan India. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-333-93410-4.
The studio system dominated the scene until the 1940s and '50s. One of the legendary ones was the Kohinoor Film Company, founded in 1918, in Bombay, by Dwarkadas N Sampat, a professional showman of repute.
- Chabria, Suresh; Usai, Paolo Cherchi (1994). Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema, 1912-1934. Wiley Eastern. p. 15. ISBN 978-81-224-0680-1.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 126.
- ↑ "History of Cinema in India". Archived from the original on 6 May 2012. Retrieved 25 December 2011.
- ↑ Nowell-Smith, Geoffrey (1996). The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford University Press. p. 403. ISBN 978-0-19-874242-5.
- ↑ Abel 2005, p. 522.
- ↑ _
- Thomas 2015, p. 9, "The first all-India super hit, a storm across the country in 1924, was Gul-e-Bakavali (The Bakavali Flower, Kanjibhai Rathod)"
- Rajadhyaksha 2016, p. 21, "Gul-e-Bakavali was almost certainly the first truly national commercial hit in India"
- ↑ Gooptu, Sharmistha (6 June 2012). "Hundred years of Indian cinema". The Times of India. Retrieved 8 July 2025.
There was also the genre of films like Gul-e-Bakavali (1924), inspired by the popular Parsi theatres of Bombay and Calcutta, and which also became the first blockbuster talkies.
- ↑ Chabria, Suresh (20 April 2023). "Personal essay: How films became a bridge to my past and my present". Scroll.in. Retrieved 29 December 2025.
- ↑ Abel 2005, p. 521–522.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Gokulsing & Dissanayake 2013, p. 89.
- ↑ Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 172.
- ↑ Gokulsing & Dissanayake 2013, p. 90.
- ↑ Hayward, Susan (2006). Cinema studies: the key concepts. Taylor and Francis. ISBN 9780203020210.
- ↑ Sengupta, S.; Roy, S.; Purkayastha, S. (2019). 'Bad' Women of Bombay Films: Studies in Desire and Anxiety. Springer International Publishing. p. 96. ISBN 978-3-030-26788-9.
- ↑ 15.0 15.1 Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 244.
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 245.
- ↑ Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 246.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 247.
- ↑ Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 248.
- ↑ Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 249.
- ↑ Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 249–250.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 250.
- ↑ Rajadhyaksha & Willemen 2014, p. 252.
Bibliography[edit | edit source]
- Garga, Bhagwan Das (1996). So Many Cinemas: The Motion Picture in India. Eminence Designs. ISBN 978-81-900602-1-9.
- Rajadhyaksha, Ashish; Willemen, Paul (2014). Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-94318-9. Archived from the original on 4 December 2018.
- Kaul, Gautam (1998). Cinema and the Indian freedom struggle. Sterling Publishers. ISBN 9788120721166.
- Abel, Richard (2005). Encyclopedia of Early Cinema. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0-415-23440-5.
- Thomas, Rosie (2015). Bombay before Bollywood: Film City Fantasies. State University of New York Press. ISBN 978-1-4384-5677-5.
- Rajadhyaksha, A. (2016). Indian Cinema: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-872309-7.
- Gokulsing, K.; Dissanayake, Wimal (2013). Routledge Handbook of Indian Cinemas. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-77291-7.