With the 12 Chennai International Film Festival around the corner, film buffs are all set to escape into a week-long stupor of cinematic bliss.
The foundation for this legacy was laid far back in 1952, when the city hosted a leg of the first international film festival in India. It was conceptualised as a six-week mobile film fair and organised by the Films Division of the Government of India.
The festival, opening in Bombay, would travel to Madras, Delhi and Calcutta, spending one week in each of the cities. Patrons were promised as many as 40 features and 100 documentaries from 23 countries. This was a first, not merely for the country but for the entire Asian subcontinent, at the time.
In Madras, films were screened in theatres like New Elphinstone, Sagar, Select, Minerva, and Crown between February 7 and 14. However the primary attraction was the open-air theatre constructed at the Congress Grounds in Teynampet by the Cine Technicians Association of South India (CTA)
Ninety-year-old N. Krishnaswamy, who was then the secretary of the association, says, “The secret of success was the giant 50X30 feet screen we erected instead of the regular 20-feet-high one. A road was laid for vehicles to navigate freely inside the forested area. A palatial structure designed by art director T. Janaki Ram was built to house the projector at the behest of S.S. Vasan. People had never watched a movie on this scale before.”
Producers and directors visiting from various countries were hugely impressed. Mr. Krishnaswamy recalls how representatives of Paramount Pictures, showcasing their film ‘The Greatest Show on Earth’, immediately changed their venue from New Elphinstone theatre after visiting the open-air theatre in Teynampet. American film director Frank Capra even took Mr. Krishnaswamy and his team to Delhi, to replicate the theatre at the Feroze Shah Kotla stadium.
At the Congress grounds, the CTA also organised an ‘exhibit shooting’ on two evenings. Essentially a staged demonstration of a film shooting, the scripts in Tamil and Telugu were developed quickly so that it could be relayed on subsequent days. Popular Tamil actor T.R. Ramachandran and iconic director S. Balachander played the clapper boy and director, respectively, in these performances.
Reports in The Hindu testified to films running to packed houses. Writer R.K. Narayan also confessed to being amazed at the winding queues outside ticket windows for foreign films.
