1950: Key Events

• India declares itself a sovereign democratic republic (26 January): population 350 million. The Republic is elected member of the UN Security Council for two years.

• The Assam earthquake (1 August).

• The Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda, starts; ten years later, it becomes the pre-eminent centre for contemporary Indian art.

• Jean Renoir and Satyajit Ray meet on the shoot of The River in Bengal.

• Nemai Ghosh makes Chinnamul in Calcutta.

• The celebrated Tamil film Ezhai Padum Padu establishes Ramnoth, Nagaiah and Arudra.

• C. R. Subburaman, Samudrala Raghavacharya, Vedantam Raghavaiah and others start the Vinoda Studio.

• Vijaya Pictures starts with Shavukaru.

• The Pakistan government levies a tax of Re 1 per foot on all imported Indian films.