''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.