''''1954: Key Events'''

* Zhou Enlai visits India, and Nehru goes to Beijing where he signs the ‘Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence’ with Mao Zedong. 

* The National Gallery of Modern Art opens in New Delhi. 

* The Lalit Kala (Fine Arts) Akademi and Sahitya (Literature) Akademi open.

* The first national film awards go to Shyamchi Aai and Jagat Murari’s short, Mahabalipuram. Awara is a major hit in the USSR. 

* Abbas’s Munna is the second ‘songless’ film; it was shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1955. 

* Indian film delegations visit the Middle East and the USSR. 

* Talks between the Film Federation of India and the government fail over All-India Radio’s policy of broadcasting film songs without crediting sources, driving producers into using Radio Ceylon. 

* The compulsory exhibition of ‘approved films’ (i. e. government propaganda films) in Madras is declared unlawful by the Supreme Court. 

* The Premier Studio, Mysore’s second studio premises, is started by M. N. Basavarajaiah.