East India Film Company

Est: 1932 in Calcutta. One of the first sound studios in Bengal, set up with RCA-Photophone equipment and Mitchell cameras. Owned by B.L. Khemka. Bengali productions include films by Tulsi Lahiri (Jamuna Puliney, 1933), Naresh Mitra’s Sabitri (1933), Dhiren Ganguly (Bidrohi, 1935) and Debaki Bose (Sonar Sansar, 1936). Most prominent inhouse director was Hindi film-maker A.R. Kardar (1933-6). The studio branched out into Tamil (e.g. K. Subramanyam’s Bhakta Kuchela, 1936) and Telugu films (e.g. Pullaiah’s Savithri, 1933). Until the mid-40s it was the only fully equipped sound studio available to Tamil film-makers and was a major reason for numerous Bengali film technicians, particularly cameramen (best known: Jiten Bannerjee) working in the South, a tradition later continued by Gemini Studios.

For Ekalavya see Robi Ghosh

Studio