1934

The talkie dawn at full stride: 1934 produced approximately 118 Hindi films, including multiple historical firsts — the first Indian talkie at an international film festival (Seeta, Venice honorary diploma), the first Indian talkie banned by the British government (Mazdoor, scripted by Premchand), the first use of flashback in Indian cinema (Rooplekha, P.C. Barua), Motilal's screen debut (Shehar Ka Jadoo), Begum Akhtar's early screen appearances (Mumtaz Begum, Roop Kumari), and Jaidev's debut (Vaman Avtar). New Theatres, Prabhat, Ranjit, Imperial, Sagar and Wadia Movietone were all producing at full industrial capacity. Our archive now holds 48 songs and 46 films of this year.