Baburao Painter

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Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra (1913) had triggered off great enthusiasm among many aspiring filmmakers. Among them was a young man, Baburao Painter.   Baburao was one of the leading stage painter for theatres in Western India during the period of 1910 and 1916. He was also a film enthusiast and founded Maharashtra Film Company in 1919. To enable this Baburao borrowed money from Tanibai Kagolkar, a long-time admirer. Movie acting, especially tamasha's were looked down upon in conservative societies like Kolhapur so the studio itself was a living quarter for quite a few including leading ladies – Gulab Bai (renamed Kamaladevi) and Anusuya Bai (renamed Sushiladevi). Painter got onboard his old colleagues including Damle and S. Fatehlal and later on V. Shantaram, trio who later on left him to set up their own studio called Prabhat Film Company.  ainter gathered around him old colleagues among them Damle and S Fatehlal joined a little later by V. Shantaram – the group that later left to set up The Prabhat Film Company  He also introduced two female artisits Gulab Bai and Anusuya Bai renamed as Kamala devi and Sushila devi respectively. Since acting was looked down upon, the two ladies were excommunicated by their community and had to find refuge in the studio premises. As well as acting in films, they would often cook and serve food to the entire unit!
Baburao’s first film, Sairandhri (1920), attracted the attention of the then censor board for its graphic depiction of the slaying of Keechaka by Bhima. Finally it had to be deleted but the film won both critical and commercial acclaim spurring Painter on to more ambitious projects.
Baburao was a man of many talents – he wrote his own screenplays, changed the concept of set designing from painted curtains to solid multi-dimensional lived in spaces, he introduced artificial lighting and understood the importance of publicity. As early as 1921-22 he was the first to issue programme booklets, complete with details of the film and its photographs. He also painted himself tasteful, eye-catching posters of all his films.
Sinhagad (1923) proved to be one of his most popular films. In fact, it attracted the Revenue Department’s attention to bring about introduction of Entertainment Tax! Not so successful was what is regarded as the first realistic Indian film, Savkari Pash (1925), dealing with money lending, a problem that blighted the lives of countless illiterate, poor farmers. Sadly for Baburao, the audience long fed on mythological fantasy and historical love was just not prepared for so strong a dose of realism. Baburao thereafter returned to costume dramas.
Netaji Palkar (1927) directed by V Shantaram and Karna (1928) directed by Damle and Fatehlal were huge hits for Baburao’s Maharshtra Film Company. However, after a few more silent films, the company pulled down its shutters with the advent of sound. Baburao was not particularly keen on the talkies for he believed that they would destroy the visual culture so painfully evolved over the years. He returned to painting and sculpture, his original vocation.
Painter returned to filmmaking for sporadic ventures like remaking Savkari Pash in sound in 1936, Pratibha(1937), a bi-lingual in Hindi and Marathi, which nicely show Painter’s control over big sets, lighting and crowd scenes and Lokshahir Ramjoshi/Matwala Shayar Ramjoshi (1947), specially on Shantaram’s invitation.