Ranjit Movietone: India's Longest Running Studio and Industrial Integration in Cinema

Vitali, Valentina (2024) Ranjit Movietone: India's Longest Running Studio and Industrial Integration in Cinema. Bioscope: South Asian Screen Studies. ISSN 0974-9276 (In Press)

[thumbnail of Ranjit_Movietone_-_Revised_Essay_References.pdf]

Preview

Text
Ranjit_Movietone_-_Revised_Essay_References.pdf - Accepted Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.
Download (2MB)

Abstract

This essay revisits the history of Ranjit Movietone, India’s longest running studio to date. Based on new research, it argues that Ranjit Movietone’s forty years record was made possible by a form of transversal integration that is not accounted for in current film historiography. The result of a symbiotic relation between film production and cotton trading in colonial India, Ranjit Movietone’s mode of operation hinged on time delay, over-production and slow turnover. This argument is supported by the analysis of visual material contemporary to, and often produced by Ranjit Movietone. Most of Ranjit Movietone’s films destroyed in a fire; the essays seeks to demonstrate that valuable historiographic insights can be gained from paying close attention to para-filmic sources.
This material also shows that the star value of studio co-founder Gohar Kayoum Mamajiwala was an important, though not the sole, component of Ranjit’s mode of operation. Better known in her days as the ‘Queen of Emotions’, Miss Gohar has been written into film history simply as an actor and wife of studio owner and director Chandulal Shah. A more nuanced understanding of industrial integration in cinema, as it functions differently in specific historical formations, would enable us to make visible the valuable contribution to cinema of Gohar and other women like her.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	article accepted for publication in BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies
Dates:	Date Event 1 December 2024 Accepted
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Gohar Kayoum Mamajiwala, Ranjit Movietone, women, film historiography, film star, industrial integration
Subjects:	CAH24 - media, journalism and communications > CAH24-01 - media, journalism and communications > CAH24-01-05 - media studies
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts, Design and Media > College of Digital Arts
Depositing User:	Valentina Vitali
Date Deposited:	09 Dec 2024 14:39
Last Modified:	07 Jan 2025 11:35
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/15360