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4/4/1898: The Prof and Blanche make Movies in India
In the wake of India's introduction to the movies by Marius Sestier at the Watson Hotel in 1896, a number of showmen toured the country with stage shows which incorporated this new invention into their act. Perhaps the best known was Carl Hertz, although he was not the first: as an unknown gentleman is known to have given shows in Bombay in January 1897 on a 'Stewart's Vitograph'. Nevertheless, It would be two years after the introduction of cinema to India before the country witnessed its first attempts at moviemaking.
A 'Professor' Anderson, with the assistance of his wife, Blanche de la Cour (billed as Madamoiselle Blanche), filmed A Train Arriving at Churchgate Station and Poona Races sometime in 1898, and presented them at a Christmas show on his wonderfully named Andersonoscopograph projector. In the same year, another professor - this one named Stevenson - showed film as part of his stage show at the Star Theatre in Calcutta. At some time, 32-year-old Hiralal Sen was a member of that audience. Sen, who hailed from the village of Bagjuri Manikganj, near Dhaka, contacted Stevenson, who encouraged him to make films with his camera. Sen made Scenes from the Flower of Persia, and A Panorama of Indian Scenes and Processions, which Stevenson featured in his show at the Star Theatre. Soon Sen was exhibiting his own film shows at the Minerva Theatre, the Star Theatre and the Classic Theatre and, on the 4th April 1898 he established the Royal Bioscope Company with the support of his brother Matilal Sen, Debokai Lai Sen, and nephew Bholanath Gupta, to arrange bioscope shows in Calcutta and the surrounding regions.
Another pioneering movie exhibitor was dramatist Amritlal Bose, who screened a package of actualities and reconstructions at the Star Theatre in October. Films shown included Death of Nelson, Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee and Gladstone's Funeral Procession. [ADD]
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