Decline
Despite Devika Rani's success as the Bombay Talkies' head producer, in 1950 a rift arose between her and her managers Sashadhar Mukherjee and Ashok Kumar. Although reasons for the rift have never been made public and largely remain unclear to film industry observers, Sashadhar Mukheerjee and Ashok Kumar allegedly attempted to begin their own production house under the guise of Bombay Talkies. Despite Devika Rani, Sashadhar Mukherjee, and Ashok Kumar attempting to create a working relationship which involved alternating production of major films between the two rival production camps, the relationship proved untenable and was fraught with allegations of sabotage, dramatic ego clashes, in-fighting, and the relentless circulation of malicious rumors.
Negotiations between Devika Rani on the one hand and Sashadhar Mukherjee and Ashok Kumar on the other, with Rajnarayan Dube, who was bestowed with the honorific title "the pillar of the Indian film industry", interceding on Devika Rani's behalf, failed to unite the company. As a successful businessperson, Rajnarayan Dube was personally involved in fundraising efforts to cover the production costs of all of the 102 films released by the Bombay Talkies Company. Without the financial support of Rajnarayan Dube, the studio was ultimately unable to sustain itself and had no option but to cease operating. With the Bombay Talkies company in such a state of disarray, the decision to close the company was made in 1954.
The Bombay Talkies remains a well loved Indian institution which has attained an international cult status, and has launched the careers of many of India's most prolific and well known film industry personalities.
Today the Studio is completely closed and there are many small scale companies around it. It has now become just a landmark for locating the address.
Read more about this topic: Bombay Talkies
Famous quotes containing the word decline:
“I rather think the cinema will die. Look at the energy being exerted to revive it—yesterday it was color, today three dimensions. I don’t give it forty years more. Witness the decline of conversation. Only the Irish have remained incomparable conversationalists, maybe because technical progress has passed them by.”
—Orson Welles (1915–1984)
“But only that soul can be my friend which I encounter on the line of my own march, that soul to which I do not decline, and which does not decline me, but, native of the same celestial latitude, repeats in its own all my experience.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Families suffered badly under industrialization, but they survived, and the lives of men, women, and children improved. Children, once marginal and exploited figures, have moved to a position of greater protection and respect,... The historic decline in the overall death rates for children is an astonishing social fact, notwithstanding the disgraceful infant mortality figures for the poor and minorities. Like the decline in death from childbirth for women, this is a stunning achievement.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)