By: Haroon Khalid

As one of the most prolific film industries in the world reaches its 100th year, Haroon Khalid traces the tangled histories of Bollywood and Lollywood. 

To ignore the contribution and influences of Bollywood, the cinematic tradition based in Mumbai, on the Pakistani film industry, which has Lahore as its forefront city, would be tantamount to ignoring the contribution of Persian in the evolution of Urdu language. The film industry of Lahore, which later became the backbone of the Pakistani film industry, owes much to its elder brother, without whose support and inspiration the industry would have not been able to stand on its two feet. On the other hand, coming from behind, the film industry of Lahore was able to leave a permanent mark on the film industry of Bombay, and also played a pivotal role in the development of the industry. As Bollywood turns 100, it is worthwhile looking at the past of both industries and seeing what role each played in developing the other. Before Partition the relationship was that of sister organizations, with healthy competition. But as both of the industries became representatives of the newly created antagonist states, they took up the mantle of patriotism, which on occasions meant treating the “other” as an enemy.

In the pre-Partition days there were four main centres for the Indian cinematic industry: Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and Lahore. Lahore is the youngest of these three. In 1923 there were only 9 cinemas in the city. There were movie buffs, who wanted to be part of the industry, but because of a lack of opportunities, had to travel to Calcutta and Bombay. Abdul Rasheed Kardar (pictured in white, on the left) is one such individual. He belonged to Lahore but moved to Bombay to be a part of the movie business. There he played a minor role in the production of Heer-Ranjha (1927), inspired by the Punjab-based love story. The movie failed at the box office. Disappointed, Kardar moved back to Lahore in 1929. Here he purchased a piece of land on Ravi Road and gave the city its first open-air studio. He also formed a film company by the name of United Players. The first movie that company made was Mysterious Eagle, aka Husn ka daku. This was a silent movie, following in the footsteps of two others: the first silent movie from Bombay, Raja Harischandra (1913), and the first one from Lahore, Daughter of Today, from 1924. Kardar was the assistant director and hero of this movie. On the 12^th of July 1930, Husn ka daku was released at Lahore’s Deepak cinema at Bhatti gate. Within one week the movie was able to do business worth 48 rupees, 6 anna and 3 paisa. This wasn’t a good amount but it was encouraging enough for them to venture further.

The next movie the United Players worked on was called Brave Heart. This was prepared in 30 weeks and did business worth 1,170 rupees, 2 annas and 6 paisa. This was the most successful movie to that time. The success of the film launched a successful company that produced many other movies. Among them were Safdar Jang, Shepherd King aka Gudaria Sultan, Golden Dagger, and Wandering Dancer akaAawara Raqqasa.

United Players released their 7^th movie by the name of Yes Bandit, which ended up being a major flop. This affected Kardar so badly that he was once again out on the streets. He left Lahore and moved back to Bombay to try his luck there. But United Players had been able to make a mark on the Indian cinema through their movies. They had laid the foundation of the Lahore Film Industry, which later came to be known as Lollywood. Inspired by their success, many other film buffs joined the bandwagon, launching their own film companies. The wheels of film production in Lahore had been set in motion. However, for some time no other company was as successful as United Players.

In 1929 a movie called Swarg ki Sidhi was made in Lahore. This was directed by Imtiaz Ali Taj. Umrao-o-Zia Begum and Khurshid acted in it. This was the last silent movie to be made from the city. The film was a roaring success and was played all over India. This brought recognition to the Lahore film industry all over the Indian peninsula.

The Indian film industry changed forever after the release of a movie called Alam Ara (Light of the World; image below) in 1931. This was the first movie with sound. It was shown in the Capitol Cinema in Lahore for the first time on 14 March 1931. The cinema had no provision for sound at that time, so a sound system was brought from Bombay. The initial price of the ticket was 2 anna, which was revised to 6 anna after the success of the movie. However, some people paid as much as 20 rupees to see a show. This was the first time in the cinematic history of India that tickets were sold and bought illegally. Hakim Ram Prasad, the film distributor, made immense profit from the movie. Realizing the economic benefits of a successful movie, he asked Kardar to come to Lahore again and make a movie on the love story of Punjab, Heer-Ranjha. He asked Abid Ali Abid to write the script, whereas Kardar was appointed to direct it. Anwari Begum Amristari (the grandmother of the famous Pakistani-Indian actress, Salma Agha) was known by her filmy name Paro and played the lead role, opposite her future husband Rafi Ghaznvi. The role of the villain, Kaido, was played by an actor called M. Ismael. This was the first movie made from Lahore with sound. The movie failed to leave a mark on the audience and Kardar moved back to Bombay. However this set the trend for movies with sound.

In 1935, Swarg ki Sidhi was remade from Lahore -- with sound this time. Ghulam Haider was given the job of composing music for the movie. The score for the film revolutionized music in Indian cinema. This was the first time any composer for a movie soundtrack used popular folk songs and music. Before this, classical music dominated film music. The film did exceptionally well thanks to its music. Haider particularly used Punjabi folk music and songs, something that future Bollywood movies took up.

All the movies that were made so far were Hindi/Urdu. In 1933, a man called K.D. Mehra decided to make a Punjabi movie, 

based on the story of Heer-Ranjha. He moved to Lahore from Bombay, where he was based. However no one was interested in the project as it was felt that Punjabi would limit the audience. He travelled to Calcutta, where there was a thriving film industry. Calcutta at that time provided better opportunities to artists interested in working for the movies. As such, a large number of Punjabis had moved there. Seth Sukhlal’s company, the Madan Theatre Film Company, was dominated by Punjabis. Lal bought the idea of making a Punjabi film. In this way the first Punjabi film was made, using the famous Punjabi folk love story, not in Lahore, but in Calcutta. The movie was called Sheila orPind di kuri (1935; image to the left). Haider Bandi, the elder sister of Madam Noor Jehan, the celebrated singer and actress of Southasia, played the lead role; baby Noor Jehan also took part in the movie. The movie was shown all over India and turned out to be a successful business venture. This success set a trend of using popular love stories for movies, something that is still popular on both sides of the border, including regional cinemas. In 2009, a Punjabi movie called Heer Ranjha was released in India, starring Harbhajan Mann. (See Haroon's earlier story on love legends in Pakistani cinema here.)

A film producer by the name of K.D Sharma was mesmerized by the success of Pind di Kuri. He announced the production of Heer Ranjha, in which K.L Saigol, the famous singer, was asked to perform the lead. Not to miss out on the commercial aspect of the folk story, another film company by the name of Maiden Theatre announced the production of Heer Siyal (Siyal being Heer’s caste). Muhammad Ali (aka Maya) played the role of Ranjha. Baby Noor Jehan also played a role in the movie. Heer Siyal, released in 1936, achieved a Silver Jubilee – it was shown in a single cinema in one city for 25 weeks. The other similarly-inspired movie, Heer Ranjha, also performed successfully.

This led to film companies and directors exploring other folk stories. A famous Lahore film company by the name of Pancholi Films announced the production of Sohni-Mahiwal, another folk love story popular in the Punjab and Sindh. Mimicking this new trend in South Asian cinema, K.D. Mehra announced the production of Sohni-Kumharan, while he was still in Calcutta. Mehra then moved to Lahore, with his entire unit and started working on the production of the movie in earnest. Both the companies were working on their movies simultaneously, determined to surpass the other in revenues. They both completed their movies in a record time: 17 days. Both the movies were released on the same day. Out of the two, Sohni-Kumharan was able to captivate the audience, whereas the other movie, even though performed well, was not as successful as the former. Sohni-Kumharan was the debut film of the famous drama actress Mumtaz Shanti.

With the success of their movie Pancholi Films experimented with another Punjabi production, Yamla Jutt, which was also successful. The movie included two future successful actors from the Bollywood, Shamshad Begum and Pran, who was famous for his roles as an antagonist. The trend of folk legends as themes had been institutionalized. Between 1938 and 1940 several movies were inspired by folk themes. These included Saite-Murad (Saite was the sister-in-law of Heer who was in love with a Baloch man, Murad), Daula Bhatti (a historical character who rebelled against the Mughal Emperor Akbar, regarded a folk hero), and Heer-Mahi (another movie on Heer-Ranjha).

Of these films Daula Bhatti, released in 1939, was the most successful one, breaking all previous records of business all over India. This was an era when movies from Lahore were popular all over the country. It is said that production companies from Bombay and Calcutta would closely follow the movies being made in Lahore and delay the release of their movies in case a movie from Lahore was being released. The success of the film industry also paved ways for the numerous cinemas, studios, and production and distribution companies that mushroomed all over the city.

By 1947, Lahore had surpassed Calcutta as the second largest film centre in the country, attracting talent from all over the region. Then Partition struck and the Calcutta-Bombay-Lahore nexus that had been established was severed, negatively impacting all of them. Bombay and Lahore took their individual paths with minimum direct interaction between the two. However in the days to follow both industries continued to turn to each other for inspiration and fresh ideas. 

Much of this research comes from an unpublished work by Iqbal Qaiser, Encyclopaedia of Lahore.  Iqbal Qaiser is a writer, researcher, poet and activist, based in Lahore, Pakistan, who has penned several books, including Historical Sikh Shrines of Pakistan.