India

India

By Kallan Benjamin

The popular film journal filmindia, which ran from 1935–1961, was an English-language monthly magazine published from Bombay. Its editor, Baburao Patel, was known for his sharp, witty, and opinionated writing style, and the magazine’s popularity made him a celebrity in his own right. Focused primarily on Hindi cinema, with some attention to other regional Indian cinemas as well, filmindia worked as trade paper, cinema journal, and fan magazine combined, offering a mix of celebrity gossip, film reviews, trade information, editorials, behind-the-scenes looks at film productions, and some coverage of foreign films and industries. The magazine sought and obtained a wide national–and eventually, international–readership; some issues promote the number of monthly readers on the front and list the price for both “inland” and “foreign” purchasers. In addition to the breadth of content offered within the pages of filmindia, the covers feature colorful hand-painted images designed by the painter S.M. Pandit.