The team from Pathe Freres studios in Paris was in Calcutta to film spontaneous, topical subjects and Hiralal Sen, an aspiring film-maker, joined up.

Always innovative, he then proceeded to film scenes from the plays being staged at the Classic Theatre. Plays such as Alibaba, Hariraj, Dole Lila, Buddha, Sitaram and Sarala were popular films as well - they were shown during intermission as ''superfine pictures from our world renowned plays.'' This encouraged him to continue filming scenes from plays, particularly of artistes of the calibre of Amar Datta, Girish Ghosh, Amritlal Bose and Kusum Kumari.

Sen was reputedly the first to make advertising films - for C.K.Sen's Jabakusum hair oil and Bhatto Kesto Paul's Edward's Tonic.

Pathe-India was established in1907, as one of the Pathe Freres offices worldwide. Raw material, equipment, and film were produced by Pathe and this allowed the import of film and film equipment to finally organize into a coherent endeavour. Alex Hague was sole concessionaire and he took films to the people - a Pathe Baby Cinema Camera, projector and film was made available for Rs. 250 to those interested in making and showing films at home.

SOURCE

So Many Cinemas
Author - B.D. Garga
Publishers - Eminence Designs Private Limited.

Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema.
Author -Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen
Publishers -Oxford University Press.

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