Prabhat Film Company, India’s top film company that made both Marathi and Hindi film has the unique distinction of producing India’s First Golden Jubilee film! The film was called Sant Tukaram. It was a Marathi film. It was directed by Vishnupant Govind Damle and Sheikh Fattelal and featured Vishnupant Pagnis in the lead role of the Sant Tukaram. The film was released at Mumbai’s Central Cinema, Bombay, in 1936 and run non-stop for 50 weeks in the single theatre!! Thus becoming India’s First Film to Celebrate Golden Jubilee!!
For the present generation let me enlighten about Golden Jubilee. In the past, there were no multiplexes like today where a movie is released simultaneously in thousands of screens. For instance, Salman Khan‘s Dabangg 3 was released in 5400 screens in India. Thus the film collected Rs 120 crores in its second week itself and has been declared a hit. However, in the past, there were single-screen theaters and the numbers of cinema halls were limited to 70 or 80 thus a hit film would run non-stop for several weeks. If any film runs for 50 weeks, non-stop in a single theatre than it was declared Golden jubilee.
The film Sant Tukaram is based on the 17th-century Maharashtrian poet-saint, Sant Tukaram, a devotee of Lord Vittala, who withstands the test of Lord Vittal and emerges victorious.
Historians inform Sant Tukaram was such a huge hit that the film was seen by 6 million people just in Maharashtra. It was also seen by Maharaja of Mysore and Lady Linlithgow, wife of Victor Hope, the then Viceroy of India. For International viewing, the film was added subtitles and was screened at a range of other international film festivals. It was screened at Venice Film Festival and won First Prize in the foreign film category. Unfortunately, the Certificate of Merit was lost and later found in the garbage in Pune by an FTII student called Sunny Joseph, who restored it to the National Film Archive of India, Pune. The film is such a landmark that even today it is shown on TV and discussed in the film Institutes of many countries.
Interestingly the lead role of Sant Tukaram was played so brilliantly by Marathi actor Vishnupant Pagnis that he became immortal as Sant Tukaram. Later he got stereotyped and played the role of Sant Tukaram in many films.
