R V SHANTARAM - RETROSPECTIVE

Name: Rajaram Vankudre Shantaram
Date of birth: 18 November, 1901
Place of birth: Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India
Date of death: 30 October 1990
Profession: Editor, Producer, Actor, Director

V. Shantaram lived a long and presumably a happy life, just short of 90 years. He began his professional life in his teens with the legendary singer and actor, Bal Ghandarva's theatre company as a gofer and odd job boy. Within a couple of years he found employment at a local cinema and shortly after he became an assistant to the photographer, Baburao Painter. He would act in 15 films over the next nine years, playing roles ranging from impoverished peasants and opulent princes to gods of the Hindu pantheon. In 1929, he directed his first film, Netaji Palkar.

At the age of 28, already a veteran actor and director, he started the Prabhat Film Studio with three of his colleagues, Fattelal, Damle, and Keshavrao Dhaiber. For the next 13 years Prabhat Studios would produce some of the most trail blazing and memorable films of Indian cinema, a large number of them directed by Shantaram.

In 1942, Shantaram broke away from Prabhat to start his own film studio, the Rajkamal Kalamandir in Bombay. Some of the memorable films he directed at Rajkamal were Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Do Aankhen Bara Haath and Lok Shahir Ramjoshi. Prolific as he was as a producer and director of cinema features, Shantaram helped to set up a Film Advisory Board for the Government of India as its Chief Producer during the war.

When Shantaram passed away in 1990 the Indian film business as an established industry was 77 years old. He was part of it for 73 of those years. His first 15 films were made during the silent era. His last film was made when digital technology had made its entry into the cinema. If Indian cinema could be given human form, it could well look like Shantaram.

SELECTED FILMOGRAPHY

FILMS SHOWING AT 'BITE THE MANGO' FILM FESTIVAL 2003

Navrang Dir: V. Shantaram, India, 1959, tbc mins
Do Aankhen Barah Haath Dir: V. Shantaram , India, 1957, tbc mins
Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani Dir: V. Shantaram, India, 1946, tbc mins
Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje Dir: V. Shantaram , India, 1955, tbc mins

Information courtesy of Bite The Mango Film Festival.