75 Years of Chandralekha

Everyone knows that Chandralekha was a mega hit. But what was its impact and how much money did it really make? An analysis

75 years of Chandralekha

April 8 this year marked the platinum jubilee of the iconic film Chandralekha, for it was released on that date in 1948. The studio that produced it, Gemini, is remembered only in name, for it folded up in the 1970s. The brain behind the film, SS Vasan died seven years prior to the demise of his studio. The star cast and the technicians are all forgotten, except perhaps in serious studies of Indian cinema. And yet Chandralekha is remembered. Even those born decades later will associate the film with its immortal drum dance sequence. The Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema by Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen classifies Chandralekhaas “one of India’s most famous films.” More significantly, it was the first film produced in South India to become a hit across the country. 

The Tamil Version of Chandralekha

More than five years in the making and a mega-budget film to boot, for it cost Rs 30 lakhs then, Chandralekha was a do-or-die attempt for Gemini and its proprietor. And yet, Vasan did not think twice before spending lavishly on a publicity campaign that preceded the film. Full-length ads in all the leading dailies and trade journals of the country, and a word-of-mouth campaign fuelled by Gemini-s publicity department made sure that there was a buzz that would beat present day social media campaigns. And yet, the film’s Tamil version did not open to an over-enthusiastic welcome. It would have remained a successful, but not a cult, movie had it not been for Vasan’s next idea – release a dubbed Hindi version all over India. 

Hit in Hindi

Released nationally in December 1948, the Hindi version was a mega success. It differed slightly from the Tamil original – NS Krishnan and TA Mathuram were absent for instance, and the songs of the heroine TR Rajakumari were not in her voice but those of Uma Devi, better known in later years as the comedienne Tun Tun. But it was the timing that really mattered. Unlike the South, the rest of India had been hard hit by Partition. A riot-weary audience was quite happy to lose itself in around three hours of a Ruritanian fantasy. The story line was not new – two brothers of a royal family, one good, the other evil, both interested in the same girl, lots of twists and turns, and finally good triumphing over evil after a spectacular climax, all aided by what can be termed world music. There have been numerous remakes of the same – even Bahubali is just this story if you look at it closely. 

The English Version

Rajadhyaksha and Willemen attribute Chandralekha’s success to its “aggressive redefinition of entertainment mobilised Hollywood-style orientalism” and say that it set the trend “in the codification of an Indian mass entertainment ideology after Independence.” Cult films would come again and again in Indian cinema and yet the mandates of Hollywood-style orientalism and mass entertainment ideology would never change. Encouraged by the success of his Hindi version and by then a national figure in film making, Vasan would also release a shortened version of Chandralekha in English, titled Chandra. Predictably, it did not do well and as Ashokamitran wrote tongue in cheek years later, the English version was perhaps Vasan’s enormous joke on the Indian audiences. India was uniquely placed to receive Chandralekha in 1948, and it did. Timing was right. 

How Much Money Did It Make?

Over the decades, estimates of what the film grossed have widely varied. But Vasan himself gave the details in a speech that Ashokamitran documents. It gives us an idea of the commercial side of films at that time. Chandralekha ran for four years and grossed four crores. Out of this Rs 1.5 crores went as entertainment tax. Out of the remaining, Rs 1.25 crores went to the theatres and distributors. Advertising had cost Rs 25 lakhs and a similar amount went in other taxes. That left Rs 75 lakhs out of which financial costs by way of interest on money borrowed took away a huge chunk. The producer, said Vasan, meaning himself, was left with a few lakhs. Was it worth all the alarums and excursions he asked. 

Making Madras a Hindi Film Production Centre

There may have been an element of exaggeration in the claim but there is no denying that this was not the bonanza that people claimed it was. But its intangibles were many – an entire ecosystem, that of cinema, survived, for 1947/48 was a bad year with many stars, technicians and others migrating to Pakistan. The South, as AV Meyyappan wrote, became recognised as a centre for film making after Chandralekha and he and other studio owners of Madras began making films in Hindi. That in turn promoted a pan-Indian culture. Today’s PS, RRR and Bahubali are all in a way standing on the shoulders of Chandralekha. Vasan was undoubtedly the pioneer, and his film deserves to be remembered just for that.  

My video on this topic can be seen here

This article originally appeared in The Hindu dated April 14, 2023