New Theatres

New Theatres Limited

Company type	Private
Founded	10 February 1931; 93 years ago (10 February 1931)
Headquarters	Calcutta, West Bengal , India
Key people	B. N. Sircar (Founder)
Owner	B. N. Sircar

New Theatres is an Indian film studio.^[1] It was formed in Calcutta by producer B. N. Sircar (Birendranath Sircar, the recipient of Dadasaheb Phalke Award of 1970). It was formed on February 10th, 1931. The company motto was "Jivatang Jyotiretu Chhayam," meaning, "Light infusing shadows with life." Sircar preferred to function roughly analogous to an executive producer. He built a processing laboratory, and acquired staff. Once a film subject was selected and a team assembled to create the picture, Sicar ensured that adequate funds were provided, while refraining from interfering with its execution. He made New Theatres a symbol of Bengali cinema's artistic good taste and technical excellence.^{[2]: 12–13 [according to whom?]}

Dena Paona, a Bengali talkie, was produced by New Theatres and released in 1931. It was directed by Premankur Atarthi, with music composed by Raichand Boral.

According to Kironmoy Raha, "New Theatres made its reputation secure with Chandidas directed by Debaki Bose in 1932,"^[2]: 13 after the studio produced five talkies.

In 1935, P.C. Barua directed and acted in Devdas, based on Saratchandra Chatterjee's novel Devdas, and this film became successful in the industry.^{[citation needed][according to whom?]}

In 1935, playback singing was first used in India in the Bengali film Bhagya Chakra by Nitin Bose. The singers were K C Dey, Parul Ghosh and Suprabha Sarkar.^[3] Dhoop Chhaon, a Hindi remake of this film, was the first Hindi film to use playback singing.^[4]

Kanan Devi was the first popular actress, who appeared in many films produced by New Theatres.^{[clarification needed]} There was also a group of actors working with New Theatres like K.L. Saigal, K. C. Dey, Prithviraj Kapoor, Trilok Kapoor, Chhabi Biswas, Bikash Roy, Pahari Sanyal, Basanta Choudhury.

Directors like Premankur Atarthi, P.C. Barua, Debaki Bose, Phani Majumdar and Nitin Bose worked in New Theatres films. Musicians who worked there included R. C. Boral, Pankaj Mullick, Timir Baran and Mani Bardhan.