Sohrab Modi

His studio made India’s first Technicolor film. The gamble nearly bankrupted him.

MCQ Questions

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Sohrab Modi

The Parsi theatre actor who built Bombay’s grandest historical epics.

1st

Jhansi Ki Rani (1953) — India’s first Technicolor film

1936

Founds Minerva Movietone in Bombay

1941

Directs Sikandar, his most acclaimed film

1954

Mirza Ghalib wins the President’s Gold Medal

1980

Receives the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, for 1979

A costly gamble: Jhansi Ki Rani flew in Hollywood technicians and cost roughly Rs 60 lakh. It won praise, but its huge Technicolor budget nearly bankrupted Minerva Movietone.

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Must Know

• Sohrab Modi was born on 2 November 1897, in Bombay.
• He began as a Parsi theatre actor, known for playing Shakespearean roles.
• He moved into film in 1935, as silent-era theatre companies began to decline.
• In 1936, he founded his own studio, Minerva Movietone, in Bombay.
• He specialised in historical epics, built on a grand scale.
• He directed “Pukar” (1939), a Mughal court drama.
• He directed “Sikandar” (1941), about Alexander the Great. It is often called his finest film.
• He directed “Jhansi Ki Rani” (1953), India’s first Technicolor film. His wife, Mehtab, played the title role.
• He died on 28 January 1984, in Bombay, aged 86.

Good to Know

• His first directorial work was “Khoon Ka Khoon” (1935), an adaptation of “Hamlet.”
• “Jhansi Ki Rani” used a Hollywood crew and cost roughly Rs 60 lakh.
• It was later dubbed in English, and released in 1956 as “The Tiger and the Flame.”
• His 1954 film “Mirza Ghalib” won the President’s Gold Medal for Best Feature Film.
• He received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award for 1979, presented at the 27th National Film Awards in 1980.
• In 1960, he served as a jury member at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. In 1936, Sohrab Modi founded which film studio in Bombay?

Minerva Movietone

Bombay Talkies

Prabhat Film Company

Filmistan

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Great to Know

• “Jhansi Ki Rani” won critical praise, but its Technicolor costs nearly bankrupted Minerva Movietone. A landmark film is not always a profitable one.
• Don’t confuse “Jhansi Ki Rani” (1953) with any later film on the same queen. This was the first, and the first in colour.
• His honours arrived out of step with his best-known work. “Sikandar” (1941) is his most celebrated film, but the Dadasaheb Phalke Award came almost 40 years later, for 1979.