Remembering P C Barua, the legendary writer, actor and filmmaker of Indian cinema

Remembering P C Barua, the legendary writer, actor and filmmaker of Indian cinema, on his 69th death anniversary.

The now-forgotten actor and filmmaker, Pramathesh Chandra Barua, entered films at a time when Indian cinema and its filmmakers were shaping its identity. Barua himself had a big hand in leaving his own indelible mark in the annals of Indian film history. Skilled in all aspects of filmmaking, Barua was Bengali cinema’s biggest star. When he appeared as Devdas in Dhaka, all the cinema houses were shut as the whole city wanted to see him in person performing on stage. One of the pioneers of Indian film industry, P.C.Barua is best known for his work ‘Devdas’. Barua’s other film ventures were Manzil (1936), Mukti (1937), Adhikar (1938), Rajat Jayanti (1939), and Zindagi (1940). He left the New Theatres film studio in 1939 and started freelancing. Later he created Shesh Uttar/Jawab in 1942.

Pramathesh Chandra Barua was an Indian actor, director, and screenwriter of Indian films in the pre-independence era, born in Gauripur. P C Barua died on November 29, 1951 in Kolkata.

P C Barua went to Europe second time and learned movie production in London. Then he purchased some lighting equipments in Paris and returned to India. Back in Calcutta, he started Barua Pictures Limited. The first major film of the studio was Aparadhi (1931), that starred Barua and was directed by Debaki Bose. Barua’s next film was Bhagyalaxmi (1932). He played the role of a villain. Later Barua joined the New Theatres film studio in Calcutta.

In 1935, Pramathesh Barua directed and acted in Devdas, a romantic film based on Saratchandra Chatterjee’s novel Devdas. The film became phenomenally successful in the industry. In 1936, Barua remade Devdas in Hindi with Kundan Lal Saigal in lead role. The Hindi Devdas became successful throughout India and placed Pramathesh Barua in the list of top Indian film directors.