Over hundred years of Indian Cinema, it has been the emergence of a wide range of filmmakers and a broad spectrum of films, but the journey of Indian Cinema starts long back in colonial India with a handful of visionaries whose endeavours gave birth to one of the biggest film industries of the world. From individual passion, cinema in India turned into family entrepreneurship but what made Indian cinema reach its zenith was the legendary studio system of the bygone era which transformed an emerging art form into a full blown industry. This particular documentary is the chronicle of the studio system and studio culture in the Indian Cinema that gave it the shape of industry, one of the most flourishing ones in the world and the spirit to keep this medium of entertainment alive not just for one century but for ages to come. An archive of significant studios in India has been encompassed through the narrative of this documentary film on the Golden Era of Indian Cinema, entitled as “Era of Legendary Studios” (Hindi version: “Bhabya Studio ka Mahayug”)
The film is a vivid exploration of the inception of cinema culture in India till how the studio system in India came up, their mode of functioning - the making of films of various genres to the releasing of super-hit films by these vintage film studios at the pan-Indian level and how that grand studio system gradually cease to exist yet the cinema became more and more popular for mass entertainment. The film has been knitted through a free – flow narrative encapsulating the studios from the past through archival footage and stills and excerpts of films produced by these studios as well as studios in working, important personalities, film posters etc will be used vividly. A detailed and poignant voice-over has been used to deliver the story of the past and its importance in the present. Few interviews of Film Historians Virchand Dharamsey, Shamik Bandyopadhyay and Mohan V Raman have been incorporated. The film has attempted to knit the journey of the Indian Cinema from the days of Hiralal Sen, Dadasaheb Phalke, Madan Theatres, Aurora Films, Maharashtra Film Company, New Theatres, Bombay Talkies, Prabhat Studios, AVM, Gemini Studios, Vijaya Bauhini studios and so on till the contemporary times where a few of these studios still survive and are making films. In a nutshell, it is the tale of the journey of the studio system in the history of the Indian Cinema.