History of Screen

1994 to 2005

Screen was launched on September 26, 1951. The first office was situated at the lands' end at Colaba, popularly known as the fishermen's colony. The founder editor was Manorama Katju, a highly qualified lady from Kerala. Mr. Scot, revered for his forbidding temperament, was the General Manager of the group, under whose vigilance the editorial and the marketing staff functioned. Those days, Screen came out on Thursday instead of Friday, and The Indian Express was called Saturday National Standard, while the Sunday edition was called The Sunday Standard. Veteran journalist Bunny Reuben did the film reviews for The Sunday Standard, a very popular paper with the readers, and Roxy Cinema was the venue for the press-shows where critics heralded a film as hit or flop. Stories of music directors fighting silent battles with big banners, and manipulating journals for sensational headlines began that early. Those were the days when the Taj Mahal Hotel was called Green Hotel because of its scenic surroundings, and the awesome Lata Mangeshkar, then an awkward teenager, trembled before a microphone. For a long time, only Shangrila Studio clicked cover pictures for Screen. Later, BJ Panchal, leading photographer of the time, was assigned the responsibility. Panchal travelled to star homes and clicked special features with leading stars and their families. Stars of that time never complained about invasion of private space. If a lensman crossed the stars' pah at a public place like cinema halls or a restaurant, the star did not shoo him away. One of the popular features in Screen those days was 'About Our Stars And Studios'. It was a feature all photographers clamoured to submit their pictures for, but not all were fortunate. Some, like BJ Panchal were privileged to have their pictures appear week after week, much to the annoyance and dismay of his rivals.

Sometime in 1958, due to differences of opinion, Mr. Scot resigned from The Express Group to launch his own paper, Reel News, but its news reports and the headlines were too similar to the original, and therefore unacceptable to the readers. After incurring heavy losses, Reel News closed down in just four months and Mr. Scot migrated to London.

In 1959, SS Pillai, also from Kerala, was appointed as the Managing Editor of Screen. This was the era of changing equations between media barons. SS Pillai continued as the editor. Then, one day, as the story goes, Pillai suffered a massive heart attack and died on the spot. For a year SS Kapadia of Sunday Standard was appointed as the Acting Editor until BK Karanjia, the blue-eyed candidate of General Manager J. C. Jain was asked to take charge in 1978.

The paper went through a drastic image change under Karanjia's leadership. He used bold pictures on the front page and wrote fiery editorials, some of them widely discussed in the film industry, and some resulting in controversies. When the film-bashing crossed limits, the old guards in the film fraternity made a joint appeal to demand Karanjia's exit in 1983. Under the leadership of Udaya Tara Nayar, who started her career as an assistant to SS Pillai, the paper grew from strength to strength. The following years, described as the golden period in revenue business, witnessed many triumphs and love-stories, both on and off screen, and the euphoria lasted till the end of the decade. The '90s was a difficult decade, both, creatively and commercially. Worried about the sudden dropping sales, the marketing department advised that the only way to overcome the crunch would be through a cosmetic change. Ad-world genius Alyque Padamsee was roped in for the mammoth task. Padamsee brought veteran film critic Rauf Ahmed, and together they worked on a new image, more glossy and upmarket. The familiar broadsheet was transformed into a glazed tabloid. The glamour was definitely more attractive, but brought with it new expenditure. The expected revenue was still nowhere in sight and the readers missed the old size. The advertisers suffered an identity crisis, unsure of which category to fit in the old paper. The late 90s was perhaps the bleakest phase in the history of Screen. With no one to guide, and no standards to match, the paper deteriorated. There were stories of it shutting down. It was a chaotic phase of changing editors, followed by a long spell when the department functioned without a head. But at the turn of the new century, hope revived again. In 2000, the paper was gradually nursed to nourishment. Keeping the old format intact, but re-inventing the presentation, the paper restored the faith of its readers and wooed back its loyal advertisers.

Today, available even in North America, Screen is the favourite film weekly of both, the film fraternity and film buffs.