Marvels of Photo Studios
Most of the traditional photo studios are gone today; in the digital age, the need for most of them has ended. Yet, these studios were one of the main pillars of professional photography practice among Bengalis. Here is a mention of a few such studios that were pioneers in shooting for film. These kind of pictures were primarily filmed to be used for promotional purposes.
These are familiar frames from familiar films — but how many of us remember who preserved them as still photographs? "Sare Chuattar" was photographed by Still Photo Service, "Pathik" by Studio Shangrila (Bombay), "Indrani" by the famous Edna Lorenz, stills for "Apur Sansar" mean Technica, and most of Ritwik Ghatak's films, including "Komal Gandhar," had their stills shot by Studio Renaissance. "Dadathakur" was photographed by Pics. For the film "Uttar Megh," there was Arts and Photography, the responsibility of taking the stills for "Raja Rammohan" was given to Quality Photo Service, and the stills for "Golpo Holeo Sotti" were shot by Caps. The stills for "Chowringhee" were shot by Studio Balaka. In the film "Adwitiya", we find a studio named Photo Arts. We chose these movie examples precisely to gather the names of as many studios as possible, and for the studios' names and credentials, we relied on booklets and lobby cards.