Santram Varma (film producer)

Santram Varma was born as Santram Chawla in the Punjab Province of British India. He was one of six sons born to Laxmidas and Hakumdai Chawla. The other five brothers were Ramrakha, Munshiram, Biharilal, Waltiram and Bhagwan Das. After moving to Bombay to enter the movie industry, the six brothers changed their last name to Varma.

Involvement in the Indian film industry was pursued by Santram as well as members of his immediate family. Aroon Varma, son of Santram Varma, started a new company called Varma Film Enterprises and produced Balidaan (1971). Kiran Singh, née Kiran Varma, daughter of Santram Varma, married actor and producer Sujit Kumar, and together with him produced Anubhav (1986), Asmaan Se Ooncha (1989) and Khel (1992).

A third generation of participation in the film industry comes from the grandchildren of Santram Varma. Zulfi Syed, a film and TV actor, is married to Sheena, granddaughter of Santram Varma.[1] Furthermore, Jatin Kumar, also grandson of Santram Varma, and son of Sujit Kumar and Kiran Singh, is the producer of Aetbaar (2004).[2]

Suhaag Raat (1948) marked the debut of Varma Films, the company founded by Santram and his brothers, in the Indian film industry.[3] Although the film was only distributed by Varma Films, one of Santram's brothers, Munshiram Varma, worked as a producer for the film for Oriental Pictures. Suhaag Raat was a box-office hit; it was the seventh highest-grossing film of 1948.[4]

Given the success of Suhaag Raat, Santram and his five brothers collaborated with the film's production company, Oriental Pictures, with making two additional films: Thes (1949) and Neki Aur Badi (1949). For both of these films Varma Films was the distributor. Also, in the same year that these two films were released, Santram and his five brothers debuted into the film production business with producing the film Patanga (1949).[5] As with Suhaag Raat, Patanga was a box-office hit; it was the seventh highest-grossing film of 1949;[6]

In the next five years Santram and his brothers produced and distributed six films: Sagai (1951), Badal (1951), Parbat (1952), Aurat (1953), Ladla (1954) and Pooja (1954). Of these six films, Badal was a box-office hit; it was the eighth highest-grossing film of 1951.[7]

Whereas Santram and his five brothers were partners in Varma Films for all of the above ten films, the composition of Varma Films could not be sustained because of the deaths of Munshiram in 1958, Biharilal in 1960 and Bhagwan Das in 1962. Varma Films consequently evolved into four affiliated companies, all associated with the production and distribution of films over the next several years. Varma Pictures was associated with Night Club (1958) and Main Nashe Mein Hoon (1959), V. P. Productions with Baghi Sipahi (1958), Varma Productions with Ankh Micholi (1962), and finally Varma Brothers with Budtameez (1966). Santram was a partner in all of the above companies.

• Santram Varma at IMDb