Kisan Kanya

Kisan Kanya was a 1937 Hindi Cinecolor feature film which was directed by Moti Gidwani and produced by Ardeshir Irani of Imperial Pictures. It is largely remembered by the Indian public on account of it being India's first indigenously made colour film.

V. Shantaram had earlier produced a Marathi film Sairandhri (1933) which had scenes in color. However, the film was processed and printed in Germany Kisan Kanya was, therefore, India's first indigenously made color film. Kisan Kanya was based on a novel by Saadat Hasan Manto and focussed on the plight of poor farmers.

Cast

 * Padma Devi as Bansri
 * Jilloo as Ramdai
 * Ghulam Mohammed as Randheer
 * Nissar as Ramu
 * Syed Ahmed as Muneem
 * Gani Gani as the Zamindar (landlord)

Production
Film pioneer Ardeshir Irani, who had produced notable films as Nala Damayanti (1920) which was India's first international co-production (with Italy) and India's first talkie Alam Ara (1931) conceived the idea of producing a color film. The result of his efforts was the color film Kisan Kanya made with the Cinecolor process whose process rights Irani had obtained from an American company. The film performed moderately at the box-office. Kisan Kanya was based on a novel by Saadat Hasan Manto and focused on the plight of poor farmers.

Songs
The film had music by Ram Gopal Pandey, and had ten songs:

Trivia

 * The first Indian color film to be made entirely in India (the earlier Sairandhri (1933) was processed and printed in Germany). This film was also more favorably received than its predecessor.