Discover the story of India’s first ad film, created by Hiralal Sen in the early 1900s. Learn how he pioneered advertising in India with Jabakusum Hair Oil and Edward’s Tonic.
Before television, before jingles and brand mascots, there was film — and in colonial Calcutta a pioneering photographer-turned-filmmaker named Hiralal Sen began making short moving-image commercials for local products. His commissioned shorts for Jabakusum hair oil and Edward’s tonic are the earliest documented examples of film being used for advertising in India.
Context: film + advertising at the turn of the century
Cinema reached India very soon after the Lumière shows of 1896. By the late 1890s/early 1900s, exhibition entrepreneurs and photographers began experimenting with moving images not only as spectacle but also as a commercial tool — filming stage performances, events, news, and (crucially) product promos commissioned by brands. Hiralal Sen’s Royal Bioscope Company (founded 1898) sits at the intersection of theatre, early cinema and local commerce.
Who Was Hiralal Sen?
Hiralal Sen (1866–1917) is often remembered as one of the pioneers of Indian cinema. With his company, the Royal Bioscope, he produced a range of films — from theatrical adaptations to political events and product promotions. At a time when cinema was still a novelty, Sen recognized its potential beyond entertainment. He turned the bioscope into a powerful marketing tool, creating films that promoted household brands.
How those early ad films were made:
- Camera & kit: Sen and his company used an Urban Bioscope (a 35mm bioscope camera/projector sold by Charles Urban’s Warwick Trading/Urban company). The Urban Bioscope was a hand-cranked 35mm apparatus common in that era.
- Format & look: Silent, black-and-white actualities or staged tableaux — short runs (seconds-to-a-few-minutes) on nitrate film stock, recorded with a fixed lens and hand cranking (so exposure/ frame rate varied). The result was closer to an actuality or filmed stage sequence than a modern narrative ad.
- Locations & staging: Rather than built film sets (rare then), Sen shot on-site: theatrical excerpts at the Classic Theatre and opulent villas along the Hooghly river for product promos. These location choices gave the films a polished, “luxurious” visual despite technical limits.
- Exhibition method: The shorts were typically screened during intervals of stage shows or at bioscope exhibitions — the perfect captive audience for a product plug. That means they reached a theatre-going urban audience rather than the mass audiences later reached by TV.
Interesting facts & storytelling hooks:
- Two brands, huge legacy: The two products commonly linked with Sen’s ad work are Jabakusum hair oil and Edward’s (anti-malarial) tonic — these are cited repeatedly in film history accounts as the earliest product films.
- Royal Bioscope, 1898: Sen and his brother set up the Royal Bioscope Company in 1898 — one of India’s first film concerns — to exhibit and produce such short films.
- The films are mostly lost: Tragically, a fire in 1917 destroyed much (reportedly all) of Sen’s film stock and the Royal Bioscope holdings, so the original ad films do not survive for contemporary viewing. Our knowledge comes from newspaper reports, company records and later historians.
- Not just ads — politics too: Sen also filmed political events; his 1905 coverage of the anti-Partition/Swadeshi rally in Calcutta is often described as India’s first political film. This shows how early cinema in India served commercial, theatrical and political functions simultaneously.
- A direct technical ancestor to later advertising: Although TV ads came much later in India (Doordarshan-era TV advertising began in the mid-1970s), Sen’s work demonstrates that brands used moving images as a marketing medium from India’s very early film history. (First widely cited TV ad in India: Gwalior Suitings, aired on/around 1976.)
- A later advertising heavyweight has ties to those brands: The celebrated filmmaker/graphic artist Satyajit Ray worked as an ad visualiser earlier in his career and produced sketches/ads for brands including the house behind Jabakusum in later decades — a neat creative lineage from early bioscope ads to mid-20th-century ad craft.
Conclusion:
The history of advertising in India begins with Hiralal Sen — a man whose vision turned cinema into a marketing tool more than a century ago. While his films are lost, his pioneering spirit continues to inspire filmmakers and advertisers alike.
From India’s first ad film in the 1900s to today’s high-budget digital commercials, the journey of Indian advertising is one of innovation, storytelling, and adaptation. And it all started with a hand-cranked bioscope and the creative genius of Hiralal Sen.
Takeaway:
Just as Hiralal Sen once redefined how brands could connect with audiences, today’s agencies carry forward that legacy. At Azure Studio, we continue this tradition by crafting films and commercials that blend creativity with impact — helping businesses tell their stories in ways that resonate across generations.
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“India’s First Filmmaker Remains Forgotten” - The Better India
Hiralal Sen” (BFI / Victorian Cinema writeup) - Victorian-Cinema
Royal Bioscope Company - Wikipedia
Times of India article referencing Satyajit Ray’s advertising work - Times Of India
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