Yusuf stitched dreams into frames that defined generations

From cotton cloth to silver, plastic, and LED screens, one family has illuminated the stories that define a century of Indian cinema

- VANITA KOHLI-KHANDEKAR

Yusuf Galabhaiwala said that over 80% of the screens they sell globally were replacements, not new builds

Devika Rani in a liplock with Himanshu Rai (Karma, 1933) or Dilip Kumar falling in love with Nargis (Andaz, 1949) happened on a cotton screen.

That was the material cinema screens were made of when British, Russian, and German studios formed the core of the Indian movie business. By the time the first Indian films, Pundalik (1912) and Raja Harishchandra (1913), appeared, the business was already well underway. In the 1920S, silver-coated screens arrived, producing brighter images, but the basic material remained fabric.

Cut to the 1950s. Cinemascope and curved screens arrived. The studio system broke up. But Indians' appetite for cinema continued to rise.

In its bid to source locally, Westrex, an American screen manufacturer, stumbled upon Yusuf A - an accountant, film buff, and friend of a certain Mr Sengupta from Westrex. When Sengupta asked Yusuf if he could make screens, he jumped at the chance, even though he didn't know the first thing about them. Soon, Yusuf, his wife, two brothers, and a couple of workers set about stitching a cloth screen. Westrex liked the result, and the first Galalite screen was put up at Metro Cinema (now part of PVR-Inox) in Mumbai;