Several New Theatres sprang up during the Talkie Era in Indian cinema. The famous Madan Theatre in Bombay began the inexorable slide towards inactivity. It was during this period that one of pre-independent India`s most prestigious and best equipped studios was founded at Tollygunge in Calcutta. It was established by B.N. Sircar who ranked among India`s most enlightened and humanist producers. This particular studio is still in use and several well known films were shot here, including some by Satyajit Ray.

Another legendary studio was the East India Film Company was founded when A.R. Kardar was a star director. Apart from the Bengali and Hindi films that it produced, the East India Film Company was the only modern studio available to producers of Tamil and Telegu films. Many leading directors from Bombay worked on projects for New Theatres, in particular, the first four talkies in Urdu.

the reputation of New Theatres was enhanced by the plethora of new talents it employed-directors Debaki Bose, Nitin Bose, PC Barua, the veteran Dhiren Ganguly; peerless music directors like Pankaj Mullick, Timir Baran; gifted technicians like Mukul Bose, Bimal Roy, Yusf Mulji and Subodh Mitra. Many of these professionals subsequently migrated to Bombay in search of better opportunities.

Debaki Bose`s Chandidas and Franz Osten`s Acchut Kanya had a great impact on in the growing condemnation, spearheaded by Mahatma Gandhi, of the meaner in which the lower castes were treated. The 1937 bilingual film, Vidyapati, with Prithviraj Kapoor, was a somewhat romanticized version of the life of the eponymous 14th century Vaishnava saint poet. In both Bengali and Hindi, it was a great triumph.

The New Theatres showed many more of Debaki Bose`s masterpieces. His films were laced with devotional songs, love songs and some of the most sublime actresses from Bengal, such as, Chhaya Devi and Kanan Devi, featured in his movies. The New Theatres during the Talkie Era set the pace for many other cults that soon followed it.