Sarvottam Badami

Sarvottam Badami (1910–2005) was an Indian film director of Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil films. He started his career as a sound recordist for the first talkie in India, Alam Ara. In 1948 he helped set up the Films Division for news-reel and documentaries, where he worked as the chief producer in the newsreel department and also made documentaries. His active years were from 1932 to 1952 when he retired from the Films Division and from making feature films to settle in Bangalore.

Early life Badami was born in 1910 to a revenue officer working in Mysore.

Badami helped in the sound recording department for the first Talkie in India, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara (1931). Around that time a German director making the film Harishchandra left half-way and Badami offered to complete it, although the Play director was T. C. Vadivelu Naicker. The film turned out to be successful. He was contracted by Sagar Movietone (Sagar Film Company) to direct three films, two in Telugu and one in Tamil: Galava Rishi (Tamil), Sri Rama Paduka Pattabhishekam and Sakunthala in Telugu. The success of these films established him as a director. His working team had people like the cinematographer Faredoon Irani, music director Anil Biswas and the Sagar Movietone favourites Sabita Devi and Motilal. He was paid Rs 2000 per film with the complete film being made within Rs 50,000. He worked with most of the top actors of the time like Motilal, Nargis, Ashok Kumar and Pahari Sanyal. He brought Mehboob Khan who was then doing roles as an extra out of obscurity and gave him the role of Sabita Devi's father in the film Vengeance is Mine (1935). His film Grihalaxmi (1934), which starred Jal Merchant and Sabita Devi had the woman getting into marriage only if her doctor husband agreed not to want children. The success of the film mitigated the enraged public reaction at the time. According to an interview, most of Badami's films don't survive as the negatives were burnt to extract the silver from the silver nitrate.

Later years Apparently, in 1948 Deputy Prime Minister Vallabhbhai Patel, who was then also in charge of Information Ministry, on a visit to the Cine Laboratories Bombay, asked Badami to help set up a News Reel and Documentary section. He became chief producer in the newsreel department and made several documentaries. He worked in the Films Division making documentaries from 1948-1952. After that he stopped making films and returned to Bangalore to retire as "I was a forgotten man in the feature film world". He died in 2005 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.

Filmography Sri Rama Paduka Pattabhishekam (1932) Sakunthala (1932) Harishchandra (1932) Chandrahasa (1933) Grihalaxmi (1934) Vengeance is Mine aka Ver Ni Vasulat (1935) Dr. Madhurika (1935) Jeevan Lata (1936) Grama Kanya, aka Village Girl (1936) Kulvadhu (1937) Kokila (1937) Teen Sau Din Ke Baad aka 300 Days and After (1938) Ladies Only (1939) Aap Ki Marzi (1939) Sajani (1940) Chingari (1940) Bambai Ki Sair (1941) Khilona (1942) Prarthana (1943) Bhagya Laxmi (1944) Ramayani (1945) Uttara Abhimanyu (1946) Manmani (1947)