From ‘extras’ to ‘junior artistes’: A pre-history of junior film artistes’ labour struggle for unionization in the Bombay film industry, c.1927/39/46–c.1956

This article is an attempt to assemble a pre-history of the heroic struggle of film ‘extras’ for unionization as ‘junior artistes’ in the Bombay film industry. It argues that official histories of film industry institutions, especially those of these cine-workers, are mostly incomplete, sometimes flawed, and often oblivious to their struggles for unity; it also maintains that such histories go further back than their official accounts. Through this narrative, the intent is to suggest that this institutional amnesia regarding their labour histories is not only glaring evidence of cine-workers’ precarious lives but is also detrimental to the cause of contemporary ongoing labour struggles in India’s film and media entertainment industries, where film labour historians have a crucial role to play – however insignificant it may seem.