During the early years, HMV marketed imported records under different labels—such as Pathé, RCC, Decca, Pye—but soon afterwards it obtained exclusive rights to use in India the trademark ‘His Master’s Voice’. Undoubtedly, the image of the dog and the phonograph is now among the most famous trademarks in the world and although millions of listeners are fascinated by the picture of Nipper, the dog, and the machine, very few people know the real story behind the picture.

An artist named Francis Barraud observed that a dog belonging to his deceased brother Mark Barraud would cock one ear to the sound emitted by an old Edison phonograph. It used to listen with rapt attention and the expression on its face suggested that it seemed to be waiting to hear its late master’s voice. Barraud was quick to grasp the value of the scene and he painted it as he saw it. He took the picture to the Edison company, but they did not evince any interest in it. A friend suggested to him that he change the ugly black machine and substitute it with a more modern horn. In 1899, while he was tramping the streets of London in the hope of finding such a horn from one of the various companies engaged in the rapidly growing record business, he happened to call at the small office of the Gramophone Company. He showed his oil painting to the manager, B. Owen, who immediately grasped the potential it held as a trademark for his company. He gave a hundred pounds to the artist and obtained it for the company. The company had, till then, another trademark depicting an angel writing while sitting on a disc. But when records with the dog and the sound horn appeared with the caption ‘His Master’s Voice’, the trademark won fame and popularity of a kind unparalleled in the history of the industry. It was found printed on millions of records and machines in several countries of the world. In India, it first appeared on a portable machine in 1920. Later, it was printed on the first electric records produced by the company. The abbreviated letters HMV for His Master’s Voice became synonymous with the Gramophone Company.

The records with this new trademark were meeting with increasing popularity and market support. The period from the early 1920s coincided with the political awakening in the country and the nation-wide movement of Swadeshi. As a result, businessmen inspired by patriotic sentiments decided to market records of songs supporting the Swadeshi movement. These songs invoked listeners to boycott foreign goods and purchase things made exclusively in the country. T. S. Ramchunder & Bros., a firm in Bombay, recorded a number of such songs by local artistes and had them processed in Germany. These were issued under the Ramagraph label.

About the same time (1920-25), musical dramas began to stage a comeback on the Marathi stage. Actor-singers like Bal Gandharva, Keshavrao Bhosle, Krishnarao Phulambrikar, Dinanath Mangeshkar, Bapurao Pendharkar, Vinayakrao Patwardhan, Sawai Gandharva, Chhota Gandharva, Hirabai Barodekar, performed practically every evening on stages in larger cities. The actor-singers were gifted with enchanting voices; they had also trained under exacting masters in classical music. Each one of these actor-singers succeeded in developing a distinctive individual style of presentation. Vocalists like Bhaskarbuwa Bakhale, Ramkrishnabuwa Vaze, Abdul Karim Khan had been groomed by great ustads and they, in turn, passed on the great tradition to these young and gifted actor singers. These dramas drew packed houses since the audiences were charmed by the music they presented. The Gramophone Company seized the opportunity to record the more popular songs and thus began an era of stage-music on gramophone discs.

Scores of songs recorded by these actor singers were the rage of the day and even today, after nearly three decades, listeners are overwhelmed by nostalgia when they listen to these songs of yesteryear. The Bengali and Gujarati stage also boasted rich musical talent and songs from plays thus gave a strong impetus to the record business. The phonograph gained rapidly in popularity. The Gramophone Company was faced with the challenge of satisfying musical needs of diverse people who spoke different languages and were spread over a vast subcontinent. But to record the musical lore that was part of their tradition was well-nigh impossible. The recording capacity of the factory at Dum Dum in Calcutta and facilities for absorbing the discs in the market were limited. The Gramophone Company could not by itself accept all the talent and material available.

Two companies, Columbia and Odeon, with established labels in the world market, were trying to gain access to the Indian market. Columbia started its operations in India in 1930 through S. Rose & Company in Bombay and P. Orr & Sons in Madras, while Odeon was introduced by Carl Lindström, a German. T hese companies started recording in their own studios and had the discs processed and pressed in the U.K. and Germany respectively. Popular artistes like Goharbai Karnataki, Amirbai Karnataki, Omkarnath T hakur and Saraswati Phatarphekar appeared on the Columbia label while Odeon presented such names as Bai Sundarabai, Hirabai Barodekar, Abdul Karim Khan, Sureshbabu Mane, Azambai and Arun Shankarrao Sarnaik. Omkarnath T hakur, Abdul Karim Khan and Hirabai Barodekar were exponents of classical music. Sundarabai and Azambai presented lavani—a regional form of music with strong romantic content. Columbia later took over Odeon but by 1939, it amalgamated with the Ruby Record Company. Started in Bombay in 1933, the Ruby Record Company introduced listeners to the music of Bal Gandharva, Master Krishnarao, Ramkrishnabuwa Vaze and other vocalists. The Gramophone Company, however, took over Ruby Record Company in 1943 and thus also obtained the repertoires of Columbia and Odeon. The vast repertoire of the three companies was subsequently divided between HMV and Columbia, when the latter was revived again as a separate entity in 1945. It had a separate office alongside HMV, but the recordings done in the HMV studios were common and intended to feed both the companies.

Yet another attempt at forming an independent recording company was made as early as 1934 under the name Broadcast Record Company. Backed and financed by a city firm of jewellers, it won over for its label top-ranking artistes like Kesarbai Kerkar, Master Krishnarao, Siddheshwari Devi, Mallikarjun Mansur, Rasoolan Bai, Jaddanbai (mother of Nargis Dutt) by paying them fabulous fees. But the company soon foundered on the rocks of economic losses.

The Gramophone Company thus succeeded in allowing a few small companies to function under its own wing. In Calcutta alone there appeared three such units. Hindusthan Record (1932), the Megaphone Company (1932) and Senola Musical Products Company (1935). Senola concentrated on talent in the Bengali language. Hindusthan Record became immensely popular with the records of songs by K. L. Saigal. Megaphone was associated with the bewitching voice of Akhtari Bai Faizabadi (Begum Akhtar). These companies did their recording and pressing with HMV but distributed the records through their own channels. Their success led to the creation of other units, and soon, other labels like Bharat, Pioneer, Victoria Phone, Manmohan, Shahenshahi, Filmophone flooded the market.

The Gramophone Company had its head office and factory at Dum Dum. But it had by now opened branch offices and depots in Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kanpur and Guwahati. Many smaller companies were soon ushered in by these branches, all of which were reared and fostered by the Gramophone Company.

In the span of over 70 years of its existence, there have been hardly five or six serious attempts at breaking the monopoly enjoyed by the Gramophone Company. As early as 1920, a Gujarati businessman named Vallabhdas floated, with German collaboration, a company called Vialophone. This Bombay-based venture proved to be very short-lived. Later, taking advantage of the nationalist movement, another businessman promoted a company called The National Gramophone Record Manufacturing Company. ‘Young India’ and the emblem of the national flag, accepted by the Indian National Congress, was its trademark. The entire manufacturing plant, machinery and the technical personnel were imported from Japan. This was about the year 1938, when film music had just begun to exercise influence on the record trade. The earliest records of film music were brought here in 1934 from Germany by V. Shantaram along with the coloured copy of his film Sairandhri. The release in the market of records of this film unleashed a wave of mass popularity for film music. From 1933 to 1938 the Prabhat Film Company in Poona and the New Theatres Limited in Calcutta produced a galaxy of films with music that had a strong popular appeal. The melodies were mainly based on classical modes but were presented to audiences through the visual medium in an attractive setting. Amrit Manthan, Aadmi, Padosi, Sant Tukaram, Gopal Krishna, Maya Machhindra, Dharmatma, Duniya Na Mane, etc. were released under the Prabhat banner while New Theatres Limited earned fame with Devdas, President, Chandidas, Vidyapati, Dhoop Chhaon, Jawab, Zindagi, Dushman and Street Singer. Singers like Shanta Apte, Govindrao Tembe, Shanta Hublikar, Ratnaprabha, Vasanti and Shahu Modak were projected through the Prabhat Productions. New Theatres Limited regaled viewers with songs rendered by K. L. Saigal, Pankaj Mullick, Kananbala, Pahan Sanyal, K. C. Dey and others.

The newly formed National Gramophone Record Manufacturing Company did give a jolt to the Gramophone Company by causing the defection of V. Shantaram from the HMV family. He was one of the directors of the new company and ‘Young India’ could thus count on the record business of the Prabhat Film Company in that climate of patriotic resurgence and the call to boycott the British company. Its records received a ready response. The company thus made an excellent start and in the political conditions which were then prevalent in the country, it stood a very good chance of capturing the record business. But the Gramophone Company had as its main assets the quality of the recording and of the processed record. The finished product of the ‘Young India’ label could hardly compete with the sophisticated quality of the records with the HMV label. A disillusioned V. Shantaram returned to the fold of the Gramophone Company. With their mainstay gone, the National Gramophone Record Manufacturing Company could not survive for long and had to close down.

The appearance of records under the Polydor label is a recent occurrence. Polydor enjoys a big reputation in Europe for high-quality production and in the last 10 years it has also made a headway here. The Gramophone Company is now known as The Gramophone Company of India Limited. This is because, in accordance with government policy, equity shareholding by Indian investors has been affected. Yet another company under the trade name Indian Record Company has, it is learnt, recently made a debut in the gramophone world in Calcutta. Till about 1920, all phonograph machines used to be imported and a phonograph in the drawing room was, in those days, a status symbol very much like the telephone, refrigerator, motor car or television set of today. Around 1928-29, cheap machines manufactured in Japan invaded the market. They were so low priced (each costing about `10 to 15) that even a person of average means could afford to purchase a machine.

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Pull Quote: An artist named Francis Barraud observed that a dog belonging to his deceased brother Mark Barraud would cock one ear to the sound emitted by an old Edison phonograph and listen with rapt attention as if waiting to hear its late master’s voice; Barraud was quick to grasp the value of the scene and he painted it as he saw it