National Arts

Credits

Video captures courtesy of
Tanzim K and The Rooster Hydra

Background:

N.A.T. Pictures (National Art Theater) was a production company co-founded by N. Trivikrama Rao in 1953 solely to produce Telugu-language films.

1st Logo (1953-1954)

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Nicknames: "The Ominous Lamp", "Dark Lamp of Doom", "Closeup of the Flames", "Indian Lamp", "Gothic Lamp", "The Lamp Inside the Gaumont Daisy", "Telugu's Ritual"

Logo: We see an ancient lamp inside a circular emblem (which looks like the 1908 Gaumont daisy) outline being illuminated by several lightning strikes. When there are no more lightning strikes, we see three flames over the lamp (turned up). After that, the camera moves down to show us a rectangle with "NATIONAL ARTS" written inside. Then, the camera zooms very slowly to the lamp.

Variant: There is a variant where the camera zooms out slowly from the lamp, this usually is seen at the end of the movie. In addition, this variant is shorter than the opening.

FX/SFX: The lightning, the flames of the lamp, and the camera moving and zooming, and the sky.

Music/Sounds: The sounds of thunder, a male singing in Telugu, with an ominous tanpura note held throughout, and sounds with a wind instrument.

Availability: Rare. Seen only on Pitchi Pullaiah. A print version of this logo appears on the poster of Todu Dongalu.

Editor's Note: The lightning, the creepy male singing, the overall darkness of the logo, the zoom-in to the lamp, long length, the dark wind instrument notes at the end and even the lightning at the beginning makes this one of the darkest and most unsettling Indian logos. However, some people could find this logo overly long and boring.

2nd Logo (1955-1974)

Logo: We see some sort of statue surrounded by flowers, with a couple candles on each side of it. The camera then zooms out to reveal two religiously-dressed women on a table around what appears to be food and a religiously dressed man waving another candle in front of the women three times before placing it down on the table to pray. The name of the company doesn't appear.

FX/SFX: All live action.

Music/Sounds: A male singing, and then speaking fast and a chorus of males speaking 3 times, and some bells ringing.

Availability: Seen on Jayasimha, Varakatnam, Panduranga Mahatyam, Kodalu Diddina Kapuram, Seetharama Kalyanamand Tatamma Kala, among other films which can be found on YouTube.

Editor's Note: The darkness of the logo and the weird male singing may scare some people, especially if you don't like religious statues. However, this is tamer than the previous logo.