Mumbai : Asia’s oldest active newspaper, ‘Mumbai Samachar’, which published reports on the first freedom war of India in 1857, the death of legendary Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi and the birth of Congress, turned a new page in its illustrious history by having a special screening of its documentary film “Mumbai Samachar: 200 not out” at the Cannes Film Festival 2025.
Established in 1822 by Fardunji Marzban, a Parsi scholar, the newspaper’s management has launched a new project to digitise and document the rich legacy of the Gujarati daily.
Located in a colonial-era building in Mumbai’s prominent Horniman Circle area, the newspaper has weathered many storms during its 203-year-old history, including a drop in subscription and readership after the advent of the internet, news apps and social media expansion, but continues its journey.
“We are in talks with different agencies to restore the old files in our archives, which is a national legacy. Similarly, we want to create a website whose content will be about 10,000 stories published in the newspaper in the last 200 years,” said Mumbai Samachar Editor Nilesh Dave.
“From 1932 to 1947, we have old copies of the newspaper. Even till 1857, there are a few copies kept in our files. But they can’t be opened since they are not in good condition,” he informed. Dave said the newspaper recently launched its English website and will soon have Marathi and Hindi ones.
“The documentary film is based on 200 years of the newspaper’s journey and also how the industry transformed Mumbai. Mumbai Samachar: 200 Not Out was screened at the Cannes Film Festival on the 17th and 18th of May. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched this film’s trailer, while the documentary was released by Union Home Minister Amit Shah in Mumbai in September 2024,” he said.
Started as “Shri Mumbai Na Samachar” by Parsi scholar Marzban, the newspaper primarily served as a source of information for traders, the majority of them Parsis and Marwaris, and details about goods coming on ships at the Bombay harbour.
Founder Marzban hailed from Surat and was always interested in the printing business. When he came to Mumbai, he started a book-binding shop.
He got 150 subscribers and offered them a copy of the newspaper for Rs.2/- a month. Besides disseminating information about ships to traders, free obituary notes were published as community service, and later, news reports were also printed.
The newspaper started getting advertising revenue from traders who wanted to send their goods by ships to other places. There were advertisements for dramas as well. Since 1841, there have been two Marathi editors of the paper – Janardhan Vasudev and later Vinayak Vasudev.
Initially, traders were a source of the news published in the newspaper, including information related to Peshwas, Tatya Tope, and the death of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi during the 1857 uprising. The newspaper started as a weekly publication, then turned bi-weekly and became a daily in 1832. It had news handwritten and then printed on a machine brought especially from London.
Editor Dave affirmed Mumbai Samachar was the only newspaper unaffected during the 1975-77 Emergency when the press faced censorship.
“We are neutral and published both the Opposition and Government news. Our then owner, Mr Cama, told the then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi (during emergency) that if all doors for dialogue are closed, then there can be no solution. We don’t publish any news under pressure. We have only one edition, which is available in the entire country,” he said.
This legacy of being a neutral newspaper was carried forward by the present generation, Mr Hormusji Cama, Managing Director who was awarded the prestigious PADMABHUSHAN in 2024 for the same.
