India, March 25 -- Empuraan is being touted as the first big-scale pan-India film from the Malayalam film industry. The term pan-India films came into being only a decade ago after the monumental success of Baahubali. Since then, the successes of RRR, KGF, and Pushpa have further boosted the trend. But neither was Baahubali the first pan-India film, nor was it even the most successful. Barely a year after India became independent, the first 'pan-India' film broke the bank like nothing before and nothing since. (Also read: Upendra says pan-India trend is killing remakes for good, explains why formula will never replace story)

In 1943, Tarachand Barjatya was a film distributor. He had not yet established Rajshri Productions. Thinking of ho...