In the 1930’s-40’s the emerging film industry in Bombay, was the place to be for writers and poets from all over India. The Bombay studios were offering huge sums of money to script writers. Premchand also took up a job with a film studio, Ajanta Cinetone for a princely salary of Rs 8000. His first project for them was to write a script for a movie called ‘Mill Mazdoor’, based on the rights of the ‘working class’.

The movie’s plot was simple, it was about a young son who inherits a textile mill from his father and exploits the mill workers. His sister, a co-owner, stands with the mill-workers and leads a strike against the management. In the end, the brother goes to prison and the sister restarts the mill and runs it with workers support. The film featured a particularly provocative scene , wherein the sister incites the workers to demand their rights and rise against the management. Munshi Premchand even had a cameo as the leader of the striking workers, in the movie.

The film was ready for release and sent to Censor Board on 5th February 1935. However no one expected the reaction it got. The board was aghast! It felt the film was too provocative and it would inflame audiences. The Great Depression of 1929, had led to the worsening of conditions of industrial workers in Mumbai, and as a result, the city was a hotbed of militant labor activity. The Censor Board banned the movie in Mumbai, as it felt it could ‘damage relations between workers and management’. It was whispered that the man behind the ban, was none other than Byramjee Jeejeebhoy, a Censor Board member, who was also the President of the Bombay Mill Owners Association.