Thyagabhoomi (1939)
Thyagabhoomi (English: Land of Sacrifice) is a 1939 film directed and produced by famous film director K. Subramanyam. Starring K.J.Mahadevan and S.D.Subbalakshmi, the film was produced at the height of India's freedom movement and glorified Mahatma Gandhi and his ideals in no mean terms. The story for the film was based on a novel written by the great Tamil writer Kalki Krishnamurthy and was financed and distributed by the movie moghul S.S. Vasan before he created Gemini Pictures. Thyagabhoomi is the only Indian film to be banned after release by the British government. The film's only existing print is now at an archive store in Pune. The story was serialized in Ananda Vikatan (Kalki was still with the magazine at the time and S.S. Vasan was the financier-distributor of the film) simultaneously when the film production was going on with stills from the film being published. This was the first time ever something like this had ever been attempted in the world and garnered great success both in India and across other tamil populations across the world (Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Burma etc) and British Empire.
More at Wikipedia.