For smooth Ad free experience
For smooth Ad free experience
The invention of cinematographé brought a revolution in the cinema industry around the world. In this aspect, India was not kept in the shadow. Back in 1896, the Lumiere Brothers brought the cinematographé to India to introduce us to the world of cinema. So in case you were wondering if Raja Harishchandra was the first film to be projected in India, you're probably wrong...
Happened on 7th July 1896
Indian Cinema and the Bollywood Industry is one of the largest film industries in the entire world. The practice of developing films and watching them for entertainment is not a talk of the recent past for the country. When the first film in India is spoken of, most people can only recall Raja Harishchandra made by Dadasaheb Phalke.
But approximately 17 years prior to that, the Lumiere Brothers from France brought the first films on their device called the cinematographé and projected six silent films in the Watson Hotel in Mumbai.
It was through their production that Dadasaheb Phalke drew inspiration from and ordered a camera from England to shoot the first Indian films.
So, who are the Lumiere Brothers and what actually happened? Well, Lumiere Brothers were a part of an elaborate business in France before they created the cinematographé. A cinematographé was the first camera device that could capture videos, something completely different from still pictures. Its function, however, was not limited to just this.
It could also project the videos it recorded and was portable, which made it of high potential in terms of how lucrative it was.
So the brothers went around, capturing daily-life scenes like people boarding a train, workers going back home after a day’s work at the factory, a baby crying, a gardener watering his plants, etc. - something which you and I would find utterly boring to look at. But, this fascinated the people in the late 1800s.
People travelled from far to watch the screening of these films, watching things which were so foreign in ‘motion’ right in front of you took the people aback, in fact, it also frightened them at the first screening. So there it was the Lumiere Brothers and their revolutionary cinematographé (by the way, the word cinema has been derived from the name of this device).
Why would Bombay, an industrial hub of the British, be left out from the joys of the wonderful device? So in 1896, the Lumiere Brothers travelled all the way to India with their cinematographé. The Watson Hotel was decided to be the venue of the screening. Several notable guests of the hotel include Mark Twain, and today, on the 7th of July 1896, history would be created in the world of cinema in India.
One drawback, however, was that Indians were barred from watching the screening and it was only meant to cater to the European audience.
A popular myth states that this angered the Industrialist Jamsetji Tata, and became one of the reasons that we have the world-class Taj hotel in Mumbai, today. Quite historical, right?
To summarise, today marks the 125th Anniversary of the day on which this event took place. Although the films have changed, India’s fascination with them continues to remain the same, even today.
0
You might be interested in reading more from
