First Indian film museum opens in home of Bollywood

MUMBAI: From silent black-and-white films to colourful blockbusters bursting with song and dance, the evolution of Indian cinema is traced by a new museum in the home of Bollywood. Costing 1.4 billion rupees ($19.6 million), India’s first national film museum is spread across a stylish 19th-century bungalow and a modern five-storey glass structure in south Mumbai.

"It showcases to the world outside what Indian cinema has achieved in its entirety over more than 100 years," Amrit Gangar, a consulting curator on the project, told AFP. Movie-mad India today produces around 1,500 films a year, dwarfing even Hollywood’s output.

The government-funded National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC) boasts stacks of memorabilia, recordings and film-making tools as well as interactive touch screens where visitors can watch clips from memorable movies. Movie buffs can learn about India’s first full-length feature film, the 1913 Dadasaheb Phalke-directed "Raja Harishchandra", and listen to recordings of K. L. Saigal, considered the first superstar of Hindi-language cinema. They are also able to view hand-painted movie posters, including for internationally acclaimed director Satyajit Ray’s 1955 hit "Pather Panchali", and click selfies beside a statue of Bollywood icon Raj Kapoor.

The museum takes visitors through "the journey of Indian cinema, from silent films to ‘talkies’ to the studio era to the new wave," Prashant Pathrabe, director general of the Indian government’s film department, told AFP.