Part of India on Film: 1899 – 1947
This collection of newly digitised films is part of the BFI's contribution to the UKIndia Year of Culture 2017, in partnership with the British Council. View more films on BFI Player http://player.bfi.org.uk/collections/... (UK only)


One of the earliest films to be shot in India apparently shows the Calcutta ghats or does it?

This is one of the earliest films to be shot in India, apparently showing the Kolkata (Calcutta) ghats as seen from the perspective of a boat travelling along the Hooghly river, a tributary of the Ganges. However, although the film's title states that this is Calcutta, the footage was in fact shot in the holy city of Varanasi (also on the Ganges), some 400 km to the north west.

The error is not the fault of the archivists the film appears under that title in the Warwick Trading Company's catalogues. The same catalogue shows other films now lost from around Calcutta, which were presumably shot by the same cameraman on the same trip, and may explain the confusion.


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