The project looks at how cinema emerged as a public institution. The analysis focusses on the cinema’s initial promise of democracy in its potential availability to everyone—unlike other contemporary media which required significant cultural or economic capital—and the perception of this very potential as a problem by the colonial state and educated Indians. The study maps the specific viewing conditions in cinemas, which ensured the segregation of audiences along the lines of class, caste and gender, onto the cinema’s attempt to constitute a national public through ‘swadeshi’ mythologicals and nationalist melodramas. Sources for this project include colonial and postcolonial government records, writings on cinema by Indians and oral accounts of the conditions and practices of filmviewing. One of the objectives of the project is to put together resource material to facilitate further research in the area.

What has been achieved: A wide range of materials on early cinema in the Andhra region have been identified and some of them collected. Photocopies of film journals and titles of important films on videotape are among the resources now housed at CSCS. Libraries in Vijayawada (Rammohan, Tagore and Bhramarambha Malleswari libraries), Pune (NFAI) Chennai (Roja Muttaiah Research Library) and Calcutta (National Library) were referred to as a part of the exercise. Personal libraries of individuals in Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Gannavaram were accessed. The list of sources and libraries was prepared in consultation with Dr. Lakshmana Reddy, an eminent scholar of Telugu journalism. This list was used by researchers for the Telugu Cinema Workshop.

In addition to accessing printed sources, interviews with carried out with eminent film critics and former actors like Inturi Venkateswara Rao (film critic and the editor of the first film journal in Telugu), Katragadda Narsaiah (former film distributor and well known Telugu film journalist), Turlapati Kutumba Rao (former President of AP Film Fans’ Association and journalist), Mikkilineni Radhakrishna Murthy (former film artiste and author of books on Telugu stage and cinema). Managers and proprietors of cinema halls in Vijayawada were interviewed for details of the history of film exhibition in the city (the earliest permanent cinema hall was built in Vijayawada in 1921). Three papers have been written on the basis of the research carried out for the project. Selcetions of material collected as a part of the project are now a part of the CSCS Media Archive.

Articles:

(i)    "Is there a Public in the Cinema Hall?” Framework 42 (online edition), October 2000. http://www.frameworkonline.com/42svs.htm
(ii)    “Gandhian Nationalism and Melodrama in the 30’s Telugu Cinema.” Journal of the Moving Image, No. 1, Autumn, 1999.
(iii) Telugu Cinema: History, Culture, Theory (1999). National level workshop conducted in collaboration with Anveshi Research Centre for Women’s Studies, supported by Ford Foundation, New Delhi. Outcome: published dossier on Telugu cinema (in English and Telugu), available in the CSCS library.