1960S BOMBAY CINEMA

Bombay Cinema's Encounter with the 1960s

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 Obiettivo del progetto (Objective)

'This project looks at the cultural resonance of the 1960s in the world of Bombay cinema. Indian cinema’s transition from black and white to colour produced an affective force field that impacted on the choice of locations, forms of mobility, the designing of interiors, the role of music and the cultural politics of stardom. Equally the 1960s was the decade of tourism.Tourism’s imaginative force taken together with the arrival of colour can open the window to an understanding of a transnational cinematic force that has not received adequate attention in the chronicled histories of Indian cinema. Travel across India’s landscape became a recurring feature in films, with trains and automobiles as the chosen modes of transportation. Thus, the hill station emerged in the 1960s as a picturesque space for romance. Exploration narratives abound in this decade with picnics, holidays, and other journeys forging an entirely new imagination of space. The fascination with landscape became critical to a new conception of the “outdoor” that looked distinctly different from earlier films. While the train and the automobile were mobilized for travel across India, by the mid 1960s we see the discovery of the “global” in a cluster of films that showcased travel to foreign cities like Paris, London, Tokyo and Rome. The travel narratives combined spectacular outdoor locations with lush interior spaces that included fashionable nightclubs, hotels, and lavish homes. The world of objects in interior spaces had to be organized for its capture on colour film stock, slowly changing the perceptual economy of the frame. Alongside these changes we witness shifts in the culture of stardom linked to new international currents in music, dance, fashion and youth culture. This project seeks to unpack the cinematic imagination that brought aviation, tourism, consumerism, colour film stock, fashion, and music into a distinct cultural configuration.'

Descrizione progetto (Article)

It was not until the second half of the 1960s that cinema in India made its full transition to colour. Colour was a luxury few filmmakers could avail of since film stock was imported and in a climate where severe restrictions on foreign exchange existed, import of stock was very expensive for most filmmakers.

'Bombay cinema's encounter with the 1960s' (1960s BOMBAY CINEMA) project mapped direct connections between Indian cinematographers and those from other countries in Europe at the time. The infrastructural developments in the country and the context of the global sixties created a vibrant context for the expansion of film culture in India. This was the moment when new kinds of touristic sites, location shooting, fashion and objects exploded on screen with colour photography. Marked by an experiential drive for sensation, hedonism, musicality and constant mobility, the decade has often been catalogued in conventional film history as escapist. This project revisits the transformative power and potential of the 1960s offering a new interpretation of the recent past.

Knowledge obtained through project findings will be useful for the international academic community as well as for society at large. It will provide information and analysis on the cultures of globalization and therefore help the European cultural industry and European policymakers to draw comparisons with current globalisation trends.